Accountant vs Bookkeeper: 2025 Guide to Key Differences

Both bookkeeping and accounting play essential roles in managing financial records. Bookkeeping involves recording daily financial transactions, while accounting interprets and analyzes those records to provide insights for decision-making. Neither is inherently better; they complement each other to ensure accurate financial management. Working with professional bookkeepers and accountants may be in your business’ best interests. Your accountant can help you make the best cash flow and tax decisions, while your bookkeeper can offer valuable insight into your business’ financial transactions and keep you organized. Bookkeepers and accountants often work together to maintain their client’s financial records.

While they work towards a common goal, bookkeepers and accountants support the business in different ways, and in different stages of the financial process. It’s helpful to understand the different roles of a bookkeeper and an accountant so you can utilize them appropriately as your business grows. Although they both have a hand in your company’s finances, their skill sets and purposes vary.

Accounting software: An alternative to hiring an accountant or bookkeeper

They’re in charge of balancing the books, which means carefully recording and monitoring assets, liabilities, and equity. LegalZoom is not a law firm and does not provide legal advice, except where authorized through its subsidiary law firm LZ Legal Services, LLC. Use of our products and services is governed by our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. If you’re in search of a bookkeeping job, apply online or join our Talent Community and stay up to date on future job opportunities.

When taking advantage of the services your accountant offers, you can make better financial choices that could help catapult your company to success. When you are ready to look at the big picture of your business’ financial situation, your accountant will be there to forecast and help you maintain a path of progress. According to BLS data, the median salary for an accountant in 2023 was $79,880 per year or $38.41 per hour. However, accounting firms charge substantially more than an accountant’s hourly rate because they must cover overhead costs and nonbillable time. Other factors that affect rates include an accountant’s experience, your state and the complexity of your accounting needs.

I was ready to up my tax game–that’s why I joined Intuit

A bookkeeper records and classifies a company’s daily financial transactions such as sales, payroll, payment of bills, etc. There are educational manufacturing financial statements requirements to sit for the CPA exam and continuing education requirements for accounting professionals that obtain the designation. Think of accountants like doctors—they look at symptoms and prescribe something so businesses can improve their financial health. Depending on your state, your business’ needs, and the candidate’s qualifications, salaries may vary. According to PayScale, the average salary for a bookkeeper is $41, 244 while for accountants the average is $50, 420. Because of their additional education and certifications, accountants typically make a higher salary than bookkeepers.

If you are proficient and comfortable using mathematics and computing figures, plus punctual, organized, and detail-oriented, it is not hard to learn how to be a bookkeeper. Of course, a background in accounting practices will help you ride out a learning curve as a new bookkeeper. In addition, you must be a member of the Association of Certified Fraud Examiners. In most cases, employers want to hire someone with a bachelor’s degree, and a master’s degree may help boost your earnings. There are opportunities for forensic accountants in many industries, like nonprofit work, government and law-enforcement agencies, law firms, and large corporations.

Is Bookkeeping Hard to Learn?

This includes submitting documents and paying for local, state, and federal taxes on time. Tax strategy and planning, as well as tax filing, are tasks often done by accountants. Bookkeepers prepare the information and documents that accountants need come tax season. This is the master file where they record or post, and keep track of sales and expenses. Ledgers can come in the form of a computerized spreadsheet, a software, or even on paper.

Skills Needed

CPAs are more specialized in tax codes and can represent clients before the Internal Revenue Service in case of an audit. CPAs must meet ongoing educational requirements to maintain what is the difference between term and serial bonds their accreditation. Shoeboxed is an expense & receipt tracking app that helps you get reimbursed quickly, maximize tax deductions, and reduce the hassle of doing accounting. When deciding on what type of a career path you wish to follow in the accounting field, one must compare the different opportunities.

• Nowadays, bookkeepers can use the opportunity to give more insight and sometimes play the role of an advisor.
• You can use this as a reference to set a competitive rate or asking salary and to ensure that you’re paid accordingly.
• When you are unsure whether software is the right alternative, consider your budget and knowledge of your company’s accounting needs.
• Knowing the difference between a bookkeeper’s and an accountant’s qualifications helps you hire the right financial professional for your business.
• To maximize earning potential and secure long-term job stability, it’s worth pursuing a career as an accountant.
• It also keeps business owners from incurring unnecessary liabilities like debts and unpaid bills.

Accountant vs. Bookkeeper: 2025 Guide to Key Differences

• Streamlining financial processes creates a more efficient workflow and empowers your team to contribute to higher-level financial management.
• Additionally, Intuit Academy offers courses that teach the basics of bookkeeping, and successful test-takers may use their badge and certificates for education and career advancement.
• In this guide, you’ll learn what differentiates a bookkeeper vs accountant, which your business should hire, and when to employ them.
• Bookkeepers make between $50,000 to $81,000 annually; significantly less than accountants.
• Typically, accountants, and sometimes even business owners, oversee bookkeepers’ work as their function has certain limits.
• Bookkeepers must be accurate in their work and have knowledge about financial topics but bookkeepers are usually overseen by accountants.

Nowadays, bookkeepers can use the opportunity to give more insight and sometimes play the role of an advisor. So it’s not a bad idea to hire a bookkeeper first to get those services at minimum and then hire an accountant later to do the taxes. Using an employee cost calculator can also help you manage expenses effectively. Like what bookkeepers and accountants charge an hour, their salaries are also based on many factors. Salaries are based on education, certification, years of experience, credentials, industry or employer, job description, location and complexity of work. With all that information in financial statements and reports, an accountant can give business owners advice.

If you are an external auditor, you will most likely have a job at a public accounting firm, and you will need to have a CPA license, plus a college degree, and often a master’s degree. It is not an unusual career move for a bookkeeper to gain experience at a job, study, get certified, and work as an accountant. There are various career paths for accountants (and some for bookkeepers), from working as a forensic accountant to becoming a financial auditor or an enrolled agent. As an accountant, you may have to crunch numbers, but those are not the only skills needed.

What’s the Difference Between Accountants and Bookkeepers?

You may also be an ideal bookkeeping candidate if you want a good job with a respectable wage and decent security but may not be looking for a long-term career. Bookkeepers make between $50,000 to $81,000 annually; significantly less than accountants. There’s a tool called CPA Verify that you can use to do a background check before hiring external help. It’ll confirm the license and check for any disciplinary action taken against a potential CPA. Now, let’s take a closer look at the duties of a bookkeeper and accountant.

Careless mistakes that seem inconsequential at the time can lead to bigger, costlier, more time-consuming problems down the road. Bookkeepers may start working for a small business to gain experience and then go back to school for the value of grant writing software a degree in accounting or finance. Enrolling in one of the best online bookkeeping classes is a smart way for those interested in this career to bolster their existing financial knowledge.