Oklahoma City CPAs vs. Bookkeepers – Worth the Premium?

Oklahoma City CPAs vs. Bookkeepers – Worth the Premium?

Oklahoma-City-CPAs-vs-Bookkeepers-Worth-the-PremiumOklahoma City CPAs and bookkeepers both serve as valuable options depending on the needs of a business.

Some small business owners choose to assemble a team of skilled advisors to ensure the success of their business. This can involve using both CPAs and bookkeepers to handle all of their accounting functions.

While both can provide valued service, CPAs are better equipped to address more sophisticated financial tasks.

The Value of Bookkeeping

The differences between bookkeepers and Oklahoma City CPAs are functional. Bookkeepers handle day to day accounting functions and are great for providing insight into a company’s finances.

They are responsible for maintaining accurate and complete sets of books, verifying information, and making sure that proper procedures are being followed.

Documenting financial transactions and data like revenue, costs, and invoices is vital. Some bookkeepers may even perform financial accounting depending on their knowledge and experience.

The Expertise of CPAs

Different from bookkeepers, CPAs are required to take a certain amount of college-level credits and must pass a series of rigorous exams to receive their certification. On a yearly basis, CPAs have to complete several hours of continuing professional education courses to maintain their certification.

Also, due to the heavy regulation of the accounting industry, there are certain things that CPAs can do that bookkeepers cannot. For example, while bookkeepers can prepare internal financial reports, only financial statements drawn up by a CPA can be handed off to a business’s investors.

CPAs perform more complex accounting tasks and provide more professional expertise and insight into a company. Rather than inputting data into a system, CPAs are far more suited to pulling data out and making sense of it.

CPA services can range from audits to consulting, tax preparation, financial statement analysis, and more. CPAs can also serve higher level finance functions in an organization, such as assuming CFO responsibilities.

CPAs often gain insight into the inner workings of a business and provide process and profit improvement recommendations to management. The specialized level of knowledge and training that CPAs undergo make Oklahoma City CPAs the better choice when it comes to providing overall advice and insight into a company’s financials.

The Bottom Line

Although they serve different roles when it comes to accounting services, Oklahoma City CPAs and bookkeepers can work together. Business owners should seek to utilize the services of both types of accountants.

However, bookkeepers are better for handling simpler accounting tasks, such as day to day reconciliation of expenses and revenues and keeping track of a company’s financial data.

CPAs are better equipped for the most complex aspects of accounting, like using collected data to provide insight into the strength of a corporation and make recommendations for the future.

 

How does your CPA firm work with bookkeepers? How do you compare? Let us know your thoughts in the Comments box below.

 

And to follow up on the tips introduced in this article, be sure to download your free Information Technology Guide for Oklahoma City CPAs.