QuickBooks bookkeeping
QuickBooks Online and Desktop: chart of accounts setup, bank feeds and rules, classes and locations, sales tax settings, and cleanup of books that have fallen behind.
Roles · Finance & Accounting
A remote bookkeeper for QuickBooks, Xero and your month-end
Transactions coded and accounts reconciled every week, so your numbers are current when you or your accountant need them. You keep the approvals and the payments.
Books you can make decisions from
Books that are three months behind make every decision a guess about cash, about who owes you and about tax time. A bookkeeper keeps them current week by week. Your accountant gets clean records at month-end, and you see real numbers without doing the data entry yourself.
What they do for you
- Code bank and card transactions to the right accounts, with receipts attached
- Reconcile bank, card and payment-processor accounts such as Stripe or PayPal
- Enter supplier bills and prepare payment runs for your approval
- Raise customer invoices and send scheduled reminders on overdue ones
- Keep aged payables and receivables accurate, and flag anything unusual
- Chase missing receipts and categorize expense claims
- Prepare the month-end file for your accountant, with open questions listed
The bookkeeper you'd be working with
Tools they work in
QuickBooks OnlineQuickBooks DesktopXeroBill.comDextHubdocExpensifyRampBrexStripePayPalGusto (payroll records)ExcelGoogle Sheets
A good fit if:
- Your books are behind, or you do them yourself on weekends
- Your accountant spends billable time cleaning up records before the real work starts
- Invoices go out late and nobody chases overdue payments consistently
Not the right fit if:
- You need financial statements, tax-prep support or audit preparation; see Accountant
- You need budgets, forecasts or a financial model; that's Financial Analyst, a page added after launch
Questions for your bookkeeper shortlist
01
"The bank balance doesn't match the books by a small amount. How do you find the difference?"
Strong answer: a method. Check the reconciliation start date, unmatched items, duplicates, transposed numbers and timing differences, in that order.
02
"A transaction has no receipt and an unclear description. What do you do?"
Strong answer: they park it in a suspense account, list it for you in one weekly batch, and never guess the category.
03
"Show us how you'd set up bank rules for our recurring transactions."
Strong answer: rules for the obvious recurring items, plus a regular review so the rules don't hide mistakes.
04
"What would you prepare for our accountant at month-end?"
Strong answer: reconciled accounts, aged AP and AR, a list of accruals and prepayments, and the open questions, all in one handover.
05
"A supplier emails new bank details for their next payment. What do you do?"
Strong answer: they treat it as a possible fraud attempt, confirm it by phone using a number already on file, and get your approval before changing anything.
Signs of a strong bookkeeper:
- Reconciles on a fixed schedule, whether or not anyone asks
- Saves questions up and sends them in one batch
- Leaves a clear audit trail, with a note on every manual entry
- Is cautious about payment changes and access
Signs of a weak bookkeeper:
- Codes unknown items to "miscellaneous" to clear the list
- Forces reconciliations to balance with adjustments
- Can't explain the difference between cash and accrual
- Wants payment approval rights in the first week
- Lets receipts pile up until month-end
Xero bookkeeping
Bank feeds and reconciliation, tracking categories, bills and repeating invoices, and add-ons such as Dext or Hubdoc for receipt capture.
Accounts payable and receivable
Bill approval workflows, payment runs, supplier statements, invoicing, collections reminders and aged reports, for businesses where bills and invoices are the bigger job.
Hiring a bookkeeper from South Africa, or further afield
Our bookkeeper searches begin in South Africa. When your software, your hours or your budget point to another country, we recruit internationally instead.
Other accounting platforms
We source bookkeepers who already know the platform you use, and that covers all the main ones, so you don't have to switch software to get help.
From brief to bookkeeper
- 1
Talk it through
We agree the work, the tools, the hours you share and who they report to. For this role: your accounting software, roughly how many accounts and transactions a month, where your business is based, and how far behind the books are.
- 2
Meet a shortlist and choose
We screen a wide pool for every role and introduce only the few who fit your brief. We source, screen and test candidates against your brief, and run background and reference checks. You interview and decide.
- 3
Start with support in place
They start on the work in the brief, and we stay in contact once they've begun.
Most bookkeeper searches land in the one-to-three-week range. The shortlist you see has been narrowed from a much larger pool of applicants.
How pricing works for a bookkeeper
There's no right or wrong option for a bookkeeper. Choose the arrangement that fits how you run your finances, and we'll answer any questions about them on the call. Compare the arrangements on ways to hire.
Who does what
Swipe to see more →
| Task | You | JiveTalent |
|---|---|---|
| Approving payments, and access to bank accounts | Own: you approve every payment and decide what access to give | – |
| Weekly reconciliations and the month-end file | Review, and pass to your accountant | Your bookkeeper prepares them; our account manager confirms the schedule is holding |
Questions owners ask about a bookkeeper
What's the difference between a bookkeeper and an accountant?
A bookkeeper records and reconciles transactions and manages bills and invoices day to day. An accountant uses those records to produce financial statements, plan tax and advise you. Most businesses need both, and good bookkeeping makes the accountant's work faster.
Will they work during our business hours?
The brief sets the hours and the overlap with your team before the search starts, so every candidate is hired for them.
Will our bookkeeper file our taxes?
No. Tax filing and tax advice stay with your accountant or tax advisor. Your bookkeeper prepares the records they need.
What if it isn't working out?
Talk to your account lead. We go through it with you and agree a way forward.
We don't use QuickBooks or Xero. Can you still find someone?
Yes. Whatever your platform, we look for bookkeepers who already work in it. They use your subscription with their own login, so you can see their activity and remove access at any time.
How do you vet someone who'll see our bank accounts?
Every bookkeeper we introduce has been through background and reference checks as well as our screening. You still decide what they can see, and payments stay with you.
Can a bookkeeper catch up books that are months behind?
Yes. Let us know how far behind you are, and we'll agree with you whether to start with a catch-up period before the monthly routine.
How do we see what our bookkeeper is working on?
Their hours are tracked in the client app and reported there for you to see.
Ready for books you can trust every month?
Book a call. We'll agree the brief for your bookkeeper and talk you through the ways to hire.