Where What When

Opportunities in Bookkeeping

My quest for occupations that are in demand, provide a decent parnassa, and are quickly learned

In my quest for occupations that are in demand, provide a decent parnassa, and are quickly learned, I chose to look at bookkeeping first because it’s so vital to every business. No one can be successful without keeping track of his or her money. Once that’s taken care of, most business owners can do much better spending their time plying their trade, whether it is auto mechanic or lawyer. Many successful professionals are great at the work they do but really weak at keeping the books.

A Revolution Called QuickBooks

Specific software, by the name of QuickBooks, from Intuit, is so commonly used it isn’t even necessary to discuss the many other, more specialized accounting packages. Becoming a bookkeeper means learning QuickBooks, almost without exception. (Intuit also puts out the popular home bookkeeping system called Quicken.) QuickBooks has become the standard tool by which bookkeepers ensure the accuracy and clarity of the information that business owners use.

I bought my first copy of QB in the late 80s and found that, within months, I was saving money. My bookkeeper and accountant were spending substantially less time on my books, with far better results. My bookkeeper was very soon able to service four or five clients in the same amount of time that she had been using to take care of my books alone.

What Is Bookkeeping?

Let’s begin with the big picture: All business owners need to keep a set of books, in which they keep track of what they pay for, from office supplies to payroll to the materials they use to manufacture the end product. They have to track the money collected from their customers or clients in fees or sales of all kinds. All of these interactions have to be checked for accuracy. When that work is done, then, at the end of every quarter and again once every year, businesses have to report to the government and pay taxes on their earnings.

Before QuickBooks was invented, bookkeepers used to learn something called double entry bookkeeping. They wrote down income and expenses in such a way that they all fit together to show a balance sheet giving a picture of the total worth of the business, including real estate, equipment values, and a profit-and-loss statement. Arithmetic used to be very important in these systems, because if you made errors, the whole system would not balance. The time it took to create all these records meant that businesses could not get an immediate look at the big picture of their entire business.

Today all that has changed. The computer does the math quickly. Immediate profit-and-loss statements and balance sheets provide accurate numbers that help business owners to make decisions about what to order, whom to hire, and how much to charge for their product/services, based on intelligent, clear, fact-based analysis.

Even though computers will do the math for you, however, and quickly show the relationships between the numbers, they can’t think. Computers can only help if they receive the right information in the right way. Only with accurate data entry, reported in the correct category, can the numerical pictures that makes for successful business be painted for the owners. My first bookkeeper was so good at QuickBooks that years would pass before I realized just how much confusion this software can create when someone uses it incorrectly. A business that takes a penny-wise-pound-foolish, do-it-yourself approach may end up paying dearly at tax time.

Bookkeeper or Accountant?

Typically, bookkeepers and/or business owners will work with the business’s accountant. A Certified Public Accountant is licensed by the government and is responsible to make sure that his or her client pays payroll and taxes, and reports all operating expenses honestly. He or she is paid by the client but is ultimately accountable to the government.

Bookkeepers keep track of day-to-day, week-to-week, and month-to-month business. No license is required; the accountant and the owner are the best judge of the bookkeeper’s work. Accountants use the basic figures to help understand the big picture. They are responsible to advise their clients about important issues like which expenses are tax deductible. Should the business buy new machinery? Should more people be working in the factory? Should they raise or lower their prices?

Virtually every business needs an accountant, at least at tax time. However, accountants’ work and advice is meaningless if the numbers that they analyze are inaccurate and unreliable. Day-to-day accuracy is the basic nutritional requirement of good business numbers. Accountants can fix errors in bookkeeping, but often their hourly rates are so high that it is not cost effective for them to pick up the pieces. For that reason, bookkeepers frequently consult with accountants to make sure that everything is set up properly.

As a way of thinking about the value of using a bookkeeper as opposed to the more professional-sounding accountant, I heard an interesting metaphor from Beth Tenenbaum, who, until two years ago, did the bookkeeping for about 10 clients in the U.S. and Israel, working from her home. As a young mom, Beth wanted her doctor, the “expert,” to give her child injections. The nurse pointed out to Beth that while she, the nurse, gave dozens even hundreds of shots daily, the doctor’s last experience could have been months ago. “He has broader knowledge and gets a bigger paycheck, but I’m more qualified to do this job of injections, by far,” explained the nurse.

The bookkeeper in this example is the nurse and the accountant the doctor. The women interviewed for this article found their bookkeeping work fascinating and wouldn’t think of becoming an accountant. They love their work, they learn more every day, and their clients place an enormous responsibility, well-deserved, on their shoulders.

