Starting a Bookkeeping Business

If you’re a bookkeeper or have financial qualifications what about running your own bookkeeping business?

You need some background in finance if you’re thinking of starting a bookkeeping business but there is no requirement for formal qualifications. If you have none then you can get qualified from the Institute of bookkeepers or standard accounting qualifications.

With most businesses you’ll need customers and marketing is key. It’s generally smaller business owners that retain the services of a bookkeeper and the work will be varied as you’ll get all the small sole traders such as electricians and plumbers and small family run companies.

Generally it’ll be work in updating sales and purchase ledgers with invoices from customers and suppliers and reconciling this with the bank account statements on a regular, perhaps monthly basis.

Once you have a few customers your business should grow by word of mouth as companies need someone reliable, trustworthy and keeps records in complete confidence. Sometimes you may have to deal with HMRC for tax and employee issues but most cases are fairly straight forward.

So if you have a background in finance or are at home with “numbers” then starting a bookkeeping business may be an opportunity for you to earn extra money or as a full time career.