Accounting vs Bookkeeping-Do you need one or both?

If you’re starting up a new company or fairly new, you may not have an accountant or bookkeeper in your hired staff.  Accounting vs Bookkeeping is the question! You are wanting to concentrate on running your business and not having to worry about the books but you know you can’t put off.  So should you hire a bookkeeper or do you need accounting services?  Let’s look at some of the differences.

Bookkeeping services encompass classifying and recording transactions in the general ledger through data entry as well as performing bank, credit card and vendor reconciliations.  This requires basic knowledge of how debits and credits work.  Your bookkeeper should have adequate knowledge of software to record these transactions such as Quickbooks, Simply Accounting and ACCPAC.  These books generally do not have year-end procedures and are not ready for tax preparation.

Now there are professional bookkeeping services that provide more than the above mentioned tasks.  They would review and analyze the general ledger for accuracy and prepare adjusting entries.  They can provide useful reports for the business owner such as internal financial statements.  They should be able to monitor your HST and file accordingly.  They would have a strong knowledge of the ‘big picture’ and familiar with the General Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP).  The year-end procedures would be fulfilled to prepare for a tax accountant.  However, a good professional bookkeeper should also be familiar with the tax software and be able to process your tax returns if you are not incorporated.

An accounting service would determine the best setup for a business owner’s financial management system.  They would be able to interpret results, provide strategic and tax planning, budgeting and cash flow management.  They would provide sound professional judgement and would have to know GAAP and the Income Tax Act.

Which service would work best for you?  If you are a sole proprietor and on a limited budget, you may only need the professional bookkeeping services.  They could calculate your HST, handle payroll and WSIB remittances and should have the knowledge to e-file a sole proprietorship or partnership tax return.  However, if you are incorporated, you need to use professional accounting services.  They charge higher fees but would likely have an accountant certified to handle the corporate tax returns too.  This accountant should have a designation (CPA) or a business accounting university degree.  Some professional bookkeeping services may provide this service; that’s where you have to do your research and find out.  Check out the company’s website or give them a quick call.

Ideally you want a one stop shop that can handle your books, HST/Payroll/WSIB filings and corporate tax return whether you’re incorporated or a sole proprietorship.  Debits and Credits is that one stop shop if you need help with accounting or bookkeeping needs whether you’re a small business or perhaps a busy Dentist or Doctor’s office that needs help running its financial side of the operation.  We provide a free initial consultation to analyze your needs.   Our professional staff would be willing to sit down with you to answer your questions and provide that direction you may be seeking.  Our comfortable atmosphere in our office provides clients the opportunity to freely express their concerns or wonder aloud about what needs to be done to move forward with their company.

Debits & Credits will provide operation and training on bookkeeping with various softwares at your place of business or ours – including manual accounting.  Need help talking to banks? We have more than 20 years of experience in business dealings.  We will take care of your financial statements, personal & corporate returns.  We also keep government & bank commitments on track and up-to-date as it’s our top priority!

We specialize in accounting software installation including set-up of company branches or departments within a single corporation. This allows profit tracking for each department or branch. Combined statements can also be printed for the entire corporation. All at the click of a button!

You may be in a situation where you are years behind in inputting your paper bank statements/credit cards/line of credit into your software and entering every transaction may be long and tedious.  Do you know how to fast-track this bookkeeping process by using importing/exporting features through MS Office? Our highly trained staff can take this for you by uploading these statements into MS Office and convert the transactions into the Quickbooks software.  This will save you hours of entering transactions line by line.

If you feel you need to speak someone about your bookkeeping or accounting needs, call our office at 705-735-0022 or 1-855-735-0022 Toll Free where one of our experienced professionals will be more than happy to sit with you and go over your finances.  You need someone to take care of your finances while you can attend to running your business!

Grow your business, not your workload!