Bookkeeping, Accounting, and Auditing Clerks
Bookkeeping, accounting, and auditing clerks are responsible for maintaining and updating the financial records of companies. They document fiscal transactions and calculate profit, loss, expenditures, and receipts. Clerks are employed across all industries, and the duties involved with these positions vary.Full-charge bookkeepers oversee all of the financial records for an organization, while accounting clerks only handle specific accounts. Because this line of work involves numerous calculations and a lot of data, it is becoming increasingly important for clerks to be comfortable using computers, spreadsheets and databases, and accountancy software.
As mentioned above, bookkeeping clerks manage all of the financial records for a company. Smaller businesses usually employ bookkeepers, as they have fewer transactions and less fiscal activity to document.
Some of the tasks assigned to bookkeeping clerks include posting debits and credits, generating financial statements, compiling reports for supervisors, preparing bank deposits from cashier receipts, verifying and balancing receipts, and sending payments to the bank. Some bookkeepers also handle payroll, make minor purchases, prepare invoices, and track overdue accounts.
In large offices and accounting departments, accounting clerks receive more specialized assignments. For example, as an accounts payable clerk, your primary task would be to document and monitor a company's expenses and outstanding bills. The size of an organization's accounting staff will generally determine the amount of responsibility that an accounting clerk holds, and these responsibilities increase as clerks advance from entry- to senior-level positions. Auditing clerks verify transactions posted by other workers. They check figures and documents for accuracy and make note of any errors that need to be adjusted.
Many bookkeeping, accounting, and auditing clerks work a standard 40-hour week, while others work part time. Longer hours are sometimes required at the end of the fiscal year, during tax time, and when monthly and yearly audits are being performed. A high school degree is mandatory for clerk positions, and an associate degree in business or accounting is usually preferred. In general, these occupations call for you to be orderly and detail oriented, as well as proficient with numbers.
According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, bookkeeping, accounting, and auditing clerks earned an average of $30,560 a year in 2006. At the time, more than two million people in the U.S. held these types of clerk positions, and the middle 50 percent of these professionals made between $24,540 and $37,780 annually. [Figures including job projections, reported median incomes, and salary estimates were revised to reflect data from 2006 on 2/20/08.]