How to become a bookkeeper at home with no experience (+ free course)

How to become a Bookkeeper at home with no experience

Before we start talking about how to become a bookkeeper at home with no experience, I want to tell you a thing –

You DO NOT require a formal college degree to start virtual bookkeeping jobs.

You can become a bookkeeper with no experience and with no degree!

If you have absolutely no experience (I mean zilch!) but have a liking towards numbers and this work at home job, I would say go for it.

You will have everything you need to know about virtual bookkeeping in this post.

And, if you are shopping for the most flexible way to make money online, bookkeeping from home is a worthy competitor.

In case you are a stay at home mom or a stay at home dad, do check out this list of super flexible work at home jobs.

There are abundant entry-level at home bookkeeping jobs and online bookkeeping jobs available today and the best part about it is the low start-up costs and beginning rates at $50-80+ an hour (yes, this is how much do freelance bookkeepers make!)

Note: Looking for virtual bookkeeping jobs now? Check out these immediate hire work from home jobs

Let’s learn how to become a bookkeeper with no experience

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How to become a certified bookkeeper with no experience

What is bookkeeping? What do bookkeepers do and how is it different from an accountant?

It is important to understand that bookkeeping is different from what an accountant does.

In reality, those two are completely different professions and we will see how.

To begin with – Working as an accountant requires formal qualification and degree as opposed to bookkeeping.

While the former is giving you financial advice, the latter deals with maintaining the everyday finances of a business. 

You can start virtual bookkeeping jobs from home without any formal education or college degree in accountancy (or similar).

You can also sign up for this free course to understand how to become a bookkeeper from home

Let’s look at the role of accountant and bookkeepers

Relevant Read: Bookkeeping jobs from home: 6+ companies that hire virtual bookkeepers! – In this post you can learn how to land virtual bookkeeping jobs with no experience

What an accountant does

When businesses hire accountants, they want the taxes handled.

Accountants are normally responsible to figure out the taxes owed by businesses and prepare tax returns.

They also help businesses with the following tasks –

• Financial record keeping
• Compliance
• Examining financial statements
• Evaluating records and suggesting ways to save money
• Auditing financial statements

They are not responsible for day to day finances and keeping a track of transactions (what is coming in and what is going out, in simple terms)

What a bookkeeper does

Bookkeeper is NOT responsible for any of the things we mentioned above.

They are responsible for daily financial health.

For example, paying bills, collecting payments on invoices, etc. They are also responsible for

• Updating financial records
• Creating reports
• Checking accuracy of the records
• Entering financial records in computer programs
• Putting debits and credits to appropriate accounts etc.

If you are looking for a non phone work from home job, bookkeeping business may be one of the best options.

How does virtual bookkeeping work? Can a bookkeeper work from home?

Of course! Doing bookkeeping at home is possible!

As the name suggests, virtual bookkeeping allows you to stay at home and work.

You will be communicating with clients over calls and emails.

As you read ahead, all your doubts about how to become a bookkeeper from home with no experience will be cleared.

You can also sign up for this free course to understand how to become a bookkeeper from home

Relevant Read Bookkeeper business launch review – Scam or legit? (+ an interview)

If you have questions or doubts on how freelancing works, I highly recommend you read this post on what is freelance and is working from home for you

Relevant

• 20 jobs for pregnant women (+ how to get them)
• 9 summer job ideas for teachers (real and super simple!)

How much do freelance bookkeepers make? How much does a bookkeeper charge per hour?

Great question!

We all want to know the potential of making money with any work at home idea.

According to this, you can expect to earn around $23 an hour as an entry-level bookkeeper BUT this is for bookkeepers that work in an organization’s accounting department (not the ones you own work at home business).

If you are able to start your own business and freelance independently, you can earn much more than just $18 an hour.

Considering you are working directly with multiple clients, the combined rate is much more than $18 an hour.

You can start charging anywhere between $25-50 an hour depending on your existing skills, knowledge, and services offered.

Once you get experience in bookkeeping, you can easily charge $50 an hour and up. 

What qualification do you need to become a bookkeeper? Can you be a bookkeeper without a degree?

If you have a college degree in accounting, finance or business or have experience working as a store manager (or handling a family business) – you already have a great foundation to work from home as a bookkeeper.

That said, it is not a prerequisite to working as a bookkeeper from home.

There are many ways of how to start working from home with no investment and for bookkeeping – this is it –

This course tells you exactly how to become a certified bookkeeper at home and with no experience at all

You DO NOT require any formal qualification or degree to become a bookkeeper.

In fact, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, many entry-level virtual bookkeepers do not have a degree. 

What Skills Do You Need to Be a Bookkeeper?

In my opinion, every job requires certain skills and so does bookkeeping. However, a lot of them can be learned on the job or otherwise.

Check out the 7 characteristics of a great bookkeeper and see if you are well suited to start a bookkeeping business from home with no experience.

To name a few –

• Attention to detail (after all, you are dealing with finances)
  
• Communication skills (this is required by any work at home job)
  
• Ability to build trust (bookkeeping is not just about handling finances but building trust with the client. If you are good at it or are willing to work on it, you will go a long way – You will have long term clients who will positively refer you to other entrepreneurs in business.

