Bookkeeping?

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I know I've made a lot posts lately but I'm still dealing with my quarter life crisis and I have to apply for something very soon. Yesterday I thought I'd like to be an accounted but after reading several hundred horror stories from accountants - and they were NTs - I've started to reconsider. Does anyone have any experience with bookkeeping? It's mostly data entry right? How did you cope with it? Was it stressful or pleasant? Does it pay a living wage? Are there jobs available? Are the hours reasonable? (I consider 40 hours a week to be reasonable). Is a Cert III in accounts administration enough to get it?Is being an accountant really as horrible as I've been lead to believe? Any other thoughts? Any other suggested career paths?

In my experience, good bookkeepers are as rare as hen's teeth. You should do well provided you have the right skills, and just as important, good attention to detail. The latter is critical, since any mistakes at all can be catastrophic.

As far as being "horrible", that would depend on who you ask. This kind of job is ideal for those who would rather work with numbers than people--again, provided you have good attention to detail. If not, I wouldn't even try it.

Thanks for the advice.

A couple of questions. Do I still need to have a full bachelor of commerce to do bookkeeping? In either bookkeeping or accounting should I be concerned about my typing speed? I can only type at 50 wpm (on a good day) and I hear they want 80 wpm.

Double post.

Last edited by RetroGamer87 on 18 Oct 2013, 8:17 am, edited 1 time in total.

Triple post.

Last edited by RetroGamer87 on 18 Oct 2013, 8:19 am, edited 1 time in total.

Quadruple post.

Last edited by RetroGamer87 on 18 Oct 2013, 8:20 am, edited 1 time in total.

Quintuple post!

OK so the page got stuck and I kept hitting submit : P

Here in the US, bookkeepers normally go through a two-year program, with the four-year degrees leading to being a full-fledged accountant. The bookkeeper is the accountant's assistant.

Again, if you have good attention to detail, accountant or bookkeeper is an ideal job for an aspie, as they work with numbers rather than people. And if you are good at what you do, your personal idiosyncrasies will largely be overlooked, at least when possible.

Good luck.

Thanks again for the advice. I think my attention to detail can sometimes border on pedantic if it's something that interests me. The thing that concerns me is, will they still employ me if my typing speed is only 50 words per minute? I guess that's a bit on the slow side.

Are you talking about data entry? If so, that improves with practice.

I would add that most businesses and governmental organizations need some kind of bookkeeping done. So, the possibilities for employment in such a field are almost unlimited.

Depends on where you are and what you want to do.

You should only need a trade course to get started doing bookkeeping, but there are 4-year programs for it. You could eventually go and be a CPA.

The biggest "nightmare" I think you might run into is work load.

Tax season can be unreal for accountants with so many people needing stuff done by a deadline and dropping stuff off at the last minute. If you can't fine the completed taxes on time, you need to be sure those that won't be ready have an application for extension filed by the deadline.

This doesn't have to be bad if you work in a firm that is well-organized and will consider your "special needs" as far as workload and stress management. In the wrong firm, you could be a basket case from the pressure to produce a product by a given deadline.

Zero, there are different kinds of bookkeeping. For example, going into "accounts receivable or payable" wouldn't entail any extra work at tax time. That's only for CPA's and their assistants.

Bookkeeping might be less stressful for me.

Stress was what kept me out of a real job for a long time. I was on a supported wage but now I have to get a real job in order to resolve my self image problems. Even a relatively simple one like bookkeeping would do.

So it's a two year course in America? I found one in Australia but it's only one semester. That doesn't sound like it would be long enough to be the equivalent of a two year course. It doesn't sound like it would be enough for an actual job. It's this one.
http://www.tafesa.edu.au/xml/course/aw/aw_TP00321.aspx

I also looked at which bookkeeping jobs were available in my city. There were about 13 but they all required experience. Is there any way to gain the necessary experience?

I'm really interested in picking up bookkeeping for a career too.

I would strongly recommend you take a couple of challenging courses in bookkeeping before you make such a decision. Some people like it, but it's not for everyone.