Accountants have higher salary and growth expectations than bookkeepers. To maximize earning potential and secure long-term job stability, it's worth pursuing a career as an accountant.

Bookkeeping is a direct record of all purchases and sales your business conducts, while accounting is a subjective look at what that data means for your business and cash flow strategies. An accountant can be considered a bookkeeper, but a bookkeeper can't be an accountant without proper certification.

Bookkeepers line up all the small pieces of a company's financial records, and accountants view and arrange those pieces. Accounting often requires more education than becoming a bookkeeper, where most accountants hold undergraduate or graduate degrees or even MBAs in accounting, economics, or finance.

Think of a bookkeeper like a nurse – a professional who does the day-to-day work such as allocating expenses and paying bills – while the accountant is more like a doctor, analysing data and providing specialist advice. A profitable business needs both.