Bookkeeping vs. Accounting

Bookkeeping vs. Accounting

Bookkeeping is the process of recording daily financial transactions, such as sales and expenses, while accounting is the process of generating financial information, such as financial position, profitability, cash flow, and equity.

Both play a key role in communicating company financial performance to internal users such as owners, managers, and employees and external users such as investors, lenders, and government agencies.

The clearest way to distinguish between bookkeeping and accounting is to look at their specific focus, tasks, goals, and required skills:

Bookkeeping

• Focus – Identify, record, and post company financial transactions.
• Daily Tasks – Identifying financial transactions, recording transactions in a journal, and posting transactions to the General Ledger.
• Goal – Maintain timely, relevant, and reliable financial records.
• Required Skills – Competencies required to identify, record, and post a company’s daily financial transactions. Knowledge of predominant bookkeeping software like Intuit QuickBooks.

Accounting

• Focus – Communicate company financial information.
• Daily Tasks – Directing and supervising bookkeepers, preparing daily, weekly, and monthly reports, preparing financial budgets and forecasts, and communicating financial information to internal and external users.
• Period End Tasks – Prepare an Unadjusted Trial Balance, create a worksheet, identify adjustments, record adjusting journal entries, generate financial statements, and close the books.
• Goal – Generate timely, relevant, and reliable financial information to internal and external users.
• Required Skills – Competencies required to generate, analyze, and communicate a company’s monthly, quarterly, and annual financial statements. Knowledge of predominant accounting software like Intuit Accountant Suite.

Bookkeeping is the collection of raw data and accounting is the interpretation and communication of that data.

Bookkeeping Resources

Consortia Accounting School provides the resources you need to learn bookkeeping and get a bookkeeping job.

Go to consortiaaccountingschool.com and scroll down to review our bookkeeping courses, certifications, guidebooks, training, experience, license, and CPE.

Consortia Accounting School is America's #1 bookkeeping educator.