How to Become a Bookkeeper

Are you all about making sure everything adds up? A career as a bookkeeper could be for you! Helping large and small businesses alike keep a record of their financial transactions, bookkeepers provide a valuable service to business owners.

In order to become a professional bookkeeper, it is necessary to obtain qualifications from the two professional bookkeeping bodies in the UK. This includes the IAB, or the International Association of Bookkeepers, and the ICB, the Institute of Certified Bookkeepers. With these bookkeeping qualifications, you can ensure that you have the professional accreditation required for employers to trust your abilities when it comes to critical aspects of accountancy such as tax returns and financial reports.

While entry-level positions usually don’t demand previous experience, you should still develop an understanding of standard bookkeeping practices, as well as specific bookkeeping and accounting software like Xero, Excel and Quickbooks.

Bookkeeping jobs can be obtained by working towards the role, or applying directly. Bookkeeping can be studied as part of a full-time or part-time accounting degree, or bookkeeping courses that cover essential concepts and equip you with the skills to excel as an employed bookkeeper.

If you find it difficult to obtain full-time work from the get-go, you could always consider operating on a self-employed basis. In fact, bookkeeping is an industry that allows for a great deal of flexibility in terms of remote work and freelancing, providing you with the perfect platform to become an experienced bookkeeper.

Bookkeepers fulfill a very important function and are essential to the smooth functioning of every business. Considering the level of responsibility that rests on bookkeepers, it is no wonder they must have a somewhat unique combination of skills in order to be able to do their job well. Those are:

A bookkeeper is hired by a business to keep an accurate record of all their financial transactions. This includes accounts receivable, accounts payable, debits, credits and bank reconciliations. Tasks can range from the everyday to the more complicated bookkeeping services around tax time.

The career path for bookkeepers is stable and enriching, as businesses will always need bookkeeping services.

As a bookkeeper, may also choose to go into more specialised accounting work, allowing you to become head of the financial department in your office. You could also choose to set up your own bookkeeping business, developing a niche clientele, or expand the scope of your business by offering training services.