How do I become a virtual bookkeeper with no experience?

While you can figure out everything out on your own (and, you might be really itching to do this!), it will be difficult to convince clients you know what you are doing if you don’t come across as a professional.

After all, they are giving you the responsibility of managing finances. It is a huge risk and I do not advise you to go down this route.

Instead,

The best way to start bookkeeping from home is to take training or a course online.

You will be less likely to make mistakes, more likely to progress faster and make money online.

You will also have a mentor to go to and resolve any client questions trust me, this really comes in handy during sticky situations with clients).

We will talk about the training in a bit. Till then, you can check out this free course on bookkeeping.

What You Need to Start a Virtual Bookkeeping Business

So, how to start a bookkeeping business with no experience?

For starters, you need

• A computer or a laptop
• Stable internet connection

You can check out the second lesson in this free course to know the exact tools you require to launch your bookkeeping business.

By the way, it is one of the cheapest work at home options to start.

You can start it for as low as about $300 for total boot-strapping to about $700 – it depends on how willing you are to be equipped right from the start or invest as an when a requirement comes along.

Remember, you do not require everything right at the beginning.

Start with basics.

Where Can I Find Remote Bookkeeping Jobs? How to get a bookkeeping job without experience?

How to get a bookkeeping job with no experience?

Before we get to that, you need to understand one thing –

Every business – offline or online, large or small – has a bookkeeper. You just need to find and convince them.

If you are a beginner, I would suggest you check out Indeed and Flexjobs.

Besides this, the best way to find clients is to pitch them directly. 

You should sign up for Flexjobs if you want to stay away from any scams and land home based bookkeeper jobs.

They scan each and every posting on their site and all of them are 100% legit.

You can also check out these 37 remote job websites

Also check out this post on 6+ companies that hire virtual bookkeepers

Should I become a bookkeeper?

If you are interested in the kind of jobs bookkeepers do, then go for it.

Take this free class to understand bookkeeping in detail before you decide to quit your day job or investment in any equipment.

By the end of this free course, you will know if it is the right decision for you to become a bookkeeper from home

How do I become a bookkeeper at home? How do I become a bookkeeper online?

#1 Sign up for this free class on bookkeeping

It is important that you understand what you are getting into. Take these free classes as your first step.

#2 Gather your tools 

Get your basic tools right, especially, computer and an internet connection.

You will also need a bookkeeping software to manage your client’s finances.

The free course covers the best available in the market but to name a few – Xero, Quickbooks, and Sage50.

Do your research and see which ones fit your clientele (or target audience)

In the beginning, you may also need a scanner and a printer but you can go with budget-friendly equipment.

The free course talks about how to start with a bookkeeping business at a minimum.

You should also check out my latest post on how to start working from home

#3 Build a website

You are working virtually – without a brick and mortar presence and without employees.

This makes it essential to have a virtual existence so you can advertise and spread the word to the potential clients. Your website should include

• List of services
• Value statement
• Packages (if any)
• Area of expertise
• Clients you worked with
• Client testimonials

You can start a website with as little as $3.95 a month or Rs. 276 a month

You can use this step by step tutorial to get your WordPress blog up and running.

If you have difficulty in understanding the basics (like domain name, wordpress.org or .com, hosting etc), you can read this article on website basics.

If you do not want to invest in a website designer (which I did not, and created this website on my own), buy a theme builder like Elementor. It is super easy and is almost drag and drop.

#4 Market your business

You will have to focus on marketing your business initially.

Once you have a stable stream of clients, you will start getting constant referrals and the effort you put in getting a new client will considerably reduce.

The best ways to market your business:

• Social media
• Cold email
• In-person networking
• Email marketing
• Blogging
• Lead generation
• PR opportunities
• Public speaking
• Guest blogging
• Print advertising
• Forum participation
• Email prospecting
• Facebook Groups

#5 Stay up on training and trends

It is important to always stay updated on new trends and business updates.

For this purpose, you will need to take the time to watch webinars, read books, attend training sessions and conferences.

Watch this video to learn more about marketing your bookkeeping business.

Are you ready to become a stay at home bookkeeper?

Great! If you are still here, you are good to go! You seem to be really driven.

Finally, what is this virtual bookkeeping training and the free course on how to become a bookkeeper from home we have been talking about?

Relevant Read:

• 23+ low stress jobs for lazy people
• Online Jobs for Introverts and shy people
• 20+ best weekend jobs from home – Earn $1000+ monthly!
• Entry level work from home jobs – No experience!

I highly recommend you to take Bookkeeper Business Launch

If you took the free course and met the 7 criteria outlined at the outset, then bookkeeping is for you. 

The course is split about 50/50 between learning the bookkeeping skills and learning the business and marketing skills.

The course comes along with an amazing Facebook community. It has over 2500 members all helping and encouraging each other.

Learn to be a bookkeeper and start earning $80+ per hour!

There you go. Pin me for later

Do you think I missed out any question you have on learning to be a bookkeeper at home with no experience? Comment below and let me know

How to Become a Bookkeeper from Home