Transaction preparation
Match receipts to bank-feed entries, apply agreed categories and flag items that need an accounting decision.
Responsibilities and candidate evaluation
Remote Bookkeeper: Tasks, Skills & Interview Guide
Keep transaction records and supporting documents ready for your accountant's review.
What does a bookkeeper do?
If vendor invoice approvals dominate the workload, consider AP support. If customer receipts and overdue invoices dominate it, consider AR support.
Reconciliation support
Compare ledger entries with statements, investigate unmatched items and maintain a dated exception list.
Document follow-up
Request missing evidence through the agreed client channel and link it to the correct transaction and entity.
Reviewer handover
Prepare the records, outstanding questions and supporting schedules for the reviewing accountant.
Practical assessment
Ask for evidence from a work sample.
Provide a fictional bank statement, a ledger extract and a receipt folder. Include a missing receipt, a duplicate entry and an opening-balance mismatch. Ask for an exception log and a short handover to the reviewer.
Use fictional records. This is an assessment template, not a completed candidate result.
Download the bookkeeper scorecardWhat to look for
- Checks the opening balance before treating a difference as a current-period error.
- Traces each exception to its source and distinguishes missing evidence from a posting error.
- Explains proposed corrections without forcing the reconciliation to balance.
- Leaves a concise list of decisions for the accountant.
Record the supporting observation for each criterion: demonstrated, partly demonstrated or not demonstrated.
What stays with the reviewer?
The reviewing accountant decides accounting treatment and approves adjustments and final records. A preparation role does not automatically include tax advice or final sign-off.
Also verify tool experience, English for the actual communication tasks and availability. A written exercise does not establish all three.
Review early work before increasing scope.
- Agree the chart of accounts, document naming and reviewer checklist.
- Start with a small batch and review coding and exceptions together.
- Track unreconciled items, missing documents and reviewer corrections before increasing capacity.
Product reference: Intuit: checking beginning balances during reconciliation. Adapt the exercise to your own workflow and permissions.
Interview questions and what to listen for
A receipt is missing at the cutoff. What do you do?
Look for a documented request and escalation, rather than an invented category or unsupported adjustment.
How would you hand over several client files?
Look for separate entity records, a clear completion status and unresolved items with owners.
Ready to define your bookkeeper role?
Use the hiring page to discuss capacity, scope and the next step.
Related finance needs
Accounts Payable Specialist · Accounts Receivable Specialist · Support for accounting firms
Compare responsibilities across the team: finance and accounting staffing. For process handoffs, see finance operations staffing.