What is the Difference between Bookkeeping and Accounting?

What is the Difference between Bookkeeping and Accounting?

The two overlap: Bookkeeping is part of accounting. It is the recording of the day to day transactions of a business.

Therefore, bookkeeping can play an important role in the efficient running of a business: A business needs to pay its bills and it must therefore keep a record of those bills so that the correct amounts can be paid at the correct times and also so that bills are not paid twice by mistake. Similarly, a business needs to keep track of cash and cheques received from customers. Generally, all these things are the concern of bookkeeping.

Accounting builds on the bookkeeping information, interpreting it, compiling reports, year-end accounts, tax returns, budgeting and carrying out financial analysis and so on.


The Difference Between Accounting and Bookkeeping

Bookkeepers perform a critical function for the firms and organizations they serve. Regularly challenged to maintain precise and accurate records, bookkeepers produce the vital reports that keep management up to date on the financial condition of their company.

Bookkeepers are responsible for maintaining the "business checkbook", much like a personal checkbook. They record routine money transactions like customer payments into a "cash receipts journal" and checks to vendors into a "cash disbursement journal." They also process payroll. At month end they transfer or "post" the "journal" totals to the "general ledger" in preparation for financial statements prepared by the accountant.

Accountants are responsible for the design and management of the financial systems that bookkeepers use. They prepare monthly financial statements and tax returns at year end. Accountants may also prepare budgets for management and loan proposals for bankers; they may perform cost analysis for the company's products or services.

Trust, reliability and confidentiality head the list of qualities that employers look for when selecting and promoting Certified Bookkeepers. Strong organization and communication skills are also important. Not only are bookkeepers challenged to record routine money transactions, to reconcile accounts and to locate misguided transactions, they also must be able to paint a picture--both verbally and on paper--of all the activities within their assigned area of responsibility.

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What is the Difference Between Bookkeeping and Accounting?

What is the difference between bookkeeping, accounting, and accountancy? When someone says they are an accountant, are they really a bookkeeper? Does it really matter?

Bookkeeping

Bookkeeping is the process of systematically recording the financial transactions of a business, so as to show how the transactions relate to each other. Bookkeeping is largely a mechanical process and does not involve any analysis of the financial transactions, but rather the recording of them.

Traditionally, the records were kept in a book, hence the name bookkeeping. These days, bookkeeping is normally performed using a bookkeeping software package, but the names of the books (daybook, cashbook, journal, and ledger) are still used.

A bookkeeper's function is primarily one of recording transactions in the journal and posting to the ledger, and is sometimes referred to as an accounts clerk.

There are two types of bookkeeping: single entry and double-entry. In single entry bookkeeping, the record of each transaction is carried to either the debit or credit column of a single account. In double-entry bookkeeping, two entries of each transaction are carried to the ledger: one to the debit side, and one to the credit side, of the corresponding account. This is so the two entries can be used to check each other.

Accounting

Accounting is the systematic recording, reporting, and analysis of financial transactions of a business. As bookkeeping involves making a financial record of business transactions, it is true to say that the role of bookkeeping is encompassed within the scope of accounting, and the bookkeeping system used by a business would form part of the accounting system.

Accounting also includes the preparation of statements concerning assets, liabilities and the operating results of a business.

Accountancy is the occupation related to accounting, and an accountant is the person who does, or at least is responsible for, the work. Accountants often specialize in a particular area of accounting such as taxes, auditing, or management.

In a small company, all of the bookkeeping and accounting tasks may well be performed by a single person. In this situation, that person would normally be referred to as an accountant.




Bookkeepers perform a critical function for the firms and organizations they serve. Regularly challenged to maintain precise and accurate records, bookkeepers produce the vital reports that keep management up to date on the financial condition of their company.

Bookkeepers are responsible for maintaining the "business checkbook", much like a personal checkbook. They record routine money transactions like customer payments into a "cash receipts journal" and checks to vendors into a "cash disbursement journal." They also process payroll. At month end they transfer or "post" the "journal" totals to the "general ledger" in preparation for financial statements prepared by the accountant.

Accountants are responsible for the design and management of the financial systems that bookkeepers use. They prepare monthly financial statements and tax returns at year end. Accountants may also prepare budgets for management and loan proposals for bankers; and perform cost analysis for the company's products or services.

Trust, reliability and confidentiality head the list of qualities that employers look for when selecting and promoting Certified Bookkeepers. Strong organization and communication skills are also important. Not only are bookkeepers challenged to record routine money transactions, to reconcile accounts and to locate misguided transations, they also must be able to paint a picture--both verbally and on paper--of all the activities within their assigned area of responsibility.



Answer

Bookkeeping is procedural and is largely concerned with development and maintenance of accounting records.

it is the "how" of accounting.

Accounting is conceptual.

it is concerned with the "why", reason or justification for any action adopted.