- Revonary
What is Bookkeeping? A Complete Guide
What is bookkeeping?
Maintaining a record of financial transactions and having access to them when needed by a firm are all parts of bookkeeping. To perform bookkeeping, you must be familiar with financial accounting, debits, and credits. Bookkeeping entails a wide range of duties. Some of the activities associated with bookkeeping include paying suppliers, recording customer receipts, and delivering financial reports. Other responsibilities related to bookkeeping include correcting entries, keeping track of supplier invoices, and paying customers for goods that have been sold.
Bookkeeping and Accounting Ideas
To own a business, you must be familiar with various accounting and bookkeeping concepts. This essential accounting guide will assist you in making better predictions about your company's future based on past trends and cost and sales. In the long run, it will help you make better decisions.
Also, purchasing an online accounting software subscription, such as Quickbooks, can help you gain a basic understanding of accounting concepts. It will ensure that you have a fruitful conversation with financial advisors, especially when planning your company's future. The following are some of the significant golden rules of accounting, with examples, as well as bookkeeping concepts, that you should be aware of as a business owner:
Consistency is essential
Before you buy online accounting software, you should understand the concept of accounting and bookkeeping consistency. It states that once you've decided on an accounting method, you should use it for all future financial records. This enables the company to compare performance across accounting periods accurately.
Concept of materiality
This straightforward accounting concept states that a company should record its financial transactions, particularly those that have a material impact on business decisions. Even if you have to record minor transactions, the main goal is to provide the business with a comprehensive picture. Online accounting software will make it simple to record every little transaction. This is because it automatically syncs with your credit cards and bank accounts.
Concept of matching
This concept states that you should simultaneously record your revenues and any expenses related to your payments. The main goal of this process is to show you any causes and effects of the relationship between purchases and income.
Benefits of Bookkeeping for Your Business
Bookkeeping can benefit your company in a variety of ways. It can help you track your finances as well as get and organize your business. The Internal Revenue Service, investors, accountants, and lenders require bookkeeping. Additionally, bookkeeping can help you generate financial statements and analyze their strengths and weaknesses. Finally, bookkeeping can help you make plans.
Bookkeeping is one of the most profitable business activities.
Bookkeeping can help businesses keep track of their income and expenses, making budgeting and future planning more accessible.
Bookkeeping is also required by outsiders, such as the IRS, who want to understand your financial history.
Bookkeeping can help your business produce financial statements and track cash flow.
Bookkeeping can also assist you in planning for the future by indicating which initiatives were successful and which were not.
Bookkeeping can help you manage your time and your work schedules.
Bookkeeping can help you manage your finances and clients.
Bookkeeping Before the Development of Accounting Software
Pre-accounting software bookkeeping was a time-consuming and complicated process. Bookkeepers had to manually keep track of all financial transactions, which was time-consuming and prone to human error. This often resulted in financial statements that needed more accuracy and were easier to interpret.
Because everything was written by hand, there would inevitably be some calculation errors when everything was done manually.
The name of the account and the balance of each account make up a trial balance. Each account's balance was listed in the debit and credit columns. The credit and debit column totals were then determined for each column. There were no errors if the values in the two columns were the same. Even a slight difference, though, indicated a mistake had been made. Finding the errors in the entries required retracing, which was the only choice.
The accountant then created the financial statements after everything was finished. It was time for the closing entries once this was done.
The income statement account balances must be zero for the closing entries to be made. The complete balance of the income statement account was ultimately moved to the stockholder-retained or proprietor capital account.
Bookkeeping Right now
Some distinctions between bookkeeping and accounting began to fuzz after computers and accounting software applications were invented. Many things today need a different clarity than they formerly had. This is because many things can be changed thanks to the automatic update option. Let's use making a sales invoice as an illustration. The general ledger accounts for sales and cost of sold products will be the first to be updated as a result. The customer's information will be updated concurrently. Data will be immediately transferred to applicable financial statements without reentering the same information.
The primary benefit of accounting software is that it reduces the mistakes made when manual calculations are made. This is due to the accounting software correctness. This eliminates wasting time hunting for errors because the trial balance will always be harmonious. Thanks to the accounting software's design, each transaction has a credit amount that equals the debit amount. However, if any transactions were missed or something was input twice, the accounting software cannot catch the errors. Internal controls are also necessary to guarantee that no fraudulent transactions are entered.
Even if you use accounting software, modifying entries may still be necessary. This is a result of information you did not enter into the software, such as earnings-related assets or expenses that occurred. Since software may provide financial accounts that are only partially correct with human interaction, a human must finally modify entries. The balances in the income statement accounts are moved from the financial statements to either the sole proprietor's capital account or the stockholders' retained earnings account once the financial statements are finished.
The balance of the accounts on the income statement will be zero, just as it used to be.
