A retail bookkeeper checks each store's daily sales against its cash deposit and card settlements, pays vendors against purchase orders and warehouse receipts, and tracks gift cards and sales tax. They work in the central office and help the chief financial officer close the books each month.
By the HireBus team · Updated · Pay data: BLS, May 2025
We're looking for a Bookkeeper to keep our daily store money and vendor bills accurate. You'll match each store's sales to its deposits and card settlements, pay vendors against purchase orders and receipts, and track gift cards and sales tax. You'll help the CFO close the books each month.
2. Essential Duties and Responsibilities
Audit daily sales: match each store's POS sales to deposits, card settlements and over and short reports.
Enter vendor invoices and match them to purchase orders and warehouse receipts before payment.
Pay vendors on their terms, and take early payment discounts the CFO approves.
Reconcile bank, credit card and payment processor accounts each month.
Track gift card and store credit balances, including any unclaimed property reporting your state requires.
Prepare sales tax reports for each store and for online sales, for the CFO to review.
Support the month-end close with accruals, schedules and inventory entries.
3. Key Tasks / Daily Activities
Review yesterday's store deposits and flag missing or short deposits to District Managers.
Process vendor invoices and credit memos.
Answer store questions about petty cash and deposits.
Post card settlements and online payments.
File receipts, invoices and backup so every entry can be traced.
4. Key Performance Indicators (KPIs)
Daily sales audit completed on time: [your target].
Invoice matching accuracy: [your target].
Vendor payments made on terms: [your target].
Month-end tasks completed by deadline: [your target].
5. Required Qualifications and Skills
[2+] years of bookkeeping or accounts payable experience.
Experience with [QuickBooks or your accounting system] and spreadsheets.
Understands bank reconciliations and matching purchase orders, receipts and invoices.
Accurate with numbers and careful with confidential information.
6. Preferred Experience
Retail bookkeeping experience with daily store sales.
Experience filing sales tax in more than one state.
Associate degree in accounting or a related field.
7. Physical Requirements
Sit at a desk and use a computer for most of the day.
With or without reasonable accommodation.
8. Work Environment and Schedule
Central office, weekday hours[, with hybrid options per your policy].
Longer days at month-end and year-end.
Occasional trips to stores to help with cash and deposit questions.
9. Compensation and Benefits
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 they start].
10. Company Culture and Overview
[Two or three sentences on what your company does, the area you serve, and the support a new bookkeeper gets in the first 90 days.]
11. How to Apply
[Apply link or email]. Our process: [phone interview, in-person interview, and next steps]. Contact [hiring contact] if you need an accommodation during the application process.
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What makes bookkeeping different for a store chain
Most bookkeepers handle invoices and a bank account. Here, 10 to 15 stores close out their registers every night, and a warehouse receives the goods that vendors bill for.
Every store's day has to balance
Each store reports its register sales, cash count and deposit every night. The bookkeeper checks the cash against the bank, the card sales against the processor's deposits, which often post after the sale date with fees taken out, and online payouts against web orders. A short deposit goes to the District Manager that morning, while the people who worked the shift still remember it.
The warehouse receipt decides what you pay
Vendors bill for what they shipped, which isn't always what arrived. Before paying, the bookkeeper lines up each invoice with the buyer's purchase order and the warehouse's receiving record, then asks the vendor for a credit on short or damaged cartons. Paying from the invoice alone means paying for stock that never reached a shelf.
Old gift cards can end up owed to the state
Unused gift cards and store credits stay on the books as money owed to shoppers. The unclaimed property administrators' state tables show some states exempt gift certificates, while others treat them as unclaimed after a set number of years, often three or five. Credit memos have their own table, and a state that exempts one may not exempt the other. The bookkeeper keeps balances by issue date and by state, so the CFO can report what each state requires. Source: National Association of Unclaimed Property Administrators: Gift certificates by state.
Card numbers stay out of the files
Chargebacks, refunds and phoned-in orders can put card numbers on paper or in email. The card industry's security council tells small merchants not to keep card data they don't need. Shred it, black out anything that must stay on paper and lock it away, and delete emails with card details once the payment is processed. For a chargeback, ask your processor what backup it needs before copying anything. Source: PCI Security Standards Council: Guide to safe payments for small merchants.
December sales, January paperwork
Gift card sales and deposits peak in December. Then come the returns, the gift card redemptions and the vendor bills for holiday stock. Many chains also take their physical count after the holiday, and the year-end close follows. Expect overtime in those weeks, and keep vacations off the calendar until the books are closed.
