Bookkeeper, tax preparer, enrolled agent, CPA: who does what

Business owners use “my accountant” for whoever handles the numbers. The law is more particular. Some of these titles can be used by anyone; others take years to earn and can be taken away. Knowing which is which tells you what each person is permitted to do for you, and that is the quickest way to work out who you need.

What each may do for you

Role	Prepare tax returns	Represent you to the IRS	Audit or review statements
Bookkeeper	No	No	No
Tax preparer PTIN only	Yes	No	No
Tax preparer IRS annual program	Yes	Limited	No
Enrolled agent	Yes	Yes	No
CPA	Yes	Yes	Yes

All five may keep books and prepare financial statements for your own use. A bookkeeper who registers for a PTIN becomes a tax preparer as well. Attorneys also have full representation rights.

Bookkeeper

The Bureau of Labor Statistics describes the work as computing, classifying, and recording data “to help organizations keep complete and accurate financial records,” and notes that bookkeepers “often are responsible for some or all of an organization’s accounts, known as the general ledger.”¹ In a small business that means recording and categorizing transactions, reconciling bank and card accounts, tracking what is owed in both directions, often running payroll, and closing each month so the reports can be relied on.

No license is required. The model law that most states base their accountancy acts on reserves only audit, review, and similar work to CPAs, and says: “Anyone, whether licensed or not, may offer and perform any other kind of accounting service, including tax services, management advisory services, and the preparation of financial statements.”² California’s act, for example, expressly does not apply to “keeping books, making trial balances, statements… all as a part of bookkeeping operations.”³

One wrinkle is the word itself. In Texas a person may hold out as an “accountant” only if licensed, so a Texas bookkeeper who is not a CPA cannot use that title.³ Rules of this kind vary by state.

What bookkeeping credentials mean

Because the field is open, the credentials in it are voluntary and issued by private bodies. They are worth understanding for what they do and do not show.

• Certified Bookkeeper (CB), from the American Institute of Professional Bookkeepers: a four-part exam, “at least 2 years’ full-time bookkeeping experience or 3,000 hours’ part-time or freelance experience,” a signed code of ethics, and 60 hours of continuing education every three years.⁴
• Certified Public Bookkeeper (CPB), from the National Association of Certified Public Bookkeepers. The association calls it a license; it is issued by the association, not by a government.⁴
• QuickBooks ProAdvisor certification. Intuit says it “means that someone has passed our QuickBooks proficiency certification exam.”⁵ It shows skill with the software, which is useful, and nothing about accounting judgment beyond that.

None of these is required, and plenty of excellent bookkeepers hold none. With no license to check, the better questions are practical ones: how long they have done this, for what kinds of business, what their month-end routine is, and whether a client like you will vouch for them.

Tax preparer

Anyone paid to prepare a federal tax return must hold a Preparer Tax Identification Number, a PTIN, and must sign the return.⁶ That is the whole federal requirement. In the IRS’s words, “Anyone can be a paid tax return preparer as long as they have an IRS Preparer Tax Identification Number.”⁷ A PTIN is a registration. It is not a qualification.

What a PTIN does not carry is the right to stand in for you. Preparers with a PTIN and nothing more “have no authority to represent clients before the IRS,” even about a return they prepared.⁸

There is a middle tier. Preparers who complete the IRS’s voluntary Annual Filing Season Program, 18 hours of continuing education a year, earn limited rights: they “may only represent clients whose returns they prepared and signed, but only before revenue agents, customer service representatives, and similar IRS employees.” Appeals and collection matters are outside it.⁸

A few states regulate preparers on their own. California requires most paid preparers who are not CPAs, enrolled agents, or attorneys to register with the California Tax Education Council, and Oregon licenses them.⁹

Enrolled agent

An enrolled agent is a tax specialist licensed by the IRS itself. The usual route is “a three-part comprehensive IRS test covering individual and business tax returns”; the other is five years of relevant experience as an IRS employee. Keeping the credential takes 72 hours of continuing education every three years, including ethics.¹⁰

The credential is federal, so it is not tied to one state, and it comes with what the IRS calls unlimited representation rights. Enrolled agents, CPAs, and attorneys “may represent their clients on any matters including audits, payment/collection issues, and appeals.”⁸

What an enrolled agent’s license does not cover is anything outside tax. They cannot audit or review financial statements.

CPA

Certified public accountants are “licensed by state boards of accountancy” and “have passed the Uniform CPA Examination.”⁸ Their training is the broadest of the four: accounting, auditing, tax, and business law. Like enrolled agents, they have unlimited rights before the IRS.

The work that the law reserves to them is assurance: telling a third party how far a set of financial statements can be trusted. Under the model act, “only licensees… may issue a report on financial statements… or offer to render or render any attest or compilation service.”² In practice:

• If a bank, investor, or bonding company asks for audited, reviewed, or compiled statements, you need a CPA firm. No one else may issue those reports.
• If you need statements for your own use, to see how the business is doing or to give your tax preparer, a bookkeeper may prepare them. They simply come without any assurance attached, and may not claim to follow the CPA profession’s standards.²

Who you need, by situation

Matching the job to the person

If you need	Look for
Books kept current and reconciled every month	A bookkeeper
Years of neglected books rebuilt	A bookkeeper, working with whoever will file the returns
A business or personal tax return prepared	An enrolled agent or CPA; or a preparer whose record you have checked
Advice on entity choice or a major transaction	A CPA or enrolled agent, sometimes with an attorney
Someone to answer an IRS notice, audit, or collection action	An enrolled agent, CPA, or attorney
Reviewed or audited statements for a lender	A CPA firm

The division is partly about permission and partly about cost. The national median wage for accountants and auditors is $83,680 a year; for bookkeeping, accounting, and auditing clerks it is $50,670.¹ Paying tax-specialist rates to have transactions categorized is poor value. So is asking a bookkeeper to argue a point of tax law they are not permitted to argue.

