Do You Have These Top 5 Qualities of a Great Bookkeeper?

There are many bookkeepers helping businesses today who are okay or good, but not great. Perhaps they like numbers but not people, or maybe they became bookkeepers simply because they were good at math or because it was what one of their parents did as an occupation.

Most people want to be the best they can be in their career and bookkeepers are no different! There are a number of skills you can work on (or may already have) that are likely to move you from a bookkeeper people describe as “just okay” to one they call “fabulous”. No matter how you approached the field of bookkeeping, having certain skills are bound to push you ahead and make you THE bookkeeper businesses want to work with.

We’ve narrowed the top skill list down to five. Do you have these top five skills? Or is it time to looking into bookkeeping course in Vancouver that help you build and hone these skills?

1)      Ability to embrace technology.

Decades ago, bookkeepers needed to be able to work with pencils, ledgers and calculators to do their job and keep things straight. Now, everything is computerized with a number of great programs being included in bookkeeping certification training. The ability to access, understand and work with online and software-based bookkeeping tools like QuickBooks has become essential. Taking bookkeeping course online in Vancouver will teach you not only how to use these programs, but how to use them in ways that ledgers, pencils and calculators could never aspire to. Bookkeeping software allows bookkeepers and business owners and managers to see a bigger picture and make decisions based on present, short-term and long-term numbers and predications.

Anyone who has completed bookkeeping program knows that they can’t just be familiar with accounting software tools, they must also be able to use all of the functions and features properly as well as being able to recommend special options available in the software to make financial management easier for various types of businesses.

2)      A mind for details.

Being detail oriented is noted as an important skill in many jobs, but imagine if a bookkeeper didn’t have the focus to enter the taxes paid out from a certain pile of receipts or they didn’t think to follow up on accounts receivable after 60 days. A business’s financial health will fall into disarray without the full and detailed picture a savvy bookkeeper provides. Being able to see all of the finer points involved in the scope of a business’s finances allows a bookkeeper to move from “just a bookkeeper” to “a business’s essential asset.” It’s that ability to bring the details into the full picture while also presenting a high-level view that makes a client trust and involve their bookkeeper on an ongoing basis.

3)      Understanding of taxation principles and practices.

The saying goes that the only two certainties in life are death and taxes. A business must pay their taxes, but knowing what to pay and when and how to pay it are entirely different. Any bookkeeper who is worth their bookkeeping certification is able to help a business find ways to reduce their tax expenses legitimately and legally while also determining all of the tax credits that may be available – knowing what write-offs to apply is essential.

It may sound like a small thing since tax season only comes once a year, but knowing the key points of how the CRA works and the various types of business taxes can be helpful for keeping track of payments and expenses throughout the year. When a bookkeeper knows tax basics, they are able to take on some of the duties of a business’s tax accountant and help the business reduce the amount they need to pay for tax preparation.

Ultimately, a bookkeeper and tax accountant must be able to communicate and work together for the benefit of the client. By creating a team approach and establishing ongoing dialogue, taxes become a group effort and one that will be simplified over time.

4)      Organization skills and time management.

No one wants a bookkeeper who doesn’t understand deadlines or how to properly enter or file information. There’s nothing worse that reaching out to someone you trust to keep things organized and hearing that they can’t find the document you’re looking for or haven’t generated the report you needed a week ago.

Great bookkeepers know how to prioritize their tasks and can meet deadlines because they take the time to understand their clients’ needs.

When tax time comes and everyone needs something at the same time, great bookkeepers are able to start working on deadline projects in advance so that every client has their deadline met efficiently. It only takes one missed deadline or ignored request for a client to lose faith or worse, look elsewhere for their bookkeeping assistance.

5)      Ability to build a relationship based on trust.

Perhaps nothing is more important to the bookkeeper and client relationship than trust. An ethical bookkeeper is one who can keep private information private while knowing what legally needs to be made available and publishing it in the appropriate ways. Trust is critical to the relationship because both parties must be comfortable knowing that the other will do what they have agreed to and provides information accurately and in a timely fashion. Ideally, a confidentiality agreement should feel unnecessary, but it still should be put into place. Great bookkeepers know where the ethical line is and aren’t afraid to speak up if a client is thinking of crossing it.

These five skills are the ones that will move a bookkeeper from “ho-hum” to great in the eyes of a client. Perhaps you already have these skills and just need to take a bookkeeping course in Vancouver to brush up on them or maybe you need to take a solid look at these areas and focus on applying them more in order to ensure you are delivering the best you possibly can to your clients.