How much retail bookkeepers make
The closest BLS group for retail bookkeepers is bookkeeping, accounting, and auditing clerks. Bookkeeping, accounting, and auditing clerks who work for retailers earned a median of $22.04 an hour ($45,830 a year) in May 2025, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. That’s below the $50,670 median for bookkeeping, accounting, and auditing clerks in all industries. About 103,330 of the 1,373,680 bookkeeping, accounting, and auditing clerks in that survey work for retail stores.
Often hourly, earning overtime at month-end and in the weeks after the holiday. Moving a bookkeeper to salary doesn't by itself end the right to overtime. Experience with a multi-store sales audit is worth asking for, and worth paying for.
Retail stores
$45,830$45,830 median Middle half $37,760–$55,930 10th–90th $31,880–$66,270
All industries
$50,670$50,670 median Middle half $43,520–$61,470 10th–90th $36,000–$74,550
$20k$30k$40k$50k$60k$70k$80k
10th–90th percentileMiddle halfMedianAnnual pay, May 2025. Source: BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics.
Annual pay by percentile
Group
10th
25th
Median
75th
90th
Retail stores
$31,880
$37,760
$45,830
$55,930
$66,270
All industries
$36,000
$43,520
$50,670
$61,470
$74,550
These figures cover all retail. Pay differs by store type, so check what local stores like yours pay. Post a real range for your market in the ad.
Skills to hire for, and what you can teach
Hire for these
Has reconciled bank and card processor accounts down to each deposit
Matches purchase orders, receipts and invoices, and chases every difference
Notices a store whose cash runs short more often than the rest
Fast, careful entry in QuickBooks or a similar system, and solid spreadsheet skills
Asks what happened to a short deposit before assuming anything
Teach these on the job
Your POS end-of-day reports and over and short forms
Each store's bank and deposit routine
Your vendors' terms and which early-pay discounts the CFO approves
Your gift card and store credit setup
Where and how you file sales tax for each store and the website
The day starts in the POS end-of-day reports, the bank portal and the card processor's settlement reports, plus Shopify or another platform for online payouts. Books usually live in QuickBooks Online, Xero or NetSuite, with a spreadsheet for the daily sales audit.
Retail bookkeeper interview questions
They have their own page: 6 questions that test this job, what strong and weak answers sound like, and a work exercise to run with your finalists.
The template's blanks are yours to set. Base them on how many stores report each morning and how many invoices arrive in a normal week, then tighten them once the holiday is behind you.
Daily sales audit completed on time
Business days when every store's sales, cash and card settlements were checked by your cutoff, out of all business days. Note which stores sent late or incomplete reports.
Invoice matching accuracy
Pull last month's paid invoices and check each against its purchase order and warehouse receipt. A payment for cartons never received, a duplicate or a missed vendor credit counts as a miss.
Vendor payments made on terms
For each vendor, compare the payment date with the date its terms allowed. Paying early with no discount spends cash the buyers need for the next order, so count early payments as well as late ones.
Month-end tasks completed by deadline
Keep a close checklist with an owner and due date for each task, such as card reconciliations, accruals and the inventory entry. Score the share done on time, and talk through each late one with the CFO.
Sometimes. A business that receives more than 10,000 dollars in cash in one sale, or in related sales, must file IRS Form 8300 within 15 days and give the customer a written statement by January 31 of the next year. In some retail sales, cashier's checks and money orders count as cash too. Ask stores to tell the bookkeeper about any large cash sale the same day.
How much does a retail bookkeeper make?
Bookkeeping, accounting, and auditing clerks who work for retailers earned a median of $22.04 an hour ($45,830 a year) in May 2025, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. The middle half earned between $37,760 and $55,930 a year. Pay also depends on your local market, experience and overtime.
Is a sales auditor the same as a bookkeeper?
Large chains split the work. A sales audit team checks store money each morning, and an accounts payable team pays vendors. At 10 to 15 stores, one bookkeeper usually does both, and this template is written that way. If you add a second person later, splitting along that line is the natural place to start.
Should the bookkeeper also run payroll?
The template doesn't list payroll. Many chains this size use a payroll service, with HR entering hires and pay changes. If the bookkeeper takes it on anyway, divide the duties so no one person can both add a vendor or employee and approve the payment. That split is basic fraud control for a business that pays many people and vendors.
How much sales tax work does a retail bookkeeper do?
The template asks the bookkeeper to prepare sales tax reports for each store and for online sales, for the CFO to review, and lists filing in more than one state as a plus. Most of the work is keeping sales sorted by location and meeting each state's filing calendar. Ask candidates which states' returns they have prepared.
Should a retail bookkeeper visit the stores?
Now and then, yes. Watching a closing count and the deposit run teaches more than a month of over and short reports. Plan a visit to each new store soon after it opens and to any store with repeated shortages, with the District Manager along. Store teams also answer the bookkeeper's emails faster once they've met.
