Finance and records
What does a Bookkeeper do?
Keeping the numbers right, and being able to show they are right.
What the day is like
- Indoors, under a roof.
- A screen and a keyboard.
- Largely on your own.
- Right or wrong, to a standard.
- The same shape each day.
- Answerable for your own work.
The facts
- Pay
- $50,670 a year, median
- Bookkeeping, Accounting, and Auditing Clerks, May 2025
- Usually needs
- Some college, no degree
- Weeks to months. Most people can start from where they are.
- Jobs
- -6% projected change in jobs, 2025-2035 projections
- Demand looks shrinking
What is good about it
- You can be earning at it within months rather than after years of training.
- You answer for your own work rather than for other people, which suits more people than admit it.
What people find hard about it
- Repetition
- Chasing receipts
- Screen work all day
Employment is falling faster than almost anything else here: software does most of it now.
Will machines take this job?
What machines will do to this work. Bookkeeping and reconciliation are among the most automated tasks measured; signing off on figures is not.
How to find out whether it suits you
Keep the books for one small business for a month.
Would this actually suit you?
CareerDNA works that out from what you choose rather than from what you say about yourself: two minutes of choosing between real jobs, a few puzzles, and some questions about what you are like. It is free, it saves as you go, and it will tell you plainly where the answer is thin.