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Frequently Asked Questions -
Bookkeeping/Accounting

Q. What is bookkeeping?
A.  Bookkeeping is the recording of your company's financial transactions. It's the first step of the accounting process and involves organizing, classifying, and reporting of financial data. Bookkeeping means chronologically recording your company financial transactions — cash disbursements, cash receipts, sales and purchases, and others in a journal. 

Majority of the entrepreneurs seem to dislike handling the bookkeeping matters.  Most entrepreneurs go into business because they are good at something but rarely at bookkeeping.

What is the difference between accounting and bookkeeping? As explained earlier, bookkeeping is the recording of all details, in the proper accounts, and keeping them balanced. Accounting on the other hand is the compilation and analysis of the accounts.

For the very smallest business, simply keeping a cash book, with all payments & receipts recorded is sufficient. Along with a list of debtors, creditors & closing stock at the year end, your accountant can produce a set of accounts.

The bookkeeper will also typically prepare monthly profit & loss statements, balance sheets, and account summaries. A bookkeeping system will help you with questions like:

• who owes you money and
• how much you owe to others
• how much you've got in the bank
• how much profit you are making

There are software programs available to help you do the bookkeeping, or you could do it manually. If you are going to be handling lots of transactions then a software package can save you a significant amount of time and give you more control. Having a computerized book keeping system will save you money on your accountancy fees if the system is properly used and maintained. The cost of preparing accounts from a manual bookkeeping system can be considerably more.

Alternatively, you can outsource your bookkeeping needs to a professional firm. 

Q. I don't have the time for doing bookkeeping and payroll for my company. Do you provide bookkeeping services and how much do you charge?
A.  We provide bookkeeping, accounting, and payroll services to our clients. The fee for our bookkeeping service depends on the volume of your company transactions. As an example, our monthly bookkeeping fee for upto 20 transactions and payroll for 1-2 employees is S$300/month.