If you’re looking to expand your accounting department for your small business, you’ve probably considered adding a few different types of bookkeepers to your team. To make your decision a little easier, we’ll be explaining one of the most popular types of bookkeepers: a full charge bookkeeper.
A full charge bookkeeper is tasked with the same role as any bookkeeper – to manage the accounts of a business. Full charge bookkeepers manage:
- Accounts payable: Payments to outside vendors for products and services; all accounts payable payments need to be paid in the amount of time outlined in their contract.
- Business invoicing: Depending on your business structure, your full charge bookkeeper may be invoicing clients for your services, or paying incoming invoices from third parties and contractors.
- Employee payroll: Full charge bookkeepers often are responsible for processing payroll for full time and/or part time employees.
- Taxes: While full charge bookkeepers are not CPAs. They prepare financials that are submitted to the CPA firm in order for your company to process tax returns or obtain legal tax advise. Having a great bookkeeping will give your CPA peach of mind when preparing your company’s tax return.
- Business bank accounts: Full charge bookkeepers need to understand expenses going out of your bank accounts and the income coming in so that the business is always in the black.
The differences between a full charge bookkeeper and a typical bookkeeper is that a full charge bookkeeper is entirely responsible for the above tasks and they report directly to company presidents, CEOs, and other senior managers.
Because full charge bookkeepers work alone, this role is only feasible in a small business. If a business grows, it’ll be in need of a controller, or a person to manage multiple accountants and bookkeepers.
Full charge bookkeepers should have a strong history of accounting and bookkeeping experience to understand the ins and outs of managing a small business’ finances. After all, they’ll be solely responsible for the finances, so they need to really understand what they’re doing.
Depending on the size and type of business you have, you might not need to hire a full-time full charge bookkeeper; in fact, hiring a bookkeeping consultant could be a better decision for your business. Give our experts at PAS Consulting LLC a call today to see if our services would be a good fit for your business goals.