Should Bookkeeping Be More Regulated?

Bookkeeping has no real guardrails. What happens when a profession has no required standards? That’s the heart of the “listener” question our favorite Bookkeeping Mensch, Paul Rosenblum, explores in this episode. 

As he thinks it through, he zooms out and looks at the structure of the entire bookkeeping profession, from certification and continuing education to pricing, professional identity, and even the idea of a union, Paul reflects on what might change if clear standards existed. He wonders whether introducing levels, credentials, or even a collective structure would strengthen the profession or complicate it, especially when it comes to pricing and client expectations.

This episode doesn’t push a final answer. It opens the door to a bigger conversation about where bookkeeping is headed.

Links mentioned:

• American Institute of Professional Bookkeepers, https://aipb.org
• National Association of Certified Public Bookkeepers, https://nacpb.org
• Institute of Certified Bookkeepers, https://www.bookkeepers.org.uk/
• The Bookkeeping Cooperative, https://bookkeeping.coop/home/

Transcript

Season 7 Episode 4 Q&A

For now, this is the last of the Q&A episode season, so I thought that I’d do something different here.  I received a ‘special’ voicemail from someone with more than one question.  So, let’s get right into it.  Here we go!  I’m Paul Rosenblum.  

Caller: Hi! This is Paul from New York City, and I have 3 questions.  The first is “How different would the bookkeeping industry have been if every bookkeeper would have had to pass a national certification? And the second question – “Why not treat bookkeeping the same way as accounting and have CPE credits for webinars and seminars which would be required to keep your certification? And in different levels just like EA’s, Accountants and CPAs?   Would doing those things have helped or hurt the bookkeeping industry in general?  And the third and final question is: “Should accountants, EA’s and CPA’s and bookkeepers formed their own union to self-regulate prices charged to clients to form a price consistency?  Thank you! 

Uh …. Thanks. (Paul) for these questions.  You sound vaguely familiar to me!  

There are 3 places that all have the same certification that one can take as a bookkeeper. Not QB certification, but a bookkeeper certification.  One is “The American Institute of Professional Bookkeepers” or AIBP.  Once a member, you can get access to certification, study materials and support.  The next is “The National Association of Certified Public Bookkeepers (NACPB) which also provides certification, training and support. And there’s “The Institute of Certified Bookkeepers” (ICB) which is part of the world’s largest bookkeeping institute.  They have podcasts, webinars and other resources about bookkeeping.  

There is also another interesting resource called “The Bookkeeping Cooperative”, which is a “worker owned union cooperative dedicated to building solidarity economies.”   They do have workshops and training courses available. 

So, Paul, there are places where you can go to be able to become a certified bookkeeper and add the “CB” suffix to your business card, website or front door to your office.  However, there is no mandate to do that in the bookkeeping industry. I have wondered in the past as well, if having mandated certifications to be a bookkeeper at any level (maybe leveled certifications), would have meant having more bookkeepers or less in the field?  

I think that some of my conclusion would be based on what generation you might be talking about. My generation, (the baby boomers) I think might have worked because bookkeeping was a professional, more respected profession than it is now, in general. I think people would have looked at a professional career in bookkeeping almost like a college degree and people would have gotten into bookkeeping at a younger age.  But Just an opinion here.  The younger generations, having to need a certification in bookkeeping, might have scared some people out of going into bookkeeping for a career.

 However, it’s such an interesting idea to have different levels of certification in bookkeeping.  EA’s have to make sure their taxes are always up to date, since they are certified by the IRS, accountants do need a college degree, and need to go to a certain amount of webinars and seminars given by the IRS or an authorized agent for them to keep their licenses up to date, and CPA’s need to go to or attend even more seminars and webinars and these official IRS webinars and seminars cost a decent amount of money to register.  Each one an EA, accountant or CPA goes to, they receive CPE (Continuing Professional Education) credits and they need a certain amount of CPE credits to keep their licenses current. 

Why not do that with bookkeepers as well?  There are full charge bookkeepers – they do all payroll entries, depreciation entries, and all balance sheet adjustments including accruals at year end.  Then there are bookkeepers who don’t do full payroll --  they reconcile the payroll to the amount of money taken out of the bank account, but don’t break down all the federal, state and local taxes into expenses or liabilities, and don’t have much tax knowledge at all, so they do not enter depreciation, amortization or even section 179 entries themselves.  

Then there are people who call themselves bookkeepers who are basically data entry people who pretty much look at outgoing money as expenses, and incoming money as income, not knowing that a refund from certain kinds of taxes should be in an equity account and not income or expenses. 

 Why not have different certificates at different levels?  I don’t know how to get that idea into the right brains, but someone should try!  Once that was done and the suffixes of the certification would be different, then perspective clients could look up what they mean.  “CB” – certified bookkeeper would mean a ‘full charge’ bookkeeper with the most knowledge.  Maybe a “PB” (Professional Bookkeeper) would be for a good bookkeeper without balancing payroll and depreciation and a few other things.  And maybe a designation of “PDEB”) Professional Data Entry Bookkeeper) would be appropriate for more of an accurate data entry person working under a bookkeeper. 

And that leads to the next question: 

Pricing. If we had “levels of bookkeepers” like we have in accounting, there would be an acceptable range of what each level of bookkeeper can charge.  Just like CPA’s, accountants and EA’s, even though there are no laws about pricing, generally the CPA’s charge the most per tax return, accountants are next and then EAs. There are exceptions.  I know one EA who charges as much as some CPA’s do, and I know some CPA’s that charge less than the average and they would be in the accountant’s range. But in general, a client would know what the price structure for each kind of tax professional or bookkeeper was. 

Right now, pricing for bookkeeping is almost like the wild west.  Some are on ‘value pricing’ (a set monthly price, almost like a retainer), and bookkeepers can charge from $50 an hour to $120 an hourly depending on what the market can bear. 

I have always wondered, Paul, if having a bookkeeper’s union would have made sense from the very beginning, or maybe the beginning of computerized bookkeeping.  My conclusion is yes. Having a union would have had consistent health care for bookkeepers who did not work full-time for a company. Because of the eye strain on bookkeepers, having a union vision plan would have been helpful. Maybe the union would have gotten special prices on ergonomic chairs, desks, computers, printers -- all to help the bookkeepers. And psychologically, bookkeepers would have felt like they were in a more professional profession. People hiring bookkeepers would also have known the general knowledge of the bookkeeper by the suffix at the end of their name on their business card. I think it could/would be a win/win for all.  

How many bookkeepers now not only reconcile bank accounts monthly, but when the year is done, check the reconciled balance against the Balance Sheet?  In my experience, many bookkeepers do not do that.  That would be part of the certification test for sure! 

Should non-certified bookkeepers be required to do that for all clients?  Or only certified bookkeepers?   Hmmm…  I think this episode is opening up a Pandora’s box here…  just something to think about in the middle of tax season.  Maybe we should form a union just to explore the possibility of a bookkeeping union.  Something more to think about. Now, bookkeepers listening to me?   Get back to work-- there’s more to do for the 2026 tax season!

 I’m Paul Rosenblum

LINKS 

Aipb.org

bookkeeping.coop/home/

nacpb.org