Basics:
Bookminders is an accounting firm that hires highly-skilled home-based accountants and bookkeepers to work for their small business and non-profit clients
Expected pay: $21 – $46 per hour, depending on experience
Husl$core: $$$
Commissions & fees: none
Where: Remote. But some positions must be within 45 minutes of a Bookminder’s office. The company operates offices in Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Maryland, and Indiana
Requirements: Bachelor’s degree (accounting or business-related degree preferred), 5 + years experience, computer, high-speed Internet access
What is Bookminders?
Bookminders hires accountants and bookkeepers to work on client accounts from home.
How it works
If you want to work at Bookminders, you must have a four-year accounting degree and five years of relevant experience. You’ll also need dedicated home office space and high-speed internet.
The site hires you as an employee, so you go through a normal interview process. If hired, you’ll do four days of training that familiarize you with the site’s process of assigning clients and it’s online portal.
Review
Bookminders is recommended by many websites as one of the best places to find home-based accounting and bookkeeping jobs. But the site traditionally hired only workers who lived within 45 minutes of one of the company’s offices in Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Indiana and Maryland.
However, it now advertises full remote positions anywhere in the U.S.. So living near a Bookminders office now may be preferred, but not required.
The site hires staffers to work part-time and remotely with their clients, who are primarily small businesses. But pay here is nothing to brag about. Typically, new hires are paid between $25 and $35 per hour. After a year, you might make up to $50 an hour. This might be decent pay in other industries, but accountants typically earn considerably more. However, workers say that as they build a regular client base, they earn more.
The site also offers benefits, such as health insurance and a 401(k) plan.
Work-life balance
The site also gives workers the ability to work highly flexible schedules. And management is responsive, supportive, and willing to help you add — or limit — work when you need to, staffers maintain. That makes it a nice choice for accountants who might need extra flexibility to handle personal responsibilities, such as small children or aging parents.
Indeed, several reviewers note that the site is particularly supportive of stay-at-home parents. who sometimes work odd-hours to work around their family responsibilities. Accountants are occasionally required to meet with clients during the normal work-week. But, most say they can schedule these meetings around their lives.
Plethora of Paperwork
Employees generally review the company highly for its commitment to work-life balance, saying it’s easy to add or offload work when you need to. However, the one consistent complaint is that the site demands a tremendous amount of paperwork, for which you are not necessarily compensated.
Recommendations:
If you’re looking for flexible bookkeeping and accounting work, you should also consider Acuity Financial, Robert Half, Paro and AccountingDept.com.
Want to try Bookminders?
Here’s direct link to the Bookminders site.
What their users say (from Indeed)
Innovative and really caters to stay at home moms who have accounting experience. Great concept. Cool to work with and service many different industry types as well . Highly recommended work environment
You work mostly remote and sometimes a client has a weekly visit. This place means it when they say they offer flexibility and work life balance. Over the years, I’ve added and removed clients to make my client load right for whatever was best with my family at the time. Pay is reasonable and the better you are at your job, the more you make, which I think is the way it ought to be everywhere. You aren’t going to make maximum dollars here like you would at a tax firm, but you also don’t have the long hours, stress, and responsibility required with that so it’s all about what matters to you
Interesting clients, diverse work, team atmosphere, good pay! You can start with less complex clients and navigate to more complex clients. There is never a shortage of work, managers will ensure your workload is suitable.
(from Glassdoor):
Bookminders offers flexibility that just isn’t available at other companies. I can take my child to swim class in the middle of the day on a Thursday and then do work that evening after bedtime
I’ve been with Bookminders a little over 10 years and the biggest pro is work hours flexibility. I was able to add more clients when the kids went off to college and reduce hours whenever needed. Since we work from home they are aware of the need to be attentive to emails and phone calls. But it’s a hard job to learn and it takes about a year before you are making decent money. Navigating the Standards and Procedures and maintaining records of work time and client charges in the time tracking system is tedious. There is a lot of admin time spent on some work that is not compensated directly. But overall the compensation is fair.
“I started working at Bookminders after struggling to manage the standard full-time position while raising children. I appreciate the flexibility. I’m able to work more or less, depending on my availability. And my hourly wage ends up being even more than it was in a full-time job. This has been a great job, allowing me to be at the bus stop twice a day and be done with work in time to attend sports or school functions in the evening. The flip side? No benefits, and no paid vacation.”
Pay and benefits…
“Low pay, no paid time off, no benefits, and there are strict guidelines… if you don’t use the correct font or fit size in correspondence you are docked “points.”
“You have to remember that working from home is not like being in an office where you can step to the next office to get a quick answer. You will get your answer but may take a couple hours. I’ve been with Bookminders for 2 years. It took a good year to feel comfortable and 2 years to feel confident.”
“Mix of at home and at client office work. very flexible schedule and lots of paid training. pay starts out low and grows as assigned more clients. Pay is based mainly on transactions and some hourly.”
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