Jacquie Johnston, a professional bookkeeper with more than 30 years of experience in the field shares her insights on the bookkeeping profession for those considering starting out in the industry. Jacquie is a vice-president of the Canadian Bookkeepers Association, a Simply Accounting Partner, QuickBooks Pro-Advisor and a member of the Program Advisory Committee for the Bookkeeping department at Ashton College.

Technological developments are so powerful that one really has to keep up with them in order to stay relevant in the job market. For instance, it is difficult to imagine an office work environment without computers or working professionals without access to telephone and email. Similarly, it is also difficult to imagine a bookkeeper without the knowledge of QuickBooks or other relevant bookkeeping and accounting software.

So, just how much of an impact is technology having on the bookkeeping profession? To answer this question, we met up with Jacquie Johnston, Registered Professional Bookkeeper. Jacquie has over 30 years of bookkeeping experience, and is a Vice-President Canadian Bookkeepers Association, a QuickBooks Pro Advisor and a member of the Program Advisory Committee at Ashton College.

Bookkeeping and technology

The purpose of bookkeeping – keeping track of business transactions and having records of income and expenses – has not really changed from the moment bookkeeping was born. In fact the history of bookkeeping dates back to the time of the earliest barter and trade systems. Early societies did not have a standardized currency so vendors were directly exchanging their goods and services between each other. Having a trade agreement in place for these early transactions was important in order to ensure that vendors kept their obligations to one another and that customers were satisfied with what they received.

Today of course, bookkeeping professionals do much more than simple tracking: they generate reports and prepare documents for taxes along with a multitude of other important tasks. However, the main goal of bookkeeping remains as it always has been: to keep accurate business transaction records.

There are multiple ways and programs of doing this, a bookkeeper can also (if they so choose) keep records manually. But once you start dealing with multiple ledgers the task becomes extremely time consuming and difficult! In my experience, it’s much easier (and safer) to use a program such as Quickbooks as it really decreases the possibility of unwanted errors.

Current bookkeeping technology makes things much easier now. What used to take days manually now takes only a few hours in Excel; and what could take hours in Excel can be automatic though bookkeeping like QuickBooks. I wouldn’t go so far as to say that you need to be a technological genius to be a bookkeeper but having a basic knowledge of how to use bookkeeping programs can save you a lot of time and make you a more successful professional –especially important if you’re a small business owner keeping a close eye on your finances.

Or, if you’re not comfortable doing the work yourself you can always hire a professional. Schools like Ashton College for example, offer bookkeeping training programs with instructors certified by the Canadian Bookkeeping Association, a national not-for-profit organization.

Is technology taking over the bookkeeping profession?

I’ve been in the bookkeeping profession for over 30 years, long enough to see the immediate advantages that come along with bookkeeping tools and software. Programs such as QuickBooks are great tools and I’m glad that bookkeepers today have these tools available to them. However, this is exactly what they are, no more and no less: tools.

Bookkeeping tools exist for a reason: to assist you in doing your job. But they’re not there to do the work for you. This is why it is so important to have a firm foundation of bookkeeping knowledge before you start relying on programs like Quickbooks. Too much faith in bookkeeping aids without prior knowledge leads to unbalanced ledgers and an unhappy client.

Finally, it is important to remember that bookkeeping is a service that you are providing to a client. You assist your client with tasks that they need help, tailoring your services to their needs. And a lot of small to medium sized business are looking for assistance, assistance that isn’t always easily obtained alone – especially if someone doesn’t understand the basics of bookkeeping. For the small business owner, doing books by themselves can be a very stressful and costly experience. Sure, they can use Quickbooks if they want to but really, I think it’s much better to employ a certified bookkeeper to do the work instead.