What Is A Bookkeeper, What Do They Do, And Where Did They Come From?

At 123 Easy Books, we love our job so much it is easy for us to claim we are the best providers of bookkeeping Essex can offer. While it is a fact that we also offer the kind of quality payroll services Essex can be proud of, plus excellent VAT returns services, CIS returns online, management accounts and even HR services, bookkeeping will always hold a special place in our hearts. After all, it was our love for bookkeeping that led to the creation of 123 Easy Books!

But what exactly is a bookkeeper, and what do we do? Great question! Fortunately, as we believe we are the best bookkeeping Essex can offer, we are only too happy to tell you!

The evolution of bookkeepers

The very first recorded bookkeepers can be traced as far back as the history of civilisation itself. There is evidence of bookkeeping practices being used in ancient Mesopotamia, while the early Babylonians and Egyptians also created systems for tracking and recording financial transactions. So basically bookkeeping can easily claim to be one of the earliest human professions (and far more reputable than the so-called ‘oldest’ profession!) Fast forward several centuries to 1494 when an Italian, Luca Pacioli, first describes a double-entry bookkeeping system used by Venetian merchants. Bookkeeping really found its feet after the Industrial Revolution in Britain in the 1800s, when the huge growth of companies required more sophisticated bookkeeping methods. Today, professional bookkeeping is essential to the success of nearly all businesses, which is where 123 Easy Books, as the best bookkeeping Essex can offer, can help make your business more successful too!

The daily life of a bookkeeper

A bookkeeper prepares a business’s accounts and documents their daily financial transactions. This may sound like some 7th level of hell for some of you, but for the most passionate bookkeeping Essex has, i.e. us, it is our idea of heaven! As you can imagine, our daily lives involve quite a lot of data entry and pouring over receipts and spreadsheets. It is number crunching at the highest level, and it is what we live for! And just like Luca Pacioli who we mentioned above, we record every financial transaction using the double-entry bookkeeping system, albeit using more sophisticated software than Mr. Renaissance. Fortunately, due to software like Xero (more of which you can read about in our blog about the benefits of using Xero), it is a much simpler task than it was over 500 years ago.

But there is a lot more to bookkeeping than just filling a spreadsheet with numbers. It is normally the responsibility of a bookkeeper to prepare four critical financial statements. These are:

• Income Statement: This is also referred to as a profit and loss statement and will show both your revenue and your expenses across a specific time period.
• Balance Sheet: A balance sheet is essentially a snapshot of a business’s financial position and any one point in time.
• Cash Flow Statement: A cash flow statement shows exact details of all the cash (or cash-like equivalents like cheques etc.) that enter or leave a business.
• Statement Of Changes In Equity: This is also referred to as a statement of retained earnings and will show how a business’s share of capital, retained earnings and reserves have changed within a specified reporting period.

So as you can see, a bookkeeper offers businesses crucial financial information that is critical to the ongoing financial success of a company. A professional bookkeeper, like the best bookkeeping Essex has (us!), will also manage accounts receivable and accounts payable, which makes sure you and your employees get paid on time. Bookkeepers may also monitor any debt levels and apply payments to those debts when they are due to be paid, record any incoming cash and then deposit the cash at a bank, handle bank reconciliations, provide HMRC with accurate financial statements for tax purposes and maintain a business’s annual budget. Finally, a bookkeeper may also process payroll. As providers of quality payroll services Essex businesses can be trusted to do the job, why not check out our payroll services?

123 Easy Books, providers of the best bookkeeping Essex can offer

So there we are, now you know a little bit more about bookkeepers, what we do on a daily basis and what we can offer your business. So if you want to join the growing band of businesses that use the best bookkeeping Essex can offer then contact our friendly team today. And remember, we don’t just offer the best bookkeeping Essex has, we also excel at VAT returns services, CIS returns online, management accounts, and of course, quality payroll services Essex can trust.

For more information on What Is A Bookkeeper, What Do They Do, And Where Did They Come From? talk to 123 Easy Books