I found an interesting article at http://bit.ly/hZuf4E that talks about the characteristics of a good bookkeeper. When interviewing your bookkeeper for possible hire, try to pick someone who loves numbers, is detail oriented, has good time management skills, is a technology guru, and is analytical.

My favorite part of the article was the section on time management. One of the four key elements of time management mentioned was NOT to multi-task but to focus on one task at a time. I am not a multi-tasker and agree with financial strategist Jacqueline Williams that it is best to work on one task at a time to completion. When I prepared tax returns for a few tax seasons I liked to do the work because it was not multi-tasking. I had to focus on one tax client at a time and bring that tax return to a close (or closest to being finished) before moving on to the next tax return. The same is true with my QuickBooks training. We focus on one section of QuickBooks before moving onto a new section of QuickBooks. And bookkeeping is the same. I focus on one section of the accounting, such as reconciling the bank statement, before moving onto a new task such as entering bills. I perform my work in batches.

Read the article that I posted and tell me which characteristic is most important to you. What type of personality traits do you want your bookkeeper to have?