bookkeeper
Bookkeepers record and assemble the day-to-day financial transactions of an organisation or company, consisting usually of sales, purchases, payments and receipts. They ensure all financial transactions are documented in the appropriate (day) book and general ledger, and that they are balanced out. Bookkeepers prepare the recorded books and ledgers with financial transactions for an accountant to then analyse balance sheets and income statements.
bookkeeper bookkeepers record and assemble the day-to-day financial transactions of an organisation or company, consisting usually of sales, purchases, payments and receipts. The role shows moderate AI exposure (0.60 on a 0-1 scale) — some tasks are being automated but the role adapts. The most in-demand skills for the role include accounting department processes, bookkeeping regulations, financial department processes, financial statements, fraud detection.
Pay in the UK
UK: median £50,062 a year for Chartered and certified accountants (ONS ASHE 2025, full-time)
Middle half of full-time jobs: £38,696 to £68,056 a year
UK jobs are grouped differently; this is the closest UK occupation group (ONS SOC 2020 2421). ONS rates this estimate reasonably precise. 2025 provisional figures; ONS revises them a year later. Source: ONS Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings (Open Government Licence)
Pay in India (occupation group)
Average monthly earnings of salaried employees in the occupation group “Professionals” in India, from the Government of India's Periodic Labour Force Survey (January–December 2025). It covers everyone in this group, not only bookkeeper, and it is not US pay converted to rupees.
Source: MoSPI (Government of India), Periodic Labour Force Survey Annual Report 2025, Table 51 — average wage/salary earnings of regular wage/salaried employees, NCO-2015 division 2. Official India data gives one average per occupation group: there are no official India figures for single careers, experience levels or cities. Read the report
Top skills
Knowledge you'll build
- Economics and Accounting
- English Language
- Mathematics
- Administration and Management
- Customer and Personal Service
- Law and Government
- Administrative
- Computers and Electronics
What you'd actually do
- Prepare detailed reports on audit findings.
- Report to management about asset utilization and audit results, and recommend changes in operations and financial activities.
- Collect and analyze data to detect deficient controls, duplicated effort, extravagance, fraud, or non-compliance with laws, regulations, and management policies.
- Inspect account books and accounting systems for efficiency, effectiveness, and use of accepted accounting procedures to record transactions.
- Supervise auditing of establishments, and determine scope of investigation required.
- Confer with company officials about financial and regulatory matters.
Tools & technology you'd use
Frequently asked questions
What does bookkeeper do?
Bookkeepers record and assemble the day-to-day financial transactions of an organisation or company, consisting usually of sales, purchases, payments and receipts. They ensure all financial transactions are documented in the appropriate (day) book and general ledger, and that they are balanced out. Bookkeepers prepare the recorded books and ledgers with financial transactions for an accountant to then analyse balance sheets and income statements.
What skills does bookkeeper need?
The most in-demand skills for this role include accounting department processes, bookkeeping regulations, financial department processes, financial statements, fraud detection, depreciation. These are the skills O*NET identifies as most important for competent performance.
Will AI replace bookkeeper?
Our AI-durability model gives bookkeeper a score of 0.60 on a 0-1 scale (higher = more exposure). That places it at moderate AI exposure — some tasks are being automated but the role adapts. Learning to work with AI tools rather than against them is the path forward.