Average Bookkeeper Salary in the United States 2022

AIPB is best suited for people with no formal education but at least two years of experience in the field. Courses prepare candidates for the national Certified Bookkeeper exam, which tests knowledge of payroll, depreciation, inventory and much more. In addition, candidates must submit an application, meet work experience requirements, pass a four-part exam, adhere to the Code of Ethics, and complete 24 hours of continuing education annually.

If you have an interest in business and an eye for numbers, becoming a certified bookkeeper may be a good career option for you. In this career, you need to have strong attention to detail and a deep understanding of how numbers reflect the performance of a business. Post-secondary education and professional certification are required by many employers. An aspiring bookkeeper can enter the profession with a two-year or four-year college degree. Average entry-level salaries approach $38,000 per year, according to Payscale.

Bookkeeping

The price of this certification includes the cost of enrollment, workbooks and the four-part national certification exam. After passing the AIPB’s certification exam, you will be recognized as a certified bookkeeper.

• The lowest 10 percent earned less than $29,120, and the highest 10 percent earned more than $61,980.
• Even so, the BLS projects an average of 170,200 openings per year for bookkeeping, accounting and auditing clerks.
• As it was mentioned before, digital accounting isn’t an enemy of bookkeepers, rather their reliable companion and help that allows them to grow professionally.
• Occupational employment projections are developed for all states by Labor Market Information or individual state Employment Projections offices.
• You must have a minimum of 150 postsecondary education hours, or what amounts to a bachelor’s degree in accounting, and an additional 30 hours of graduate work.
• Bookkeeping, accounting, and auditing clerks need to be comfortable using computer spreadsheets and bookkeeping software.

The Pay tab describes typical earnings and how workers in the occupation are compensated—annual salaries, hourly wages, commissions, tips, or bonuses. Within every occupation, earnings vary by experience, responsibility, performance, tenure, and geographic area. For most profiles, this tab has a table with wages in the major industries employing the occupation. They may work longer hours to meet deadlines at the end of the fiscal year, during tax time, or when monthly or yearly accounting audits are performed.

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Bookkeeper median salary is influenced by the state, city and area depending on the state of the local labor market and cost of living in the area. Raising median salaries for employees can balance the demand and supply of professionals in the sphere. These average bookkeeper salary numbers should be considered only base pay. “While at one time earning a certification was optional, it’s now becoming a mandatory qualification on job descriptions,” said Hoelzer.

A typical bookkeeping certification course takes several weeks to complete. For example, NACPB’s certification course takes 13 weeks, and AIPB’s certification course usually takes six months to complete.

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Programs like QuickBooks® or Microsoft Excel® have widely replaced the manual entry functions of traditional bookkeeping. However, the organization, reporting, and use of financial data still rely heavily on human input and processing.

Using reporting tools and systems, bookkeepers help individuals and operational managers stay aware of and improve an entity’s financial status bookkeeper and performance. CareerBuilder.com cites bookkeeping skills as highly transferable to financial supervisory, analysis, or managerial roles.

The national average salary for accounting bookkeepers is $51,406, but with the right certifications and experience, they can make up to $66,000. Bookkeepers are responsible for updating and maintaining records of the financial transactions of a company. As a bookkeeper at a smaller company, you’ll keep track of all credits and debits, prepare financial statements and generally complete banking transactions for the company. At a larger company, you may have more specialized tasks, such as managing payroll or working with only select accounts for the company. Bookkeepers who are certified have earned voluntary credentials to demonstrate that they are proficient in a wide range of bookkeeping functions. According to Xero, a bookkeeper ensures that the financial documents of a business are up to date so that accountants and business leadership understand how the business is performing. Core duties for a bookkeeper include data entry, which involves balancing books and recording all financial transactions of a business.

Accounting involves processing, measuring, and communicating financial information about businesses. Accounting often uses software like QuickBooks, Excel, and other office communication tools. As with most accounting certification exams, this one covers the generally accepted accounting principles . These ten concepts include the principles of consistency, regularity, sincerity, prudence, periodicity, materiality, and utmost good faith. Adjusting entry creation, posting adjusting entries to a worksheet, creating financial statements from the trial balance…