Bookkeeping
Every transaction recorded against a document, reconciled to the bank, and kept in the books the BIR registered you to keep. Done monthly, so the numbers are current when you need them rather than rebuilt when something is due.
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First, the distinction
The two get used interchangeably and they are not the same work. Bookkeeping captures every transaction, classifies it, and reconciles it against the bank. Accounting takes that record and closes the period, produces the statements, and reads what they say.
The order matters more than the labels. Accounting built on weak bookkeeping produces numbers that look confident and are wrong — and the error surfaces at the worst possible moment, which is when something is due.
Need the wider function rather than the record? Our accounting service covers the close, the statements and the filings.
Any one of these is a bookkeeping problem rather than an accounting one, and it gets cheaper to fix the sooner it is looked at.
The work
Six pieces. Some businesses need all of them, some arrive with three already in hand — the point of the list is to work out which one is missing.
Every sale, purchase, payment and receipt entered against the document it came from, in the period it belongs to. Recorded as it happens rather than reconstructed later, which is the difference between a record and a reconstruction.
The categories your numbers live in, built around how your business actually earns and spends. Worth doing properly once: a template chart produces reports nobody can act on, and changing it later means restating everything behind it.
Your ledger agreed against the bank, line by line, every period. It catches the things nothing else catches — a payment recorded twice, a deposit that never cleared, a charge nobody authorised.
What you owe and what you are owed, both tracked rather than estimated. Invoices raised on time, bills validated before payment, and overdue accounts followed up while they are still collectable.
Balance sheet, income statement and cash flow statement for the period. This is the point the bookkeeping becomes something you can price a decision against.
Your registered books kept current and in the format they were registered in, so that what the BIR would ask to see is what actually exists.
The vocabulary
Every transaction we record ends up in one of these. Worth twenty seconds now, because it is the language every report we send you is written in.
What the business owns or is owed: cash, receivables, inventory, equipment.
What it owes: supplier bills, loans, accrued taxes, unpaid salaries.
What the owners have in it: capital contributions and retained earnings.
What it earns: sales of goods, service income, other operating income.
What it spends to earn that: salaries, rent, utilities, professional fees.
BIR books of accounts
Your books are registered with the BIR in one of three formats, and the format is part of the registration rather than a preference you can change quietly. We advise on which fits your volume before you commit to one.
Bound, pre-printed journals and ledgers written up by hand. Cheapest to register and the usual starting point for a business with low transaction volume.
No approval to use — the books themselves are registered.
Entries maintained in spreadsheets or a simple system, then printed and bound for the period. A middle ground once handwriting every line stops being realistic.
Needs BIR approval before use.
A software-based accounting system generating the books directly. Suits higher volume and multiple users, and removes the transcription step entirely.
Needs BIR approval before use.
Who we keep books for
What changes between sectors is the shape of the chart of accounts and which transactions dominate. The cycle underneath is the same, which is why a startup with no transactions yet and an importer with thousands a month both fit.
Questions we get
Bookkeeping is the record — every transaction captured, classified and reconciled as it happens. Accounting is what you do with that record: closing the period, producing statements, and interpreting what they say. Accounting built on weak bookkeeping produces confident-looking numbers that are wrong, which is why the record comes first.
Yes. The BIR requires registered books of accounts regardless of size, and the obligation starts with registration rather than with a revenue threshold. What changes with size is the format that makes sense and how much work the upkeep is — not whether you need them.
Yes, and it is common. We start by establishing where the records actually stand rather than assuming, then rebuild forward period by period from source documents. We will also tell you plainly what the gap means for anything that fell due while the books were behind.
Source documents: sales invoices, official receipts, supplier bills, bank statements and payroll records for the period. We agree how they reach us at the start — the method matters less than it being the same every month, because that is what keeps the close predictable.
Yes, and it is worth doing properly once. A chart of accounts built around how your business actually earns and spends makes every later report readable. One copied from a template produces categories nobody uses and a profit and loss nobody can act on.
You do. The books are your records, kept in your name, and they go with you if the engagement ends. We would hand over a complete set rather than a partial one.
Yes, as part of the wider accounting engagement. Bookkeeping that is not tied to the filing calendar tends to produce a scramble at each deadline. When the same team reconciles the period and lodges the return, the numbers being filed are the numbers in the ledger.
It is driven by volume, not by company size: transactions per month, number of bank accounts, whether payroll is included, and the state of the books when we start. That is why an honest quote needs those four answers first. Send them and we will come back with a figure and what it covers.
Current, patchy, or untouched since registration — it changes what we do first, not whether we can help.