A bookkeeper is one who incorporates a wide variety of skills to ensure a smooth running business. They’re extremely valuable and should be carefully selected. Bookkeepers are generally responsible for gathering and maintaining financial data such as receipts, bank statements, check stubs and tax forms, and will work closely with you and your accountant.

Once they’ve gathered this information they then assign these expenses and credits into different categories. They could also be held responsible for calculating total income and expense within the designated categories.

The general role of a bookkeeper is to make sure that information from the above sources is clearly and accurately logged and accounted for. The bookkeeper will then prepare this information so that the data can be used either internally or sent to an accountant for use in further preparing taxes and business reports. Bookkeepers also bill your customers by preparing invoices and statements of accounts, and receive and record payments for deposit.

Your bookkeeper should accurately be able to reconcile your bank account with its statement each month. They should also create a balance sheet listing each item your business contains and how much it costs; this includes investments into your company, such as improvements. An experienced bookkeeper will accumulate depreciation after each asset account, list current balance of loans that are owed, have the ability to sit down and talk with you about your finances and business state, and have some sort of training in knowing the best way to classify your expenses for tax time.

Hiring a bookkeeper should come when your business is established enough that you require one person to do it for you and you’re not able to handle it yourself. It’s wise to do so from the beginning if you’re not knowledgeable in the financial aspects of business. A competent bookkeeper will have extreme knowledge in handling business finance and work closely with you and your accountant to guide your financial growth.