How to get into bookkeeping
What a bookkeeper does, the skills the job needs, the usual routes in and how to practise them. No promises and no pay figures.
Bookkeeping is the work of keeping the records of a business complete and correct: what it sold, what it bought, what it is owed and what it owes.
There is more than one way in. Some people study for a qualification first. Some start in a junior accounts job and learn there. Some come to it from keeping the books of their own small business.
Each page below takes one role or one question. It describes the work and the skills in general words. It does not promise a job, and it gives no pay figures, because they go out of date quickly. Read current job adverts for your area instead.
Ledger Drill is practice. It does not award a qualification, and nothing here is careers, tax or accounting advice.
Roles and questions
- How to become a bookkeeper in the UK
- What a bookkeeper does day to day, the skills the job needs, the usual routes into it in the UK and how to practise those skills before you apply.
- What an accounts assistant does, and how to become one
- What an accounts assistant does day to day in the UK, the bookkeeping skills the job uses, the usual routes in and where to practise each skill.
- What a payroll administrator does, and how to become one
- What a payroll administrator does on each pay run in the UK, the skills the job uses, the usual routes in and where to practise each skill.
- What a credit controller does, and how to become one
- What a credit controller does day to day in the UK, the bookkeeping skills behind chasing what customers owe, the usual routes in and where to practise.
- What a purchase ledger clerk does, and how to become one
- What a purchase ledger or accounts payable clerk does day to day in the UK, the bookkeeping skills the job uses, the usual routes in and where to practise.
- Working as a self-employed bookkeeper in the UK
- What a self-employed bookkeeper does for clients, the skills the work uses, the usual routes in and what to read on GOV.UK before a first client.
Ledger Drill is practice, not tax or accounting advice. You can start with the free rooms.