The words ‘bookkeeper’ or ‘accountant’ are deceptively simple for the number of responsibilities they involve. In an organisation where the sales and marketing teams are always in the forefront dealing with customers, you rarely hear about people such as bookkeepers and accountants working in the backend.

When you hear the word bookkeeper or accountant, most people will picture individuals working away at excel sheets of financial numbers. However, the job entails much more than that. Being a bookkeeper or an accountant helps you sustain your company financially by tracking the list of expenditures and profits. Without these documents, bills wouldn’t be paid, staff won’t get their wages and tax returns will not be submitted, leaving the company dismantled.

This blog will help you teach you the different facets of bookkeeping or accounting, what it takes to get into the profession, how you can advance your career and what your prospects are once your career has started.

What do you need to get into the field?

Some bookkeeping and accounting jobs do not require a university degree. Occasionally, people who are good with numbers and have a keen eye for detail can go straight into the profession.

However, as the finance world becomes more complex, professional bookkeeping and accounting courses can help you master some tricky intricacies of the job. Accounting courses can also enhance your existing skills to help you advance your career.

These accounting courses can also help develop the skills you need to start your career in bookkeeping and accounting.

• Analytical and problem-solving skills: Accounting involves a lot of number crunching and therefore requires people who have sharp logic skills and problem-solving abilities. Understanding all the small pieces of information will help you to effectively draw broader conclusions.
• Numerical accuracy and diligence: As accountants and bookkeepers work with numbers all day long, they need to be skilled at arithmetic and numerical accuracy to avoid miscalculations.
• Ability to work with accounting software: Accountants and bookkeepers need to work with complex accounting tools and software. For a successful career in accounting, you need more than just proficiency in Excel. Instead, employers will look for those who are capable of learning new technology with ease.
• Multitasking and strong attention to details: As a bookkeeper, your attention to detail must be faultless. Careless mistakes can lead to bigger, costlier and more time-consuming problems down the road. You must also be able to multitask as a typical workday will involve juggling five or six jobs.

What can a career in bookkeeping and accounting offer you?

• As every business requires a bookkeeper to maintain its financial records, qualified accountants are in demand within nearly every sector. If you are wondering why you should consider a career in the profession, here are the benefits of bookkeeping and accounting careers.
• Job security: Finance and accounting is a domain that requires considerable human insight in addition to various tools and technology. While a computer can prepare financial log sheets, you would need an accountant to tell you where to invest money. Hence, qualified and capable accountants need to not worry about their job security.
• Work satisfaction: Accountants work with financial data to interpret results that can dramatically change the way a company manages its business. Therefore, bookkeepers have a lot of input with the running of a company, making the profession full of exciting and interesting challenges which provide job satisfaction.
• Flexibility: If you become a self-employed accountant or a bookkeeper, you can enjoy the flexibility of choosing your work hours, clients and the type of work you want to do

How do you start building a career in the profession?

It takes time to establish a career in bookkeeping and accounting. Here are some useful tips to get you started.

• Pursue a course: There are several payroll and bookkeeping courses that can give you a comprehensive overview of the different tenets in accountancy. A degree will also provide many networking opportunities and offer a chance to gain practical experience with internships.
• Be organised: There is a lot of paperwork involved in bookkeeping which includes statements, invoices, remittances and bank statements. If you lose paperwork due to poor organisational skills, it might have detrimental effects on the company’s financial standing. You, therefore, need to make sure your organisational skills are proficient before starting a career in this field.
• Become better at accuracy: As a bookkeeper, you will need to ensure that errors are kept to a minimum. The smallest mistakes can make the transaction data inaccurate, which may land the company into deep waters.

What are the career growth prospects in the field?

Bookkeepers are vital in enabling business owners to maintain accurate financial records. As bookkeepers are always in demand, you can always find a role according to your ambitions. Here are a few positions in the field that you may find interesting.

• Accountancy manager
• Bookkeeping analyst
• Financial auditor
• Actuary
• Accountancy specialist
• Bookkeeping specialist

As long as there are businesses, bookkeepers will always be in demand, allowing you to establish a long successful career in the bookkeeping or accountancy field.
If you want to take the first step in accounting, you can look into the Diploma in Bookkeeping and Payroll from the IBAT College in Dublin. This short course provides you with a solid understanding of various accounting disciplines as well as different procedures and approaches within the profession. Why not learn more about the course.