Lisa Lokasto

With the rise of accounting software and automation, it’s easy to assume that bookkeeping has become a simple data entry routine or that it basically does itself. Just connect the bank feeds, let the automation do everything, and the books are done?

Well, no.

Modern bookkeeping isn’t about data input. It’s about data output.

Bookkeeping is a judgment driven process that needs experience, a good eye, financial understanding, and the ability to explain what those numbers actually mean to a client, or see when something isn’t making sense.

Modern accounting software is great but it’s just the beginning step. It can misclassify, duplicate, or post entries incorrectly based on “rules” that you’ve set for that transaction.

Automation doesn’t mean accuracy.
It still needs to be checked, cleaned up, and reconciled against a source of truth.

Take your tax control accounts:
You need to know what makes up the balance and reconcile it to Revenue’s records. There’s no point looking at it and assuming it’s fine. Otherwise:

• A payment to another tax head might be misposted to VAT
• An invoice excluded from a VAT3 return (e.g. a late entry) slips through unnoticed.
• Now the control account balance becomes meaningless

The reconciliation process is an important step that can’t be left off.

Then comes the real work: interpreting the numbers.

Why did gross margin change if the client says nothing in their price/cost mix changed?
The expenses are up. Ok, why?
Oh sales are up? Is that so. How did the client achieve higher sales off a significantly reduced cost based – does that make sense?

The software won’t answer that but a good bookkeeper & accountant will know, from the figures, where the conversation with the client needs to go.

Modern accounting tools can pull in transactions, suggest categories, and generate reports with a few clicks but that doesn’t mean the books are right. Bookkeeping today isn’t about data input. It’s about the data output. It’s about making sense of the numbers, catching what software misses, and giving business owners information that they can act on.

A bookkeeper is absolutely instrumental.
When clients try to do it themselves and don’t invest in regular management accounts then by the time they get to the accountant, they’re a long way down the road. Decisions have been made based on bad data, and fixing it becomes a bigger job.

Lisa