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Bookkeeping is the vital process of recording and documenting the finances of a business. Accurate records are important for everything from tax preparation to investment analysis to understanding the daily workings of the business. No matter the business size, someone, either the owner or a professional Accountant, will need to use bookkeeping training and tools to ensure that financial records are accurate, organized and easy to access. These records are an essential part of running a successful business (and are often essential to ensuring that the business operates legally), so it pays to learn how to work with the tools most commonly associated with bookkeeping.

Why Learn Bookkeeping?

Bookkeeping is an essential part of the operation of virtually every business in the country, meaning that whether you are hoping to start your own business or find work in the field of financial accounting and management, you’ll want to know the ins and outs of bookkeeping and financial recording tracking. These skills are essential not only for accountants and entrepreneurs but also for investment analysts, financial analysts and bankers. These skills are essential for the long-term health and success of any business venture and are important regardless of the business size.

In addition to helping businesses stay up-to-date on their finances and ensure that their tax information is correct, it is also an essential part of any business looking to manage large-scale data or investment projects. Having accurate, organized records is essential for the process of building the databases used in financial forecasting projects, which are important to the long-term health of a business. In addition, if you are looking to expand your business or make sure that your business is functioning as an investment, you’ll need someone who can create and read the financial reports that allow you and others to make informed decisions about the health and long-term value of a business or investment.

Bookkeeping Skills

Learning bookkeeping requires a range of soft skills such as organizational skills, mathematical skills and data analysis skills. Being an effective Accountant requires attention to detail and the ability to keep track of complicated records.

Organizational Skills

At its most basic level, bookkeeping is simply the science of taking massive amounts of financial records and organizing them so they can be easily understood and accessed. Even small businesses generate immense amounts of financial data, and it is important to store it so that specific information can be accessed easily and efficiently. Most accounting professionals use tools like Excel or QuickBooks to assist them in organizing their data, but they will still need to understand how to best approach the challenge of organizing complex financial data.

Mathematical Skills

While it isn’t the most complex math, being a good Financial Accountant still requires you to understand how to do math quickly or automate it in programs like Excel. Having an eye for numbers will help you speed up the process of inputting and organizing important data points and calculating things like RoIs, expenses, incomes and tax obligations.

Financial Literacy

Bookkeepers also need to understand the data that they are recording and organizing. Most accountants at large firms will work closely with investment analysts, data scientists and management to create financial reports, recommendations about future business ventures and other necessary data about the health and growth of a business. This means understanding how to read financial reports, understanding the information communicated in quarterly updates and knowing the language and vocabulary of the financial industry (such as how different kinds of investments operate for businesses). Learning how to use some of the tools most commonly associated with financial record-keeping and data analysis is also important.

Bookkeeping Tools

Excel

Arguably, the most important tool for any Accountant is Microsoft Excel, among the most commonly used desktop applications worldwide. Professional accountants will use Excel to make records of financial transactions, organize records and create formulas and functions that automate elements of the bookkeeping process. In addition to helping accountants keep records of financial transactions, Excel has a large array of complicated tools for turning this data into relational databases that can be used for complex data analytics projects. Skilled Excel users can create PivotTables that help them isolate data and perform complex queries and they can write their own elaborate formulas to create complex spreadsheets that automate the data analysis process

QuickBooks

QuickBooks is the other most commonly used tool for accounting and bookkeeping. Released by Intuit in the mid-80s, the program has become almost ubiquitous among accountants and professional bookkeeping specialists. The program is designed to be accessible for new users while being a deep enough program for professionals working at massive companies and firms to take advantage of. QuickBooks allows users to create elaborate financial reports, record income and expenses with ease and automate many of the regular functions of the accounting process. QuickBooks is also a very accessible program to learn if you are running your own business and want an easy way to track your financial records as you get your project off the ground.

Python

If you want to improve your Bookkeeper skills and start working on more complex data analysis projects, it pays to learn how to code using languages like Python. Ensuring a business's long-term financial health requires making informed decisions based on complex financial data and learning to code using Python is one of the best ways to leverage this data into useful business insights. Using Python programming skills, accountants and data analysts can use financial data to create complex models that predict future economic trends and movements, and they can spot long-term trends in a business’s financial records that might be invisible at first glance. In addition, Python is used heavily in machine learning technologies that are offering new venues for businesses to explore data collection and analysis projects.

Bookkeeping Careers

Bookkeeping is an important part of the long-term health and growth of all businesses, so it makes sense that there would be a lot of job openings for skilled accountants and bookkeepers. The Bureau of Labor Statistics estimates that year over year, about 197,000 bookkeeping, accounting and auditing jobs will be created annually over the next decade. These jobs exist in almost every industry, though many large accounting firms work with a range of clients and specialize in specific aspects of the accounting process (such as tax accountants).

Bookkeepers are responsible for managing, inputting and organizing financial data, which is an essential part of the process of financial record keeping. Bookkeepers will often specialize in the kinds of businesses that they keep records for, and they will work alongside accountants, CFOs and data analysts to create the financial statements and models that are essential for more complex financial data analysis projects. In the US, a Bookkeeper earns an average annual salary of approximately $44,000.

