Xpedite Services Careers Bookkeeper-Staff Accountant

The education required to be competitive in the field is greater, but the payoff down the road can be considerably higher. Mid-size and small public accounting firms pay, on average, about 10% less than these firms. If you choose to work for a company internally instead of in public accounting, the starting salary range is very broad. Public accounting generally pays the most to a candidate right out of school. In particular, the big four firms of Ernst & Young, Deloitte, KPMG, and PricewaterhouseCoopers offer larger salaries than mid-size and small firms.

Ashley Donohoe started writing professionally in 2010 about career, business and technology topics. She has a Master of Business Administration degree from Western Governors University along with eight years of experience managing all aspects of her small business.

Is a staff accountant a good job?

These accounting detectives’ work often centers around legal issues. There are opportunities for forensic accountants in many industries, like nonprofit work, government and law-enforcement agencies, law firms, and large corporations. Bookkeepers who are interested in switching jobs but do not have a college degree might consider becoming an EA after a stint with the IRS. This job doesn’t require a college degree, only five years of tax experience with the IRS. All EAs must have 72 hours of continuing education every 36 months. If you are already a CPA, you can act as an enrolled agent without passing the exam. For a long-term career, accounting offers much more upward mobility and income potential.

• Most forensic accountants go on to become CPAs or to obtain their certified fraud examiner credentials.
• You’ll usually be trained on the job to work with your specialized area as an accounting clerk or overall accounting functions as a bookkeeper.
• Your business’s accounting needs might not require the in-depth expertise of a hired professional.
• Many industries require that organizations operating within them perform at least one external audit, conducted by someone who is not an employee, each year.
• Proficiency in the use of QuickBooks Desktop, QuickBooks Online, and Microsoft Office products including Excel and Word.
• A CPA is an accountant who has met their state’s requirements and passed the Uniform CPA Exam.

In public accounting a bookkeeper will do bookkeeping where staff accountants will do audit and or tax prep. In private industry the work they do can be the same, the titles can often be interchangeable.

What Is the Difference Between an Accounting Clerk and a Bookkeeper?

An accountant can then use this data to assess the financial health of the business and help you make data-driven business decisions. An accountant can also be a bookkeeper, but an entry-level bookkeeper is not an accountant. Let’s take a closer look at the differences between the two, and how working with both bookkeepers and accounts can benefit https://www.bookstime.com/ your business. The distinctions between accounting and bookkeeping are subtle yet essential. Bookkeepers record a business’s day-to-day financial transactions. The two careers are similar, and accountants and bookkeepers often work side by side. However, significant differences exist, like work conducted in each career and needed to be successful.

Knowing the differences between the two can help people find their niche in the industry and can give guidance to companies on who to hire for their needs. As a bookkeeper, your attention to detail must be almost preternatural. Careless mistakes that seem inconsequential at the time can lead to bigger, costlier, more time-consuming problems down the road. Rarely does a bookkeeper work on one big project for an eight-hour shift; instead, a typical workday involves juggling five or six smaller jobs. Nearly all bookkeeping is done using computerized accounting software and programs, so bookkeepers should be comfortable learning new technology if not proficient in it. With bookkeepers, there are a lot of minutiae involved, and keen attention to detail is paramount. Accountants, on the other hand, tend to use the bookkeeper’s inputs to create financial statements and periodically review and analyze the financial information recorded by bookkeepers.

Bookkeeper vs. Accountant: What’s the Difference?

If you aspire to a higher-paying position with more responsibility, a CPA credential is worth pursuing. In a corporate environment, a controller supervises all other accounting staff and usually reports to a chief financial officer or director of finance. At the end of each month and year, bookkeeper vs accountant salary they close the books and start the process over again. Knowing the difference between bookkeeping and accounting can be tricky, especially with the interchangeability of the terms and how the duties can overlap. While they are similar in many ways, there are a few significant differences.

CPAs may also specialize in certain fields, such as forensic accounting . They need to understand Generally Accepted Accounting Principles . This knowledge will help them perform accounting job duties, such as posting payments and journaling debits and credits. They often keep ledgers up-to-date, process payments, settle bank statements and keep well documented records. Maintaining financial records and gathering information to produce financial statements will be another job task accounting clerks often fulfill for a company.

The cost of hiring a bookkeeper or accountant

At GrowthForce, we understand that there is no one-size-fits-all solution when it comes to building a successful business. Some companies have grown to a position where a CFO is necessary to solidify long-term strategies.

Bookkeepers generally process transactions, reconcile bank and credit card accounts, ensure income and expenses are put in the right accounts. Bookkeepers also play an important in role in consulting with business owners who want to do more of the work themselves on proper work flow for recording sales, purchasing and expense transactions.