Bookkeeping Basics – What you Need to Know?

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Are you a finance whizz who keeps track of every cent you spend? Bookkeeping may be the degree for you.

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Bookkeeping refers to the recording of financial transactions in a business. What are transactions, you might ask? Transactions are financial interactions such as purchasing products, sales of products or services, the keeping of receipts, and payments by an individual person or an organisation/corporation. Bookkeeping involves multiple standard methods which include the single-entry bookkeeping system and the double-entry bookkeeping system. However, any process which requires you to keep a record of your financial transactions can be referred to as bookkeeping.

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Bookkeeping refers to the systematic process of recording and organising of all the financial transactions in a company. It is an essential process to starting and maintaining a business. Often a business will hire a professional bookkeeper in order to ensure that the records of the business financial transactions are correct, up-to-date and comprehensive.

In essence, the job of a bookkeeper and an accountant overlap. Typically, bookkeepers are required to have between two and four years of experience or an associate’s degree. Usually, the bookkeeper’s work is overseen by either an accountant or the small business owner whose books they are doing.

To qualify for the title of accountant, you need to have a bachelor’s degree in accounting. Generally, accountants are responsible for preparing reports based on the information through the bookkeeping process. The accountant is responsible for one of the main critical tasks in a business: measuring profit. This task depends on the accuracy of the information recorded by the bookkeeper and it is thus vital that the bookkeeper is well qualified. Bookkeepers will follow a prescribed set of tasks in order to record transaction that happens on a daily basis.

These tasks are then tallied at the end of the day and at the end of the month.

Common bookkeeping tasks involve:

  • Issuing invoices to customers
  • Recording cash receipts from customers
  • Recording invoices from suppliers
  • Paying suppliers
  • Recording inventory
  • Processing payroll and petty cash transactions

That sounds like my gig! Where can I study Bookkeeping?

If you love to keep track of your financial transactions and are fascinated by the way in which businesses keep track of their transactions, then bookkeeping might be the degree for you. You have the option of receiving a Bookkeeping qualification through the Richfield Graduate Institute of Technology.

Richfield Graduate Institute of Technology offers a course in the Department of Bookkeeping & Accounting, which introduces the learner to source documents, Value Added Tax (VAT), the rules of double entry, subsidiary journals, the general ledger and trial balance, bookkeeping for the different inventory systems, as well as bank and creditors reconciliations.

Course Duration

Full Time: 6 Weeks
Evenings: 3 Months
Saturdays: 3 Months
Mobile Learning: Flexible

What Do I Need to Apply?

You will need a Grade 10 certificate or an equivalent Level 2 qualification as registered on the NQF.

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The term accountant and bookkeeper are often used interchangeably, because of the similarity of the nature of their work. However, it is important to note that they are two different careers and it will take a student much longer to become a qualified accountant due to the complexity and nature of the work involved. This is why having the option to become a bookkeeper is an exciting prospect to anyone who is interested in the inner workings of a business.

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2020 Application Dates

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