Accountants generally deal with the financial bookkeeping processes of a business, and they generate financial reports and other relevant financial documents. Most accountants specialize in some specific aspect of the business finance process such as financial accountants, tax accountants or corporate accountants. Some accountants may become Certified Public Accountants who have completed accreditation exams and certification practices to let them work on more complex financial projects and in business contexts that require specific certifications. In the US, an Accountant earns about an annual salary of about $62,000, while Certified Public Accountants earn a median annual salary of approximately $95,000.

Best Bookkeeping Classes

If you want to learn bookkeeping, there are a number of different approaches you can take. While most accountants have associate degrees in accounting, this isn’t strictly necessary, and if you are looking to open your own business, you don’t want to go through the two-year process of getting a degree. Students can enroll in a wide range of courses aimed at teaching students the art and science of bookkeeping and the tools most commonly used in the process.

Noble Desktop offers an Excel Bootcamp for students looking to learn all of the major functionalities of Excel. In this class, students will receive training in basic, intermediate and advanced Excel skills, making the course useful for absolute beginners or students with a background in Excel. Students will learn how to input data, work with multiple sheets and utilize Excel’s tools for automating calculations and functions. Once students are comfortable with the basics, they will learn how to create and utilize PivotTables, build custom functions and create simple data forecasting tools. This course is an ideal introduction to the world of financial bookkeeping, and the skills you learn in this course are transferable to other Excel-related positions.

Students looking for more advanced accounting training can enroll in the Financial Modeling Bootcamp and learn how to take your existing financial data and put it into use at your business. In this course, students will learn important financial concepts such as how to monitor cash flow, determine market capitalization and estimate an enterprise or business’s value. Students will work with Excel to create spreadsheets with specific financial modeling functions, and they will learn the practical applications of these skills such as real company analysis, leveraged buyout modeling and long-term corporate valuation strategies. This course is also an ideal way to introduce yourself to the skills and concepts you’ll need to master to become a Certified Public Accountant.

Digital Workshop Centers offers an introductory QuickBooks Online for Beginners course where students can learn the basics of working with Intuit’s popular online accounting software. Students enrolled in this course will be able to learn how to track essential financial information in the application and streamline their workflow to improve their efficiency in accounting-related tasks. Students will learn how to create estimates, invoices and sales receipts and how to write checks for business expenses, transactions and payroll expenses. This course will give students access to the foundational skills necessary to start performing basic accounting tasks for their own financial enterprises and will set them up for success in future QuickBooks training courses.

Digital Workshop Center also offers focused accounting and bookkeeping courses for students looking to learn specific skills that they need to master to help their businesses run smoothly. For example, in the Payroll Fundamentals course, students will learn how to utilize QuickBooks to create simple and effective systems for receiving, distributing and recording payroll expenses, which will be a regular part of every business cycle. In this course, students will QuickBooks can help employers ensure that their employees are paid fairly and on time and that all payroll expenses are recorded accurately. The course will also cover the basics of tax filings related to payrolls and how to ensure that records are accurately kept to avoid penalties. This course will help set small business owners or partners up for success in one of the most essential aspects of bookkeeping and accounting.

Best Ways to Learn Bookkeeping

When choosing what kind of bookkeeping class to take, students will have a range of options available to them. They can enroll in online classes or in-person training courses and opt for live instruction courses or asynchronous on-demand training. Each of these courses has advantages and disadvantages, so students must consider what is most important to them when choosing the bookkeeping course that is right for them.

Many students find that in-person classes, taught at dedicated training centers, are the most effective way to learn. In addition to working directly with your instructors and asking them questions in real time, you’ll benefit from the classroom environment built to help focus students' attention on their lessons. These courses also allow students to take advantage of a training center’s technology lab, which can be useful, for example, for students who don’t already have access to licenses for programs like Excel or QuickBooks. The drawback to these classes is that students will need to commute to a training center to attend classes. This creates two issues. First, it greatly limits students' options for courses to enroll in since they can only enroll in classes they can physically attend. Second, it can add hidden costs, in terms of money and time, to the course since you’ll need to commute.

Online courses address this concern by letting students learn from anywhere, and over the last few years, the quality of online pedagogy has increased dramatically as more and more schools move to online education platforms. Students who enroll in online classes can take advantage of training programs regardless of where they are physically located, which will greatly open up a student’s options, and they will be able to train from the comfort of their home offices, which can be useful for students who will work there professionally. In a live online classroom, students can still work directly with their instructors in real time and get personalized feedback on their work and answers to their questions. The drawback to online courses is that students will need to do more work to remain focused and on top of the material since they won’t be in the same space as their instructors and will need to work to avoid distractions. Contacting your instructors outside of class time can also be more difficult to receive support or feedback.

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Learn More About Bookkeeping Courses

Why Learn Bookkeeping?

Bookkeeping Skills

Organizational Skills

Mathematical Skills

Financial Literacy

Bookkeeping Tools

Excel

QuickBooks

Python

Bookkeeping Careers

Best Bookkeeping Classes

Best Ways to Learn Bookkeeping

Bookkeeping Corporate & Onsite Training Noble Desktop

Bookkeeping Training Map & Top Locations

16 Courses Available Live Online

13 Courses Available in NYC

9 Courses Available in Los Angeles

6 Courses Available in NJ

6 Courses Available in Boston

4 Courses Available in Dallas

1 Course Available in Atlanta

Careers & Salaries Related to Bookkeeping

Bookkeeping
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