Small business owners often call on bookkeepers to maintain accurate records and handle any incoming or outgoing transactions. But many owners wonder, “Do bookkeepers handle all accounts payable and receivable?” Or, do their responsibilities extend further?
The answer is yes – bookkeepers typically handle all accounts payable and receivable, including the team at NorthStar Bookkeeping. Beyond these transactions, our outsourced team of bookkeepers can also carry out A-Z bookkeeping duties such as daily record-keeping, financial reporting and analysis, and strategic consulting based on well-kept financial data.
Learn more about the transaction types within accounts payable and receivable, as well as the other critical responsibilities held by bookkeepers.
Do Bookkeepers Handle All Accounts Payable and Receivable?
Yes, handling accounts payable and receivable are core duties for most bookkeepers. Accounts payable refers to money a business owes to vendors, while accounts receivable refers to money owed to the business by customers. Properly recording these transactions allows businesses to track their cash flow and financial health, which provides data and insights to support strategic decision-making.
So, do bookkeepers handle all accounts payable and receivable? In short, yes, alongside a range of other crucial duties.
Accounts Payable & Receivable: Transaction Types
Several transaction types fall under accounts payable and receivable, from issuing and paying invoices to sending monthly statements, reconciling discrepancies, and more.
A few others include collecting outstanding payments and maintaining ledgers. Broadly speaking, bookkeepers ensure that payments are accurately recorded in the general ledger and matched to invoices, and may also handle payment processing and disbursements.
Bookkeeper vs Accounts Payable
Both roles do important financial record-keeping, but a bookkeeper manages the general ledger and daily transactions whereas an accounts payable clerk processes and pays vendor invoices. Essentially, accounts payable is a subset of a bookkeeper’s duties.
Other Bookkeeping Duties
While accounts payable and receivable tasks are a major portion of a bookkeeper’s responsibilities, they carry out several other important duties. Here are other core ways in which bookkeepers inform and guide the financial health of their business clients:
Accurate Record-Keeping
First and foremost, bookkeepers maintain complete and accurate records of all financial transactions. This includes purchases, sales, receipts, payroll, and taxes. Detailed record-keeping provides crucial support for accounts, and is the bedrock of an informed, data-driven business strategy.
Bank Reconciliations
Performing monthly bank reconciliations is another standard bookkeeping service you can expect when you hire an in-house or outsourced bookkeeper. Reconciling bank statements ensures the company’s cash flow records match the bank’s records, serving to detect and shield against potential fraud.
Preparing Financial Statements
Bookkeepers compile periodic financial statements, including balance sheets, cash flow statements, and more to determine the company’s financial position.
With clear visibility into your business’s financial performance over a set period, bookkeepers can offer valuable data to inform future decisions such as major purchases, new hires, or expansions.
Financial Reporting & Analysis
As opposed to accountants who handle taxes and audits, bookkeepers generate financial reports for management frequently. The types of reports include income and expense reports, accounts receivable aging reports, profit and loss (P&L) statements, and trial balances.
These analyses give you the financial insights necessary to shift and pivot your business strategy. Bookkeepers such as NorthStar can also tailor reports to show the metrics most relevant to your industry, vertical, and niche.
Data-Driven Strategic Consulting
The daily record-keeping, reconciling, and reporting carried out by bookkeepers are just steps toward a larger product: strategic direction. With all of these items combined, a bookkeeper can enable data-driven business decisions powered by accurate, up-to-date financial information tailored to your operations.
At NorthStar, this comes in the form of our financial analysis and risk management services, which help business owners design informed strategies for business growth.
Outsourced Bookkeeping: Your Path to Peace of Mind
Running a small business is demanding enough without getting bogged down in tedious bookkeeping tasks. You likely don’t have the time or desire to keep your own books, reconcile accounts, or make sense of financial reports, and may be losing time that could be spent on more pressing matters.
Enter outsourced bookkeeping – a way to take DIY accounting off of your plate while ensuring flawless bookkeeping, and without the high costs of an in-house bookkeeper. Over the past decade, this is precisely what the team at NorthStar Bookkeeping has accomplished for countless small and midsize businesses.
Submit a form on our Contact page to partner with NorthStar Bookkeeping and take accounting duties off of your plate.