A bookkeeper does bookkeeping! Seems a simple answer, yet many business owners have their bookkeeper doing non related bookkeeping tasks. Or the use someone in another job role to do the bookkeeping. A bookkeeper should not be answering phones and receptionists should not be doing bookkeeping.
To clarify, credit control and payroll are not bookkeeping roles. It is useful for a bookkeeper to be able to use payroll software, but they rely on the payroll software to perform the tax calculations’. Unless specifically trained in payroll, bookkeepers are not payroll technicians.
The key thing to remember is that a bookkeeper needs to work uninterrupted to get the work done correctly. Also the bookkeeping role does not need to be a fulltime role.
Here are the Key Areas & Tasks for a bookkeeper in a small business.
Debtors** (Customers)
All matters relating to customer invoice queries that are financial in nature
Sales Invoicing, Sales Credit Notes, Customer Receipts
Some Credit Control
Creditors (Suppliers)
All matters relating to suppliers that are financial in nature
Purchase Invoices, Purchase Credit Notes, Supplier and other payments
Including banks, bank reconciliations and leasing payments
Wages** (not actually a bookkeepers role, but in many small businesses they do this job)
All matters relating to Weekly payroll
Clock cards, payslips, online salary payments
Other
Vat & Paye/Prsi returns
Nominal ledger journal entries under supervision of financial controller
**Note: It is better to have a separate credit control person, and if there is a lot of staff and wages processing, a separate payroll technician should be employed.