If you have a proper payroll system, you can calculate the gross pay and withholdings for each employee automatically. Done right, you’ll be able to get an overview of all payroll-related expenses and transactions. Employees are the backbone of any organization—but how much do they cost? Payroll accounting lets you keep track of the cost of each employee.
Of course, a background in accounting practices will help you ride out a learning curve as a new bookkeeper. However, it’s important to understand the nuances of this capability and what it entails for a business. Julia is a writer in New York and started covering tech and business during the pandemic. Documenting processes and regular check-ins reconcile transactions and resolve problems before they compound. Payroll must maintain meticulous awareness by cross-referencing company policies, employment terms, and tax codes.
Which Accounting Jobs Are in Demand?
Department of Labor’s Occupational Handbook, some of the most in-demand accounting jobs include comptroller, accounting manager, senior tax accountant, and internal auditors. A bookkeeper is skilled at keeping documents and tracks a wide net of financial information. For a long-term career, accounting offers much more upward mobility and income potential. The education required to be competitive in the field is greater, but the payoff down the road can be considerably higher. Mid-size and small public accounting firms pay, on average, about 10% less than these firms. If you choose to work for a company internally instead of in public accounting, the starting salary range is very broad.
Accrued wages for a certain period are recorded at the end of your accounting period. As the name suggests, these are wages that you owe your bookkeeping and payroll services employees—wages you haven’t yet paid. After you pay these wages, you’ll make reversed entries in your ledger to account for this payment.
Skills Needed
Live chat, whether a human or a bot, can help you get where you need to go. Phone support is crucial for complicated payroll questions that would otherwise require a novel-length email to customer support. Your payroll software’s customer support hotline should be the first place you go when you find discrepancies during a payroll reconciliation or technical issues when running payroll. Accountants are needed when you must make sense of your financial information. You need someone who understands profitability, cash flow, and financial planning.