A bookkeeper records the money a home service business takes in and pays out. They pay bills, invoice customers and collect what's owed, reconcile bank and card accounts, and often help with payroll. What sets the job apart in the trades is job costing: posting labor, materials and subcontractor costs to each job, which shows the owner which jobs made money and which didn't.
Bookkeeper · Any home service business · Word (.docx) · No email needed.
Bookkeeper job description template
Free to copy. Replace the highlighted fields, delete anything you don’t offer, and set your pay range before you post.
[Company name] · [City, State]
Bookkeeper
[Full-time / part-time] · [Base pay range and pay period] · Reports to [owner, controller or chief financial officer]
Position summary
As a bookkeeper at [Company name], you'll own our day-to-day financial records. You'll pay vendor bills, invoice customers and follow up on what's owed, reconcile our bank and credit card accounts, and post costs to each job. You'll [help with payroll,] close each month, and give [the owner and our outside accountant] numbers they can trust.
What you’ll do
Enter and pay vendor and supply house bills on their terms, coded to the right job or expense account.
Send customer invoices, post payments, and follow up on unpaid balances.
Reconcile bank, credit card, [merchant and financing] accounts every month.
Post labor, materials and subcontractor costs to each job in [your accounting or field service software].
[Check hours, commissions and pay changes before payroll runs in your payroll system.]
Collect a Form W-9 from each subcontractor before the first payment, and prepare 1099 forms at year-end.
Close each month with reconciliations, [sales tax reports] and financial statements for [the owner or outside accountant].
A typical day
Enter the day's bills and receipts, and attach the backup to each entry.
Post customer payments and deposits, and match each one to an open invoice.
Code card charges and supply house receipts to a job, a truck or an expense account.
Answer vendor, customer and staff questions about bills, payments and paychecks.
Flag anything that doesn't tie out, such as a missing deposit or a duplicate bill, and follow it until it's fixed.
What you need
[2+] years of bookkeeping or accounting clerk experience.
Working knowledge of [QuickBooks or your accounting software] and spreadsheets.
Understands debits and credits, bank reconciliations, accounts payable and receivable, and month-end close.
[Associate degree in accounting, or equal bookkeeping experience].
Careful with details, and keeps pay and financial information private.
Nice to have
Has kept the books for a [trade, construction or other job-based] company, including job costing.
Payroll experience with hourly field employees and overtime.
Has connected [your field service software] to the accounting system, or cleaned up entries after a bad sync.
A bookkeeping credential, such as [QuickBooks ProAdvisor or Certified Bookkeeper].
Physical requirements
Seated work on a computer, with breaks for filing and the mail.
Lifting files and supply boxes up to [15] pounds now and then.
With or without reasonable accommodation.
Schedule and work environment
[On site at office location; hybrid or remote work if your policy allows].
Hours are [days and times]; expect longer days around closings and [tax filing dates].
Works closely with [the owner, the office manager and your outside accountant or CPA].
Pay and benefits
Base pay: [range and hourly or salary basis]. Additional pay: [overtime, bonus or incentive terms, or none].
Benefits: [health, dental, vision, retirement, paid time off, and when eligibility starts].
How to apply
Apply at [application link]. Our process is [phone interview, in-person interview, and next steps]. Contact [hiring contact] if you need an accommodation during the application process.
How the bookkeeper role changes by industry
Paying bills, reconciling accounts and closing the month look alike in every trade. What changes by industry is where the money comes from and how costs attach to the work: supply house bills tied to service calls, insurance claim payments on restoration jobs, day sheets at a dental office, or register sales at a restaurant. The industry versions below show those differences.
Processes invoices and vendor payments, reconciles bank and credit card statements, watches cash flow, and helps the finance team with month-end and year-end closing.
Puts job costing up front: tracks what each roofing project spends, reconciles bank and credit accounts daily, and works out cost questions with project managers and vendors.
Runs accounts payable and receivable, checks that bills and invoices are coded correctly, and helps with monthly, quarterly and annual closings. Job cost experience is a plus.
Reconciles accounts daily and monthly, runs outgoing billing, answers customer billing questions, and helps the finance manager with reports and audits.
Ties every practice's daily deposits back to the day sheet, pays dental lab and supply bills, issues patient and insurance refunds, and reviews the payroll register before it's submitted.
Matches each location's daily sales report to cash, card settlements and third-party delivery payouts, tracks gift cards, and readies sales tax returns and tip records for review.
Audits each store's daily sales, matches vendor bills to purchase orders and receipts before paying them, and prepares sales tax reports for store and online sales.
Start with three or four. Your accountant can help you pick targets using your own recent months; none of them is an industry benchmark.
Days after month-end until the reconciled reports reach the owner: [your target].
Vendor bills paid by their due date: [your target].
Customer balances unpaid after [number] days: [your target].
Job costs posted to the right job within [time frame] of the job closing: [your target].
Payroll corrections needed after payroll runs: [your target].
Entries your outside accountant has to fix at [quarter-end or year-end]: [your target].
