Most people think bookkeeping and accounting are two similar things. While this is fairly true, bookkeeping is mostly about the transactional side: where you keep records, file accounts payables, and receivables, and make bills to customers. Accounting, on the other hand, goes beyond that. Accounting includes analysis and understanding of what is going on with the numbers while being able to interpret those numbers as solid information. Good accounting work creates clear paths to move forward in the business.  As well, accounting helps you see an in-depth and logical perspective of how the company is doing as a whole.

Many business owners make the mistake of thinking their business is doing well when actually they have a lot of missing information or errors (which are only discovered when our accountants look over their business financials). As a result, it cripples their business and hinders their potential for growth in the long run. In this article, we will provide useful information to help you become more proficient in basic accounting knowledge and understand the importance of working with a skilled accountant instead of just a bookkeeper.

Do You Need to Be Licensed to Do Bookkeeping for Your Business?

The truth is, anybody can do bookkeeping services if they have basic accounting knowledge. We see a lot of businesses doing accounting and bookkeeping work on their own. In fact, a lot of businesses now use accounting software such as QuickBooks to aid them in bookkeeping.

The problem with this is that many businesses think they’re doing well without having to deal with analyzing the numbers which bookkeepers, or anybody who isn’t an accountant, cannot do. As stated earlier, accounting deals with a lot of analysis and interpretation. Numbers without analysis will not do the important job of directing your decisions in your business, and you will not know which actions to take in your business without it. Bookkeeping is like the written theory and financial story of a business, and an accountant’s professional job is to analyze these data as provided for the company’s growth and benefit.

Knowing the Difference Between Bookkeeping and Accounting for Your Business Needs

A business can only grow when you fully invest your time, energy, and knowledge into it. It requires expert advice from professionals in all fields of business, from management, and human resources to accounting. When you work with an experienced accounting firm, you are able to maximize your business’s financial potential because expert accountants not only make monthly transactional files to keep accounting records but also analyze your current financial business situation and aid you in making smart future decisions. When all books have been filed and processed, our accountants conduct financial analysis from all the data we’ve inputted and provide comprehensive feedback with objective suggestions to help you make smart decisions for your business.  

Looking forward to your business by understanding the numbers, is the key difference between a bookkeeper and an accountant. If you want your business to grow, become more efficient, or survive, those needs require a consultative accountant. 

Why Business Owners Deal with Problems When Doing Bookkeeping by Themselves  

There is a long list of problems we encounter from our clients who have done the bookkeeping themselves. One of the number one issues is sales taxes which are not properly recorded and monitored. We tend to say, “numbers do not lie but we can lie about numbers”.  When you start inputting numbers incorrectly, the reality will show, and your business will have to deal with it. No matter what financial concerns or issues arise from your accounting, we do our best with our expert knowledge to work out a course correction and try to make the best possible solution for the future of your business. 

Bookkeeping and Accounting Tools to Help Assess Your Business’s Financial Situation 

Just as an employee receives an employee’s review, business owners receive financial statements to assess themselves and how their business is doing. Our objective is to teach our clients in reading the functions of what their financial statements say about their business and how it will help them.  

Through financial statements, we help provide comprehensive analysis and help you measure your goals just as how it comes out and how we can work on them in the future. Financial statements are an objective measuring tool for how you are really doing as a business. If you do a marketing effort for your company, the fruits of it will show up in the financial statements.  

What’s the Difference Between Bookkeeping for Large Corporations and Small Businesses?

Is there really a difference between bookkeeping for a large and small business? The answer to this can be both a yes and a no. If you come to think about it, debits and credits are still the core practices in bookkeeping whether in a large corporation or small business. The accounting cycle, which starts with the business owner buying a product, paying for the product, selling it to a customer, and then collecting the payment, is the same for both a large corporation and a small business. However, large corporations make large-scale accounting cycles which makes the functions much bigger and more complex.  

Bookkeeping in small businesses is like a specialized contractor fixing a part of your home. Bookkeeping in large corporations, on the other hand, is like a team of contractors working on building a home. A team of contractors requires more manpower whereas one or two contractors only require themselves to do the job of fixing. This is a perfect example to conceptualize the need for bookkeeping and accounting services for both large corporations and small businesses.  Whether as a large corporation or a small business, bookkeeping and accounting are essential to building and growing your business.  

 Steven J. Wick and Associates, P.C. specialize in working with small businesses in Fort Collins and surrounding areas in Northern Colorado (like Denver). If you are a large corporation and looking for a recommendation for a large team of accountants, we recommend looking into CPAs that specialize in working for large corporations.  

Get Bookkeeping and Accounting Services for Your Business in Northern Colorado Now!   

Whether you are a small business just starting out or a small business on the rise, we offer services for every type of small business out there. If you think your business hasn’t gone through proper bookkeeping and accounting services, get a consultation from one of our expert accountants now! We will assess your business accordingly and provide the best solutions to make your life easier.  

Our Fort Collins team of bookkeepers and accountants has specialized in handling countless small business clients in all types of industries. Our main goal is to teach you how to make good financial decisions in order for you to move forward to the next step of your business. Contact us now at 970-224-3366 and minimize the hassle of doing bookkeeping and accounting on your own!