Skills needed to become a bookkeeper

 This month's newsletter is for YOU!

Let's start out by talking about some skills that you do need to have or you that need to acquire in order to become an effective bookkeeper. Here's the good news: all of these skills are things you CAN learn.

7 skills needed to become a bookkeeper:

 Technology skills - You do not by any means need to know computer programming, but you do need to be comfortable with computers, QuickBooks, Google Docs, and video conferencing.

 Willingness to learn - This may come in the form of taking classes for specific bookkeeping-related knowledge (such as payroll) or because you have a new client in an industry you've never worked with before. 

 You need "woo" - You need to be skilled at communicating with your clients. This job is not about just sitting at your desk never speaking to anyone - at least if you are a freelance bookkeeper looking to snag more clients. “Woo” means the ability to convince others of things and to have great communication skills.

 Be detail oriented - You are working with your clients’ finances, and you could be working with hundreds or thousands of transactions every month. Your clients are counting on you to be responsible with those transactions and to make sure each is going into the right place. 

 Keeping order - This word, “order,” encompasses three skills in one: being super organized, being reliable and being dependable. You are going to be working with a ton of aspects of your clients’ businesses that you need to keep organized.

 Be a visionary - You not only need to be a visionary for yourself, but also for your clients. It’s great if you can help them look at the big picture, work on their budget, and think about finances long-term. What are your client’s long-term goals? How can their finances and their budget meet those goals? 

 You need grit - Grit means to have determination, and even when things go wrong, you keep going. Throughout your time as a bookkeeper, you are going to encounter so many different things that you don’t know how to do. When these tasks or issues come, you need to find that grit to stick it out.