First off, Happy Administrative Professionals Day! The business world would simply stop revolving if it weren’t for administrative professionals. If you are an administrative professional, be proud today and everyday for the work you do. You’re imperative to making progress and growing dreams.

And now back to the topic at hand - bookkeepers are set apart from accountants and vice versa. Can you be an accountant that does bookkeeping work? Yes, but you cannot (or should not) be a bookkeeper that does accoutning work. Now, I will warn you, I may come off a bit passionate about this subject and, for that, I do apologize. The question of “what’s the difference?” has been a question of mine since the beginning of my bookkeeping career that absolutely no one (colleagues, supervisors, CPAs, etc) could give me a straight answer to. So, I have been on a hunt to the end of the internet and back to find the answer and I have to come to the conclusion that there is a difference (though not always distinguished) and these are the ways to discern between the two…

1. Qualifications

   I would say 90% of job postings for accountants require a degree in accounting or a related field, but not bookkeeping. There simply is not a degree in bookkeeping. The fundamentals of bookkeeping are covered when you go for your accounting degree, but to major in bookkeeping is just not a thing. Does this mean that anybody can be a bookkeeper? Yes and no. While being a bookkeeper does not require a formal education, it is a very specific skill set that not very many people have and to be a proficient in it, job experience is imperative. There are just some things a book can’t teach and the ins and outs of bookkeeping for different industries is one of them.

   It can also be very tedious and monotonous work so you really have to love problem solving and puzzles. Fun fact: when I was in grade school, my math teacher, Mrs. Jones (I’m not even trying to be vague, that was her name), would put up a logic puzzle on the projector (for those of you who are too young to know what that is - think old fashioned movie projector on a rolling cart). Now, warmup time was like free time in that you could do whatever you wanted (within reason) and the worksheet on the projector was optional. I know it doesn’t sound like it, but I did have friends that were in that class and I had (and still have) a DEEP, committed relationship with sleep and even though that class was first thing in the morning and full of my friends, I chose to destroy that logic puzzle. It was fun for me and I looked forward to a fresh new puzzle everyday. I know it’s not “normal,” but there was nothing like starting off the day solving that puzzle! Though I have a degree in business and have taken multiple accounting classes, I choose to be a bookkeeper. Organizing what others find overwhelmingly messy is fulfilling to me - I get to solve a logic puzzle everyday!

2. Pay

   I know, I know. It’s not polite to talk about, but it is definitely a difference. Accountants tend to get paid more. Because of that formal education, the pay on job postings tends to be higher than the pay listed on a job posting for a bookkeeper. And though nobody likes to talk about it, money is something we all understand and need in our jobs. So, if you are like me and ask yourself “what’s the difference?,” the money says it all. This is not to say that the pay increase is not warranted, it is. When you hire an accountant, you’re getting someone with more skills - not necessarily more as in quality, but more as in quantity. And this leads me to reason #3….

3. Job Description

   This right here is the main reason I found the end of the internet - JOB DESCRIPTION. Contrary to popular belief, job descriptions are important, especially to those who need a lane to work in and thrive off an organized, well-stated purpose (ME). It has always blown my mind how employers weren’t able to give a job description and, not only that, but couldn’t provide one after you have requested it. I understand that there are creatives that truly do their best work coloring outside the lines, but that simply isn’t me. I feel like if you are to excel in what you do, you first need to know what your authority requires of you (but that’s a whole other blog post for another day).

   So to end this rant, I will tell you the main distinction between a bookkeeper’s and an accountant’s job: a bookkeeper is responsible for the daily transactions of the business while the accountant is responsible for analyzing and interpreting that data. This is why accountants are bookkeepers, but bookkeepers are not accountants - accountants can pull, organize, and reconcile daily transactions and then analyze the reports for tax purposes. Bookkeepers are the worker bees. If you have an accountant that does your year-end taxes and you just need to keep your transactions organized on a monthly-basis or you just want to see where your income is going for budget purposes or to make sound business decisions, you need only to hire a bookkeeper.

   Though this may not seem like an important distinction to most people, it is very important to some. I do not deny that the line can get blurred at times and that there are similarities between the two, but knowing the difference could make all the difference. Knowing the difference may help you with qualification, pay, or job description discrepancies that you might be experiencing in your job. If you were wandering which one you needed to hire, I hope this helps! If you were just curious, that’s cool too.

   It’s accrual world so leave some love in the comments!