Is there a difference between bookkeeping and accounting?
Accounting and bookkeeping are both crucial components of managing your finances. Although the two may initially appear to be highly similar, there are a few key distinctions.
The main goals of bookkeeping are to organize and record financial data. Accounting interprets and displays the information to investors and business owners. To learn more, click: Accounting and Bookkeeping Comparison.
How to choose the proper bookkeeping method for your business?
Before starting bookkeeping, businesses must choose the approach they will utilize. There are a variety of bookkeeping techniques made for different types of enterprises. Before selecting a strategy, the company should consider the volume of transactions and revenue.
The cash method and the accrual technique are the two methods by that bookkeeping is done. The income statement records revenue using the cash method as soon as cash is received. When the money is paid, the expenses are noted. On the other hand, the accrual system records revenue when it is earned rather than when it is paid out in cash. With the accrual method, for instance, even if the customer hasn't made a payment yet because he will do so later, the revenue will be recorded. Similarly, expenses are recorded even though the money still needs to be paid for the goods and services.
Below are the types of Bookkeeping that will help your business provide accurate decisions and data.
Types of Bookkeeping
Single-Entry
Single-entry bookkeeping is a straightforward method in which one entry is made in your books for each transaction.
For example, if Angel buys a shirt from the store, she records the purchase in her single-entry bookkeeping system's "Cash" account. This would reduce the "cash" balance in that account by the purchase amount. The same happens if Angel pays her rent in cash: the amount is deducted from her landlord's "Cash" account.
Double-Entry
To keep track of financial transactions, the double-entry bookkeeping method is used. Transactions are classified as either expenses or income, and a double entry is created to organize the transaction on the appropriate account. When an expense fee rent is paid, credit is recorded on the Rent account, and a debit is recorded on the Accounts Payable charge.
Debit and Credit
Debit and credit are often used when discussing account or double-entry bookkeeping. Credit is connected to an entry made on the right side of the account, whereas debit is connected to an entry made on the left side. There are a few golden guidelines that will assist you in understanding how you need to record the transactions to enable others to grasp double-entry accounting more easily. Before comprehending the golden laws of accounting, you must first be aware of the three different sorts of accounts. Real accounts, personal accounts, and nominal accounts are the three different sorts of accounts.
General Ledger
A business maintains a complete log of its financial transactions in a predetermined format. General Ledger is the term used for this type of accounting. It includes all possible accounting information a business might have, such as its assets, capital, liabilities, expenses, and income. Accounting data gathered from sub-ledgers, such as stock, cash on hand, accounts receivable A/R, client deposits, accounts payable A/P, etc., is centrally stored in the general ledger.
Balance sheet
The balance sheet is a financial statement that shows a company's assets, liabilities, and equity at a specific time. In addition, The income statement is a financial statement that indicates a company's revenue, expenses, and net income over some time.
In contrast, The cash flow statement is a financial statement showing a company's cash inflows and outflows over time.
How are transactions recorded?
You can update the required records using the accounting or bookkeeping software while only entering a small amount of data. When retrieval is complete, everything is correct since the accounting software accurately stores all the information and updates the general ledger automatically. For instance, the accounting software will update the "Accounts Payable" when you enter vendor invoices. You must specify which account or accounts you want the debit to come from. Another illustration is credit-based sales. When you create an invoice using accounting software, the program updates the general ledger to reflect the updated customer information, credit sales, and debit accounts receivable.
Accounting charts
Accounting charts depict financial data and relationships between different accounting concepts. Commonly used accounting charts include the balance sheet, income statement, and cash flow statement.
Accounting Equations
The two main accounting equations are the balance sheet and income statement.
The balance sheet equation states that a company's assets must equal its liabilities and shareholders' equity. This equation is also sometimes referred to as the equation of balance.
The income statement equation states that a company's revenues must equal its expenses. This equation is also sometimes referred to as the equation of income.
Internal Control
Internal control is a system of checks and balances implemented by a company to ensure the accuracy and completeness of its financial reporting. The system is designed to prevent and detect errors and fraud.
Conclusion
You don't need extensive bookkeeping knowledge to manage your firm. But you must be familiar with the fundamental accounting and bookkeeping principles. They will enable you to review your transactions and financial statements confidently. We hope we have answered your question, "What is Bookkeeping?" and other questions about it. Save yourself the trouble of having to comprehend all of these concepts. Get a reliable accountant NOW to assist you in understanding and applying these ideas.
Revonary Accountants and Advisors, LLC is a powerhouse team of tax and accounting professionals that transcends the conventional tax and accounting experience based in Rye Brook, NY. They are also a Quickbooks partner making them small-business owners and professionals friendly. Talk to them today and get help with all your bookkeeping and accounting needs.