From the career-candidate’s point of view, becoming a bookkeeper rather than an accountant has certain advantages. Beth worked as a bookkeeper because she valued the time flexibility it provided for her as a mother with young children. “I didn’t take any jobs that were time bound,” she explains. “That was my choice, to be home with my kids. Obviously, payroll and taxes have deadlines, but that doesn’t mean that I had to show up at 9 a.m. on every day. I may have had to make a phone call during the day, but the majority of my work at that stage of my life was done in the evenings.”

This is not true for accountants, who must invest at least two years as an auditor, working grueling hours for low pay, pass a complex examination, and in most cases, expect to be at the office 16 hours a day throughout tax season. (Of course, some people choose another path. I know an energetic mother who has worked out a system with her husband that allows her to work the necessary long hours; plus, she found a family-friendly firm to work for. Her income is much greater as a result.)

Beth is now COO of ExamPro, a company that offers board review courses for doctors. Although, at this point, bookkeeping is only a small part of her job, it is significant that she got her start in this company as a result of doing their bookkeeping.

Do You Have the Aptitude?

Several businesses serve the bookkeeping needs of our community’s many, many small businesses. The ones that were interviewed for this article have hired frum employees almost exclusively, after determining that a student has the right personal traits for success. These businesses would be good places for someone to get started in a paying position that offers growth and advancement.

I asked the bookkeepers, all of whom learned QuickBooks on the job, a few basic questions: How do you spot a person who has the aptitude for bookkeeping? What skills are required to get the first job? How much does a bookkeeper earn in Baltimore? How is the day spent?

Oddly enough, none of the bookkeepers put experience with QuickBooks at the top of the list of requirements for being a bookkeeper. They all agree that employees can learn it on the job. Rather, because accuracy and organization are critical, these are the traits that a good bookkeeper needs. Beth Tenenbaum notes, “At the end of the day, everything has to balance and match to the penny. If you’re not the kind of person who cares if it matches, bookkeeping is not for you.” You can’t learn attention to detail. You either have it or you don’t.” This is what the vocational counselor would call aptitude.

Ariella Letaw Levin, of Baltimore’s Best Bookkeeper, focuses on skills that can come through general computer training. “For me it’s computer literacy that counts in hiring.” She asks, “Do you have experience communicating via Internet, do you know how to get around on Word and Excel and to grasp the rules of computer data entry?” She continues, “The job requires good organization skills. As you advance in your work, though, I’ve found that creativity is important. Bookkeeping is like putting together a vast, complex puzzle.”

For Beth it was also confidence with computers and a feeling for programming logic that stood out in her mind. When she taught as a substitute in Bais Yaakov High School’s QB class, the point was brought home to her in vivid terms. “Students who were just there to pass the test did not make the effort to learn the software. It’s learning the software that has to be your ultimate goal, not simply following instructions.

“Many of the personality traits needed also depend on what the client is expecting,” Beth adds. “If your job includes billing the customers and making calls if they don’t pay, the job will demand tact in working with the public.” She observes further, “If your role is to ensure the accuracy of vendor invoices, research skills and conflict resolution abilities come into play.” Vocational counselor Malka Weintraub would describe these as social skills and learning to fit into the organization of your employer.

Shifra Nissel, owner of AccuBusiness Solutions, Inc., provides more depth to the picture when she describes her ideal employee as needing self-esteem and the ability to multitask. Shifra has three people working in her home-based business, serving approximately 40 clients at any given time. “Of course, we look for reliability and meticulousness. When there are many clients to serve, all of whom need their answers quickly at times, everyone must be able to keep track of the many and varying needs of each client.”

How They Got Started

Beth got started in bookkeeping by working for Peter Wollner at Compucare in the 80s. Ironically, even though she had expertise with computers, when she took over the books for her synagogue, way back in the 80s, her first step was to return to manual bookkeeping. “In those days, a system crash could destroy all your data, and we were small enough to do it the old-fashioned way,” she explains. “Later, when QuickBooks provided a more reliable system, I put our shul books on QuickBooks. At that time, I set up back-up procedures and lots of quality control measures to make sure that our numbers made sense. My client list eventually included a business run from Eretz Yisrael, a caterer, a law firm, and other kinds of businesses. I found that the same principles apply whether keeping track of $10,000 or 3 million. I’ve done both.”

