Although not all of us have a natural ability to work with figures, we will all agree that the accounts department is the heart of any company and one which it cannot function without.  Martie Opperman is one lady who has a natural knack for figures.  We talked to her about her job.

Basics

A bookkeeper is an integral part of any company and processes the transactions and bank statements of an organisation, while ensuring that accounts and payments are continually reconciled. A bookkeeper can earn anything between R5 000 and R20 000, depending on experience and qualifications. 

Job description

Martie’s responsibilities include checking the company’s bank statements, as well as handling the reconciliations of accounts for the company. She also has to process the daily fuel sales, organise the banking of the moneys received, as well as generate invoices and control the rental for the property division of the airport company. There are a number of menial tasks that are also associated with this, but the list above constitutes her main tasks.

Pros and cons

To Martie, the pros of her current job are easy to explain, and perhaps a bit different to a number of people in other positions.

“I love working with figures – I know it sounds boring, but as a child I wanted to work in accounts,” Martie says. “I enjoy reconciling accounts, sorting out a problem and rectifying it. To me, if you have to go further, another favourite is checking the bank statements every morning.” 

However, it isn’t all wine and roses in her profession, as there are often problems that come up that take a lot of time to sort out.

“The only con that comes to mind is that I hate to struggle to find a problem and figure out where the problem originated.”

Required studies or experience

Although colleges offer Bookkeeping courses and diplomas, experience is still more important than any diploma or course.  “I will definitely recommend that students obtain      diplomas or go on bookkeeping courses

“Other than the tertiary qualifications, you need to be someone who is hardworking,  pays infinite attention to detail and who is meticulous about your work as mistakes can often lead to massive problems down the line.”

Personality type

To be a bookkeeper, Martie believes that you have to have a lot of patience, especially when it comes to sorting out problems and attending to enquiries while you are busy doing a recon on another account. 

“You have to be a figure-orientated person and very meticulous about detail.  Although most people believe that accountspeople work individually, our department consists of six people.  We all work together for the better of the whole company and as a team it makes things a lot easier.”

An average day

Normally I would start off in the morning by printing out the bank statements and then compare them to the list that our debtor’s clerks have forwarded to me on payments we can expect. This is an ongoing process where we allocate money deposited to accounts.  In turn, I will advise them if payment is not received so that they can follow up on each individual case once again.  Another lady in the department looks after our tax and UIF returns, which is also a bookkeeping function and which is rather time-consuming.

Best thing about the job

“The best thing about my job is that it stimulates my passion for accounts and figures.  Another bonus is the fact that I only work half-day, so I have time to spend with Tarien, my 7-year old daughter and I can help her when she is doing homework – and of course maths, in the afternoon. 

Worst thing about the job

The worst thing about my job is that there are so many people involved in the accounting process, and this can make the process tedious at times. At the end of the chain, it is all left to me to do the final reconciliation; including checking that all the other parties have given the correct input in a specific account.

Brenden Nel