When someone asked me what I did once, they thought I was a “Bookie” as they hadn’t heard the term Bookkeeper and so didn’t realise that I had nothing to do with placing bets on dogs to win races! So when I explained what I did they said “Oh you’re an Accountant, then?” So I explained that a bookkeeper does the dull ‘prep’ - sorting paperwork into order, maybe submitting submitting VAT returns, producing management figures and finally sending Draft accounts to the Accountant who does the final year-end adjustments and tax calculations. However, I don’t find my job ‘dull’ at all. It may seem strange to business people to actually enjoy trawling through piles of bank statements and receipts and putting them into some semblance of order. But to see the procedure from jumble and confusion through to order procedure from jumble and confusion through to order and clarity, gives me a huge sense of satisfaction.I had a job years ago where they had a year’s worth of accounts to pull together. No bank reconciliation had been done in all that time. After a few weeks of working my way through the bank statement, I realised something was seriously amiss.seriously amiss. To cut a long story short, it turned out that a member of the staff was faking the directors’ signature on cheques, causing the company to lose several hundreds of pounds unnoticed, because they didn’t have the right procedures in place.

WHAT SHOULD YOU LOOK FOR IN A GOOD BOOKKEEPER? If you are in business, ask yourself:-

1. Does he/she take the trouble to learn about your business and the systems you like to use? 2. Have they helped to streamline your systems so that you work more efficiently? 3. 3. Would you trust them? The relationship between you and your bookkeeper is a special one, where private and confidential information is shared and discussed4. And of course, are you paying the right amount for the service you get?

Someone said to me recently “Great bookkeepers are like gold dust and hard to find” When you have found one, you will know. Written by Julie Cann MT

Julie CannJC Bookkeeping Services

WHAT IS THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN YOUR ACCOUNTANT AND A BOOKKEEPER?