This is the benefit to charging based on a percentage of your client's revenue. An industry standard would be to charge about 1-3% of your client's gross income, and that is about what they should spend on a monthly bookkeeper (or all of their bill pay and invoicing or other office tasks).

"A bookkeeper records the financial transactions of an organization and takes care of day-to-day functions such as recording sales and invoices, paying bills and processing payroll," Stephens said. "Accountants take the financial data and analyze it to help organizations make financial decisions."

Self-taught bookkeepers use a variety of courses, seminars, books, and other online resources to learn about bookkeeping and accounting. You can also learn how to use accounting software, like QuickBooks, which can teach you about the basics of bookkeeping as well as the technology used by many businesses.

Challenges bookkeepers face Most people would say that the work of a bookkeeper is hard. In addition to having basic bookkeeping education, one should be familiar with laws. Frequent changes in the legislation further complicate this work.