How to choose a bookkeeper in Australia

Short answer

Check the licence first — bookkeepers need a licence for some work and not other work. Then check that the business is who it says it is: of the 436 Australian bookkeepers in this directory, only 14.7% publish an ABN you can confirm, and 9.9% list a phone number that contradicts the one on their own website.

Bookkeepers handle day-to-day accounts, reconciliations, payroll, invoicing and BAS preparation in Xero, MYOB or QuickBooks. This is what to check before you hand over your bank feeds, and what the evidence says about the category as a whole.

Bookkeepers are licensed for some work and not others

Plain bookkeeping needs no licence. The moment a bookkeeper prepares or lodges your BAS, or advises on GST, they must be registered as a BAS agent with the Tax Practitioners Board. Many are; the ones who are not should be handing that part to your accountant.

The TPB register at tpb.gov.au lists BAS agents as well as tax agents. If your bookkeeper will touch BAS or GST, their name should be on it.

What 436 Australian bookkeepers actually publish

We check every business in this directory the same way, and publish the result whether it flatters the trade or not. For bookkeepers:

What we checkedBookkeepersAll trades
Publish an ABN we could confirm14.7%21.5%
Listed phone matches their own website58.1%59.2%
Listed phone contradicts their own website9.9%7.7%
Website responded when we checked83%81%
Corroborated by two or more sources96.9%81.1%
Median number of Google reviews639

What goes wrong with bookkeepers

  • BAS lodged by an unregistered bookkeeper, which the ATO can treat as your own error
  • Access to your bank feeds and payroll with no written agreement about what they may and may not do
  • A software subscription in the bookkeeper's name rather than yours, so leaving means losing the file

What to ask before the work starts

  1. Are you a registered BAS agent, and what is the number?
  2. Whose name is the accounting software subscription in?
  3. How often will I see the reconciled accounts, and who else has access?

A bookkeeper who answers all three of those without hesitating is telling you something useful. One who is vague about a licence number is telling you something too.

The median matters more than the average

The median bookkeeper in this directory has 6 Google reviews. That is the number to hold in your head when you see a perfect five-star rating: five stars from four reviews and 4.6 from three hundred are not comparable, and the second is almost always the safer hire.

It is also why the ranking here weights review volume more heavily than review score. A business cannot buy its position, and a handful of glowing reviews does not move it far.

Where to check a licence, by state

There is no national register. Search the licence number with the regulator for the state where the work is happening.

Common questions

Do bookkeepers need a licence in Australia?
Sometimes. Plain bookkeeping needs no licence. The moment a bookkeeper prepares or lodges your BAS, or advises on GST, they must be registered as a BAS agent with the Tax Practitioners Board. Many are; the ones who are not should be handing that part to your accountant.
How do I check a bookkeeper's licence?
The TPB register at tpb.gov.au lists BAS agents as well as tax agents. If your bookkeeper will touch BAS or GST, their name should be on it.
What percentage of Australian bookkeepers have a verifiable ABN?
14.7% of the 436 bookkeepers in this directory publish an ABN we could confirm against the national register, against 21.5% across all trades.
How many reviews should a bookkeeper have?
The median bookkeeper here has 6. Treat a five-star rating from a handful of reviews with more caution than a slightly lower rating from hundreds.

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