Ariella Letaw-Levin learned bookkeeping the family business in the 80s. “After I finished college with a degree in theatre and psychology, I went back to a community college to learn double entry so that I could be more helpful in the office. Later, we moved the family business onto QuickBooks. Even though my clients use some part of other industry-specific software on occasion, most of them are running QuickBooks.”

Shifra Nissel, of AccuBusiness Solutions, learned QuickBooks as the director of operations for Advanced Medical Concepts, a medical equipment company. “As an office manager, I spent my career managing other people’s businesses. Then, one summer, all my children were in camp for an entire month, and I decided it was time for me to create something for myself, for the next phase of life,” explains Shifra. “The difference between my business and most of the others is that I spend about 30 percent of my time training people to use QB. I’m a QuickBooks Certified ProAdvisor, and I train with QuickBooks Intuit on all of the new features every year.”

How They Work

Approaches to training and billing represent a major difference among the firms. Ariella, of Baltimore’s Best Bookkeeper, has found that most of her clients do not do well in keeping their own books, so her pricing policies actively discourage this process. Each client receives a detailed proposal with a scope of work customized to their needs and a flat monthly fee. Only on the odd occasions when a unique situation takes her out of the pre-determined scope does she bill by the hour.

Most of Nissel’s clients at AccuBusiness Solutions are billed by the hour. And as many as 30 percent are strictly training clients, who receive initial setup and training as well as telephone support but whose books Nissel does not manage on an ongoing basis.

All of the bookkeepers I spoke with work with clients in their own bookkeeping office. “With very few exceptions, my clients have gotten used to the idea that vital financial data is going to leave the office,” says Ariella. “We use messenger services to exchange packages. Many of my clients are receiving live data as soon as we get it entered through the Internet. There is only one client for whom I do all of the work in her office.” Tenenbaum agrees, “It’s a comfort level and a geographical issue when it comes to taking the records off site.”

Of course, not every business owner wants to take financial records outside the office. Many prefer an in-house bookkeeper, and these businesses are another source of employment. Indeed, I have run across at least 10 companies who employ bookkeepers trained in Bais Yaakov or in one of the bookkeeping businesses mentioned here. Many of these companies will hire a beginning level QuickBooks user.

Then there are the companies that still prefer to have the accountant do it all. They might not realize that their accountants often use a bookkeeper. Tenenbaum had accountant clients who hired her to clean up their clients’ mistakes. “It’s much more cost-effective for an accounting firm to give a bookkeeper the books their client has created. Sometimes, I started completely from scratch. Other times, I gave the accountant a list of questions about the entries that don’t make sense. This kind of client doesn’t even know they have an offsite bookkeeper, they just know they have an accountant.”

What Can You Earn?

The government’s Occupational Handbook projects good growth in jobs for bookkeepers, including many opportunities for temporary and part-time work. Certified Bookkeepers (CBs) and those with several years of experience have the best job prospects.

A beginning bookkeeping assistant earns about $10 per hour. As they grow in their work, employers will reward their employees for bringing in business and increase their hourly compensation. Salaries range from $22,000 per year to about $40,000. According to Ariella, $50,000 a year is the maximum compensation an employee can hope to earn in the most successful business. “If you’re generating that kind of revenue, you should be looking at becoming a partner in a bookkeeping firm,” she says.

Learning QuickBooks

Bais Yaakov offers a beginning QuickBooks class as an elective. Parents aware of this can play a role in advising their daughters. Young women who want to marry at 20 and support their families while their husbands learn would be well advised to take this class, as well as any other opportunity to learn something practical while still in high school.

Intuit offers courses in every city in the U.S. on a schedule that is aggressively promoted to every licensed product owner. Most of the community colleges offer QuickBooks courses as well.

A uniquely attractive training program is provided by Dr. Andrew Schiff, who is also on the faculty at Towson University. His private program on York Road not only trains bookkeepers but offers them the skills, the contacts, and the marketing tools to start a business. When Ariella wanted to move into a more aggressive stage of business as her children completed high school, she attended this program, which she felt was superior to any class she’d attended. It is uniquely suited for students who really want to avoid the diversity of the campus experience and want a highly focused training program. For more information, see Dr. Schiff’s website, learnaccountingnow.com , or call him at 410-828-1902.

An Internet search will also turn up literally dozens of providers who are teaching QuickBooks through TV, audio, and classes of all kinds, often based on an industry specialty. There is no shortage of places to learn to use the software on any schedule at all. As always, however, let the buyer beware.

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Article List - July 2008