Can anyone please explain to me about the following...
I keep hearing that Accountancy Companies employ Bookkeepers. Now is it a case of the company pass on a clients books to you, you sort them out and put them onto software at your house, then you give everything back to the company and they sort the rest? If this is the case does the Bookkeeper have to be classed as self employed?
Many accounting practices will have bookkeepers employed, however, quite a few also contract the bookkeeping out. Often this is to local bookkeepers they have built a relationship with, and sometimes receive the accounts work for bookkeepers own clients in exchange.
How it is managed really just depends on the individual arrangements rather than any standard industry accepted method. I'd expect in a lot of cases the bookkeeper will act as a part of the practice and either visit clients, work from within the practice, or even from their own home/office if they have the same software... but I'd expect all files & communication are handled by or through the practice. I am sure there will be some practices though that simply refer clients to bookkeepers and don't deal directly with the bookkeeping side themselves.
Unless the bookkeeper is an employee of the practice, they would be self-employed as a contractor to the practice.
