What exactly is done in a bookkeeping job?

Why would you look for this type of job if you don't know what entails?

Also, is Google.com down for you?

It is accounting but ask at the library

Juggernaut1 wrote: ↑I'm currently a student and was looking for a bookkeeping job to get my foot into the door in the accounting world. Just wondering, what do you do specifically?

They do all the paperwork that CPAs do not want/like to do. Bookkeepers cannot advise management. They mostly do clerical work such as journal keeping, A/R & A/P, setting up accounts, dealing with the bank, submitting payments, paying taxes, doing payroll, and other manual work. Its boring and repetitive, but its a good way to get your foot in the door and add the experience on your resume.

When you say A/R and A/P what do you do exactly? They give you a bunch of cheques and you write down the amounts?

Juggernaut1 wrote: ↑When you say A/R and A/P what do you do exactly? They give you a bunch of cheques and you write down the amounts?

pretty much lol, some companies will give you signing authority, others will want you to get all payments approved for A/P, although most payments are electronic. For A/R, they might ask you to create invoices, send them to clients, hound clients to pay their bills, etc....

Juggernaut1 wrote: ↑I'm currently a student and was looking for a bookkeeping job to get my foot into the door in the accounting world. Just wondering, what do you do specifically?

Everything up to the trial balance.

Juggernaut1 wrote: ↑When you say A/R and A/P what do you do exactly? They give you a bunch of cheques and you write down the amounts?

AP will normally include stuff like entering vendor invoices into the system, matching invoices with the packing slip/pos, communicating with vendors, cutting cheques for vendors, analyze the AP aged trial balance

AR will include cash collection from customers, invoicing customers, keep track of customer payments and notify customers if they didn't pay

Bookkeeper is a really good entry level job and will definitely help you understand the basics of accounting

My friend get a freelance bookkeeper job online. If you just want a part time job or practice your bookkeeping skills, you can try to apply this kind of job.

bookkeeping jobs can easily be automated tho, aim for CPA status OP!

Filing documents, making photocopies, brewing coffee

Juggernaut1 wrote: ↑When you say A/R and A/P what do you do exactly? They give you a bunch of cheques and you write down the amounts?

A/R spends most of their time calling customers to collect payments. A/P spends most of their time processing invoices. Not very good experience, but if that's all you can get, its better than nothing. At the very least you'll understand how things work at the bottom and familiarize yourself with the different accounting systems.

A/R = you're like a collection agent
A/P = making payments for company bills & you will have to follow up on mysterious charges and fight for it back ie. interest charges, fees, etc

So a lot of interaction with people really which is essential any role to move up in a company.

Book-keeping deals with the mechanics of the paperwork. It's certainly not a growing job segment. In the past they'd be working for a lot of small and medium companies. They'd be handed a box of receipts and bank statements and would need to sort, input and process stuff.

Now much of this work is done on computer and stuff can be automated. QuickBooks and similar programs will handle invoicing and preparing financial statements, payroll can be automated and outsourced cheaply.

Sum_guy wrote: ↑Book-keeping deals with the mechanics of the paperwork. It's certainly not a growing job segment. In the past they'd be working for a lot of small and medium companies. They'd be handed a box of receipts and bank statements and would need to sort, input and process stuff.

Now much of this work is done on computer and stuff can be automated. QuickBooks and similar programs will handle invoicing and preparing financial statements, payroll can be automated and outsourced cheaply.

not only that but accounts payable is easily automated as well. Automatic payments through banks.

I can't comment of payables. Depending on the business you may need a ton of cheques. Same with A/R, plus you have the collections aspect in that job. But electronic payments (debit/credit cards) is becoming more common for small businesses outside of retail.

Bookkeepers usually work for the accounting departments of companies and support the accounting manager/controllers.

They can do anything from simple data entry (AP/AR) to full cycle book keeping, which should include entering in sales, payable, receivables, payroll, adjustments, maintaining schedules and working papers etc. Normally bookkeepers cannot do legal consulting but they can liaison with the external accounting firms/clients.

A lot of the work is clerical/admin and it's often quite mundane. The work usually isn't too hard but you do have to be quite detail oriented. Most bookkeepers have to be proficients in Microsoft Office, QuickBooks and Simply Accounting.

I used to be a bookkeeper when I was in university, and it's definitely not something I would want to do full-time.