Bookkeeper Career Description

Bookkeeper Career Description

A career in accounting or bookkeeping is one of the most stable in any industry.  .  The accounting career, however, is not just one position. Unless you have a small mom and pop corner store operation, most accounting jobs have become specialized.

• You have a revenue accountant or a team that journalizes various revenue streams from various sources or brands the company sells.  For instance, airlines need to account revenue streams separately from passenger, interline and cargo sources, each coming from various geographic sources.
• Then there’s the cost accountant who keeps track of corporate expense from various departmental cost centers.
• If the company has various projects like construction, IT installation or BPO projects, then you have a more specialized project accounting department.
• A budgeting and budget analysis journalized both capital and operating expenses.
• Asset accounts track capitalized items coming into the company and depreciation monitoring for capitalized land, buildings and equipment.
• If the company is publicly listed, you have accountants for stock valuation. Then there’s the payroll accountant for ensuring that employees their payroll bank accounts deposited on paydays.

Education and Training

With any of these accounting positions, a 4-year degree in accounting is basic while being a CPA (Certified Public Accountant) opens more career opportunity for advancement into management positions.

Employment

Under even the most awful of economic times when workers loose their jobs, a company needs to have a bookkeeper or accountant unless the company goes under.  Even then, it will need to keep a bare skeletal force of accountants to determine its liquidity potentials in a chapter 11 bankruptcy filing.  A CPA can expect a salary range from $48,900 – $73,800 annually, while a non-CPA can range from $35,600 to $51,500.