(2022) What is Full-Charge Bookkeeping? Duties, Job Description, & Salaries

(disclaimer: this is not legal advice consult with a licensed professional)

Any business owner understands the importance of bookkeeping as it helps them stay on top of their finances. Bookkeepers also work closely with a CPA on your tax returns and keep records of sales and purchases.

Your bookkeeper’s tasks and duties will get more complicated and important as your business grows. At this point, any run-of-the-mill bookkeeper will be unable to handle these responsibilities, which is why you’ll need a full-charge bookkeeper.

But what is a full charge bookkeeper, and where do you find one? At SynkBooks, we’ve compiled everything that you need to know about full-charge bookkeeping.

What is Full Charge Bookkeeping?

A full-charge bookkeeper oversees all small business bookkeeping duties, including transaction recording, general ledger management, and financial statement preparation.

Full-charge bookkeepers typically issue invoices and collect them from customers. They also provide managers and CEOs with various financial statements while staying in touch with them directly.

Full Charge Bookkeeper Vs Bookkeeper Vs Accountants

Most companies already have a bookkeeper, which makes it reasonable to ask what’s different about a full-charge one.

A bookkeeper handles daily transactions and organizes monthly revenues and costs. A full-charge bookkeeper handles all these tasks along with basic accounting duties and reports directly to the company owner or finance manager.

In some businesses, they are also in charge of supervising accounting assistants and other bookkeepers. They prepare balance sheets and income statements for the company’s management and directors based on their financial reports.

When it comes to crucial duties, they handle the basic tasks in the entire accounting cycle. These include tracking all sales and purchases, organizing the payroll, preparing tax returns, and providing financial statements.

With these in mind, they are not accountants, as they may not have the right qualifications or experience to do the job. After all, accounting is the process of compiling account information, analyzing it, and providing strategic advice. Full-charge bookkeepers can only assist accountants through enacting basic tasks (e.g., preparing financial statements and tax returns) and providing financial suggestions. The accountant will still need to approve what the full-charge bookkeeper submits.

Benefits of Full Charge Bookkeeping

Creating management reports, processing payroll, and taking a trial balance are a few of the complicated financial responsibilities that a full-charge bookkeeper can perform. Here are a few ways they can help you unwind from all the accounting requirements of your business:

Making General Ledger Adjustments

A full-charge bookkeeper has more control over your general ledger than a typical bookkeeper. For example, they prepare and enter journal entries for fixed assets and depreciation.

To ensure that general ledger accounts are balanced, your full-service bookkeeper should also run a trial balance monthly. They will also modify journal entries to fix any inconsistencies they detect during this procedure.

Preparing Tax Returns

Even though they are not CPAs, full-charge bookkeepers can assist you with monthly or quarterly tax preparations. You will notice significant cost savings from cutting down the time your CPA needs to work on managing your taxes.

This expertise also covers principles like accepted accounting principles or International Financial Reporting Standards. Knowing the useful accounting standards your company must follow can help ensure that you are doing your job correctly and with the company’s interests in mind.

Processing Payroll and Timesheets

Payroll processing is frequently the responsibility of full-charge bookkeepers. They could either manage a payroll specialist or handle this duty themselves.

However, as your firm expands, your tasks will become much more difficult and significant. In that case, they can assist in managing the connection if you outsource your payroll.

If you want to use timesheets for your firm or already do, your full-charge bookkeeper can also process payroll approvals. One of the duties of your full-charge bookkeeper is to make sure all the employees clock in and out daily and collect and approve all the timesheets regularly.

Handling Your Banking

A full-charge bookkeeper guarantees that every one of your bank accounts is closely monitored. In addition, they help reconcile your monthly bank statements.

They are in charge of all the credit cards, line of credit accounts, petty cash accounts, and bank deposits. Your full-charge bookkeeper can even assist in maintaining your cash position by handling accounts payable and invoice factoring, making the cash flow a lot easier to handle.

Producing Financial Statements and Reports

In addition to producing general-purpose financial accounts, they can assist with reports for forecasting and budgeting. Observing this report weekly can help you deal with the cash flow and earn maximum benefits.

You can study these interpretations and consult with your team members. This can lead to better business planning, which can help incentivize growth.

Supervising Junior Accounting Staff

Your full-charge bookkeeper could manage the less experienced staff members, manage effective workflows, and ensure that their job is accurate and completed on time. In addition, they typically supervise the junior accounting positions such as payroll clerk, payables clerk, or billing clerk.

They could also be in charge of purchasing, inventory control, and human resources in smaller businesses. They should be able to create a friendly environment around the junior staff so they can learn and help with other high-end tasks if required.

Qualifications of a Full Charge Bookkeeper

Most firms prefer hiring individuals with at least an associate’s or bachelor’s degree in the relevant field for this challenging position (e.g., accounting, finance, etc.). Other businesses also value the additional years of experience or in-depth financial and accounting expertise since these candidates have a higher level of responsibility working as full-charge bookkeepers. For instance, getting the Certified Bookkeeper (CB) Certification from the American Institute of Professional Bookkeepers (AIPB) may provide you with an edge over others.

This role requires strong business and math skills. For example, a candidate should be able to read a chart of accounts, interpret and apply generally accepted accounting principles (GAAP), and perform double-entry bookkeeping.

Additionally, they must be able to keep a record and conduct trial balancing.

An applicant should at least be familiar with your company’s accounting software. In addition to their bookkeeping expertise, they must be able to prioritize their work, communicate clearly, and meet deadlines.

Responsibilities of a Full Charge Bookkeeper

A full-charge bookkeeper working for small to mid-sized organizations has to take over the duties of a typical bookkeeper and some basic accounting tasks. Some of the responsibilities of the full charge bookkeeper description include:

Performing secretarial tasks such as taking incoming phones, responding to common questions, and serving clients at the front desk
Monitoring payments and refunds
Notifying management of any budgetary deviations
Using software to provide financial reports and appraise depreciable assets
Tallying up all receipts against the main ledger
Gathering and arranging checks and invoices from clients and employees
Recording invoices, cheques, account statements, and other financial data using computer systems
Verifying the accuracy of invoices by cross-referencing them with the related work orders
Verifying bills are paid for accounts payable
Overseeing and managing the upkeep of invoicing files
Sending out checks, money orders, and invoices while also depositing money into banks
Verifying finances and comparing bank statements with the general ledger
Carrying out weekly or biweekly payroll, processing and recording payroll data in the books

Finding a full-charge bookkeeper that fulfills all these responsibilities may be hard, but it’s not impossible. Luckily, SynkBooks makes things easier by offering you an efficient accounting team fully equipped with an expert full-charge bookkeeper.

Full-Charge Bookkeeper Salary

According to Salary.com, here are the average salaries for full-charge bookkeepers based in the US.

Low end (10%)	Below average (25%)	Median (50%)	Above average (75%)	High end (90%)
$33,068	$37,320	$41,990	$46,690	$50,969

In comparison, SynkBooks’s pricing plans are much more affordable. Depending on the required services, your business can benefit from expert accounting services for as cheap as $15 per month.

Build Your Accounting Team With SynkBooks

As your business grows, the need for full-time, full-charge bookkeepers increases. While adding this additional bookkeeping talent to your team is important, finding the perfect fit for your business is more crucial, so don’t rush the talent acquisition process.

Luckily, SynkBook offers tech-enabled bookkeeping services, so you don’t need to worry about quality. They’ll assign you a dedicated team that knows how to help small businesses, taking over your bookkeeping to help you get a fresh start.