Being a bean counter is a wonderful profession which has increased in popularity in the last decade. Bookkeepers, our bean counters we are more affectionately called, are instrumental in small business owners understanding their businesses on a more frequent basis than once a year when they visit their accountants.

Bookkeeping is not a regulated industry, but it is gaining momentum. There are no minimum set prerequisites that need to be achieved to set your self up as a bookkeeper, so experience at this stage is sufficient. The issue with this is that many people find they can not get employment, without experience and people wont give them the chance to get experience. Fortunately with the increase in the profession, more courses are available which specialize in bookkeeping and also offer work placement opportunities.

Mentor programs are also a good way of getting vital information and skills to become a bookkeeper. It is important in anyones career to have good support and finding a mentor can give you an advantage. If it is suitable, someone at your first place of employment or your supervisor might be a good choice. A good mentor can assist you with your career choices, appropriate work experience, professional development and even with course material if you are continuing your bookkeeping studies whilst employed.

There are a number of courses on offer starting at certificate level to get the foundation knowledge required to be successful in bookkeeping. These courses often involve bookkeeping with an accounting package as well as learning about double entry bookkeeping and keeping manual records.

It is beneficial to undertake a bookkeeping course which is a recognized bookkeeping qualification; this is because of the foundation and training you will receive in fundamentals of bookkeeping and accounting principles. If you just attend a software course, you can learn how to use a software package, but it will not give you the foundation of knowledge required to actually understand why you do certain functions or what the ramifications are.

Most basic bookkeeping software packages have functions like spend money or receive money, but it does not explain why the accounts in your chart of accounts is effected. It only teaches you how to perform a transaction, not what the transaction does behind the scenes.

Ultimately if you want to become a successful bookkeeper who can undertake a full range of services for any employer, you will need to understand the fundamentals of bookkeeping and the best choice to have a long lasting career in the industry is to undertake study to increase your career prospects.