Before you hire a bookkeeper
Say where the job stops. State in the ad whether the bookkeeper runs payroll, files sales tax and calls customers about unpaid bills, or only prepares that work for your accountant. A full-charge bookkeeper keeps the whole set of books; an accounting clerk handles one part.
Test how they chase money. Hand finalists a short customer aging report and a vendor statement that doesn't agree with your records. Ask which balances they'd follow up on first and how they'd find the difference with the vendor. Use made-up names and numbers.
Ask how they'd set up job costing. Ask how they would get labor, materials and subcontractor costs onto each job in your software, and what report they'd show you each month. People who have done it describe the steps; people who haven't describe the idea.
Keep a second set of eyes on the bank. Have the owner, or anyone who doesn't pay the bills, look over the bank and card statements each month. It protects the business and the bookkeeper.
When applications come in, Iris interviews applicants by phone using your requirements. Your team reviews the answers and decides who to meet.
Bookkeeper interview questions
Two of the 10 questions in our bookkeeper interview guide, and what a strong answer sounds like.
Situational · Payables and collections
This week's bills come to more than what's in the bank, and a large customer payment you counted on hasn't arrived. The supply house, a subcontractor, the truck lease and the company card are due, and payroll runs next week. What do you do?
A strong answer: Protects next week's payroll and the taxes withheld from it, since that money belongs to employees and the IRS. Chases the biggest collectible balances, calls vendors before the due date to agree on a new one, and brings the owner a short cash plan with options.
Behavioral · Job costing
Describe a job cost report you worked on that showed a job, a crew or a kind of work losing money. What did you find when you dug in?
A strong answer: Names the report and the work, first checked for miscoded bills or missing labor, then found a real cause such as underpriced work, extra trips or material overruns. Brought it to the owner with numbers and can say what changed.
Day to day, a bookkeeper turns bills, receipts, deposits and timecards into records the owner and the outside accountant can rely on. Many also handle payroll, which has its own deadlines: the IRS requires employers to deposit and report federal employment taxes, including withheld income tax, Social Security and Medicare. Owners often use a payroll service for that and have the bookkeeper check each run before it's submitted.
How much does a bookkeeper make?
U.S. median pay for bookkeeping, accounting and auditing clerks was $24.36 an hour, or $50,670 a year, in May 2025, according to BLS data published by O*NET. That covers every industry, not only home service businesses, so check local postings too. Under federal rules, bookkeepers who do mostly routine work generally don't qualify for the professional exemption from overtime. Ask an employment lawyer or your CPA before treating the job as exempt.
What is the difference between a bookkeeper, an accountant and a CPA?
Bookkeepers keep the daily records: what came in, what went out, and whether each account ties out. An accountant reviews those records, prepares financial statements and tax returns, and advises the owner; BLS says accountants typically need at least a bachelor's degree. A CPA is licensed by a state board of accountancy after passing the Uniform CPA Examination and meeting the state's other requirements. CPAs, enrolled agents and attorneys can represent clients before the IRS on any tax matter. Many home service businesses pair an in-house bookkeeper with an outside CPA.
Does a bookkeeper handle 1099s for subcontractors?
Often, yes. The IRS says to have each independent contractor fill out Form W-9 with their name and taxpayer ID number, and to keep it on file for four years. Form 1099-NEC reports payments to someone who isn't your employee for services in your business, including parts or materials used to do the work. For tax years beginning after 2025, the IRS threshold is $2,000 a year per payee. Payments to corporations are generally left out, but payments for legal services are not. The form is due to the IRS and the contractor by January 31. Whether a worker is a contractor or an employee depends on how much you control the work, so ask your CPA when you're unsure.
Does a bookkeeper file sales tax?
Many prepare the returns for the owner or CPA to review. Sales tax is set by each state, and states treat service work differently. Washington taxes installing, repairing and cleaning property for consumers, and names furnace repair. Texas taxes all labor and materials to repair or remodel commercial property, such as an office or a restaurant, but that rule leaves out family homes. Have your CPA set up the tax codes for every state you work in, and have the bookkeeper spot-check invoices for the correct rate.
What should a bookkeeper job description include?
List the software the bookkeeper will use for accounting, payroll and scheduling. Give a sense of the volume: how many bank and card accounts, about how many bills a week, and whether you run more than one company. Mention job costing if you want it, and say whether an outside CPA reviews the books. Give the pay range, who the bookkeeper reports to, and the longer hours around closings.
Is the HireBus Role Blueprint free?
Yes. Copy the bookkeeper template straight from this page, or download the Word version with no sign-up; neither costs anything. Besides the general version, each industry that hires bookkeepers has its own.
HireBus Role Blueprints: 75 industry versions of the bookkeeper job description, reviewed for publication on October 20, 2026.
Pay and outlook figures cover all bookkeeping, accounting and auditing clerks in every industry, not only home service businesses. O*NET reports 1,532,400 people employed in 2025 and projects employment to decline (−1% or lower), with about 144,100 job openings a year, on average, from 2025 to 2035.
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