Running your business can mean there are a lot of government requirements to keep up with. A bookkeeper worth their salt will be able to deal with these requirements in order to keep your business running smoothly.

Who is a Bookkeeper?

A bookkeeper is responsible for accurately process the transactions of a business. That means ensuring transactions involving sales, purchases, payroll accounts receivable and payable are recorded in the company’s general ledger, reconciling your business bank and credit card accounts monthly and liaising with your CPA by preparing financial reports required to file your taxes.

Prepare Financial Reports:

• Balance Sheet - shows your business’ current financial position at a point in time.

• Profit & Loss Statement - provides a clear of your income and expenditure over a specified period of time.

• Statement of Cash Flows - a record of cash and cash-like activities that flow in and out of your business.

Record Bills & Invoices

Bookkeepers take care of your billing and invoicing. Managing your account receivable and payable is a key function of a good bookkeeper. Both of these activities ensure that customers are actually paying you (ideally on time) and that your vendors are paid on time - this is also called cash flow management. Cash flow management is incredibly important - after all, you don’t want to be running out of money in the middle of the month.

Process Payroll

Bookkeepers at times manage payroll, which is the process of paying your employees. This involves calculating your employees’ pay, withholding the correct amounts of source deductions and then making sure that your employees are paid on time.

Reconcile Your Accounts

Having accounts that are reconciled means that your financials are up to date and reliable. With money going in and out, it’s easy to miss things. To avoid this, a bookkeeper will compare the transactions recorded in the bookkeeping software to monthly statements from the bank or credit card company.

Reconciling accounts serves to highlight any discrepancies that could indicate theft, human error or incorrectly recorded transactions - it’s better to catch those before they get out of hand.

Categorize Transactions

Another crucial task a bookkeeper performs is managing the transactions that go through the bank or credit card account. Bookkeepers have to categorize each of the transactions in the general ledger to keep things organized. For instance, a payment QuickBooks Online would be categorized as a subscription expense while printing paper would be categorized as an office expense.

Why Should You Care?

Now that you know what is bookkeeper does, it’s time to address why it should matter to you. As you can see, there is a lot a bookkeeper can bring to your business. It is important for you as a business owner, to know that all of these tasks have been taken care of.

The biggest benefits for you as a business owner are:

1. Clean, accurate and comprehensive financial records for banks, investors, accountants and sometimes CRA.

2. Time gained from passing on the data entry and administration functions required for keeping proper records.

If you are looking for bookkeeping services, we would love to hear from you.