Practical Accountancy Training and Work Experience

Bookkeeping Course UK

There are many training providers offering bookkeeping courses in the UK. Accurate bookkeeping is essential for all organisations. Keeping an accurate record of every financial transactions is necessary to ensure that the right amount of tax is paid and the reports required by law are completed and submitted to the relevant government department.

To do this effectively the bookkeeper must understand the bookkeeping principles and be familiar with routine bookkeeping tasks and processes. The knowledge, skills and experience for this can be gained by completing a bookkeeping course in the UK.

There are many bookkeeping jobs, which can be categorized as follows:

• General bookkeeper: will hold a certificate from a bookkeeping course and be familiar with routine bookkeeping for many types and sizes of business, and will maintain the day to day records of all transactions through one of the widely available Accounting software packages (Sage, Quickbooks, IRIS, TAS & VT), which automates much of the double entry bookkeeping and financial reporting. A General Bookkeeper will often work in a larger organisation where they are part of an accounts team, where someone more senior is responsible for the end of year reporting.
• Full charge bookkeeper: This role covers more of the accounting tasks, including the more complex preparation of tax and end of year statements, managing payroll, and handling more complex financial tasks. Typically a full charge bookkeeper will work for a smaller organisation which wants only one person to meet all it’s accounting needs.

  A hOne of the advanced bookkeeping course qualifications will be required for a full charge bookkeeper role.

• Certified bookkeeper: There are several organisations in the UK which Certify bookkeepers - The Institute of Certified Bookkeepers (ICB) is a professional body which certifies and supports bookkeepers, whilst the Association of Accounting Technicians (AAT) is an independent exam board specialising in bookkeeping and accounting qualifications which are widely sought by employers and recruiters. A more highly qualified bookkeeper can be responsible for both general ledger and day-to-day bookkeeping and more specialised tasks (taxation, payroll, annual reports and auditing). This will usually require a couple of years of proven experience.

An organisation needs to choose the right type of bookkeeper for their business to ensure business operations run smoothly and efficiently.