Why I Hate Being Called a Bookkeeper

Recently (ok, it was a while ago, but I’ve been busy!) asked some fellow freelancers and small business owners what they thought a bookkeeper did or didn’t do, here’s some of what they said:

just "takes care of receipts and keeps a running total of ins and outs'

"puts together my accounts, so I send my receipts and they keep track of all expenses etc. Then an accountant prepares my tax returns for filing…"

"(has a) functional financial tracking role"

"keeping a record of invoices/outgoings…which were then potentially handed over to an accountant"

"I talk to my accountant [not my bookkeeper] about management reports and cashflow issues"

"the bookkeeper looks after day to day...and the accountant looks at the bigger picture"

"anyone can be a bookkeeper"

 Now, I am very fond of (most of) the people I asked this question to, so don’t fret I didn’t go full Hulk on them – but these responses are exactly why I have a problem with the 'bookkeeper' title. People view bookkeepers as the less capable younger sibling to their high-flying accountant relatives.

Times have changed my friends. Trained, certified, passionate bookkeepers have a huge scope of services they offer. We’re like jet-powered finance whizz-bots. But the word hasn’t got out about it because bookkeepers have been UTTERLY USELESS at actually informing potential service users about all our bells and whistles. So, we're stuck with a decades-old stereotype of being the un-trained, photosensitive number crunchers sitting quietly in a dark corner and putting together information for our superior accountant colleagues to decipher. I need you all to know that just isn't true anymore (if it ever even was!)

So, because I’m such a generous person, I’m going to write a series of posts delving that little bit deeper into the answers given by my peers and showing just what bloody brilliant value bookkeepers can add to your small business.