How they hand work to each other

When the roles are separate, the quality of the handoff decides how the year-end goes. Three facts about it are less widely known than they should be.

A bookkeeper who prepares books for a tax preparer is not a tax preparer

The IRS addresses this case directly. Someone who gathers and records a client’s information and passes it to the person who prepares the return “is not a tax return preparer, and is not required to have a PTIN.” Preparing W-2s and 1099s does not require one either.¹¹ This is why a bookkeeper can properly handle your year-end 1099s without being your tax preparer.

You can let your bookkeeper see your IRS records

Form 8821 lets you authorize “any individual, corporation, firm, organization, or partnership you designate to inspect and/or receive your confidential information” for the tax types and years you list, and to receive copies of IRS notices if you check that box. It gives no right to act for you: it “doesn’t authorize your designee to speak on your behalf.”¹² For that, Form 2848 is required, and the person named on it generally has to be an attorney, CPA, or enrolled agent.

For bookkeeping this is often all that is needed. It lets the person keeping your books confirm what the IRS shows as filed and paid, and catch a notice before it becomes a problem.

Outsourcing payroll does not outsource the responsibility

Whether payroll is run by your bookkeeper, a payroll company, or a reporting agent, the IRS’s position is the same: the “employer/client, not the PSP, remains liable for ensuring all tax returns are filed timely and all deposits and payments are made timely.”¹³ The form that appoints a reporting agent says so on its face, and adds that the employer “may enroll in the Electronic Federal Tax Payment System (EFTPS) to view deposits and payments made on my behalf.” Enrolling takes a few minutes and is the simplest check there is on whoever handles your payroll.

What the tax preparer needs from the books

Preparers differ in what they ask for, but a well-kept set of books should be able to produce all of the following without a scramble:

• a profit and loss statement and balance sheet for the year, on the same basis as last year’s return;
• the general ledger, or access to the accounting file;
• year-end reconciliations for every bank, card, and loan account;
• a list of equipment bought or sold, with dates and amounts;
• year-end loan statements showing interest paid;
• payroll reports and the W-2s and 1099s that were filed; and
• what the owners put in and took out.

The balance sheet is on that list for a reason. For S corporations and partnerships above a size threshold it goes on the return itself, and the instructions say it “should agree with the corporation’s books and records.”¹⁴ Our article on balance-sheet checks covers how to tell whether it will.

How to check a credential

All of these take a couple of minutes and cost nothing.

• Tax credentials: the IRS Directory of Federal Tax Return Preparers lists attorneys, CPAs, enrolled agents, and annual-program participants who hold a valid PTIN. Preparers with only a PTIN do not appear in it.¹⁵
• CPAs: CPAverify, run by the national association of state boards, or your state board of accountancy.¹⁶
• Enrolled agents: the IRS directory above, or a request to the IRS Office of Enrollment.¹⁰
• Bookkeepers: there is no registry, because there is no license. Ask for references from clients in a similar business, and ask to see a sample month-end report package with the client’s details removed.

Where we fit. Bunker Bookkeeping is a bookkeeping practice. We keep the books current and reconciled through the year and hand your tax preparer the reports and records they need at the end of it.

Sources

1. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Occupational Outlook Handbook, Bookkeeping, Accounting, and Auditing Clerks and Accountants and Auditors. Median wages for May 2025; pages last modified August 27, 2026.
2. American Institute of CPAs and National Association of State Boards of Accountancy, Uniform Accountancy Act, Ninth Edition, July 2025, introduction and section 14. This is a model law; each state adopts its own version.
3. California Board of Accountancy, California Accountancy Act, current as of January 1, 2026, section 5052; Texas Occupations Code chapter 901, section 901.453.
4. American Institute of Professional Bookkeepers, The Certified Bookkeeper (CB) designation; National Association of Certified Public Bookkeepers, Certified Public Bookkeeper license.
5. Intuit, Find a QuickBooks ProAdvisor and Become a certified ProAdvisor.
6. Internal Revenue Service, PTIN requirements for tax return preparers, page last reviewed October 16, 2025; Instructions for Form 1040 (2025), paid preparer must sign.
7. Internal Revenue Service, Choosing a tax professional. Page last reviewed August 21, 2026.
8. Internal Revenue Service, Understanding tax return preparer credentials and qualifications, page last reviewed January 29, 2026; Annual Filing Season Program.
9. California Tax Education Council, Tax preparers; Oregon Board of Tax Practitioners, home page.
10. Internal Revenue Service, Enrolled agent information; Maintain your enrolled agent status, page last reviewed September 15, 2026; Verify the status of an enrolled agent. The experience route is in Treasury Circular 230, section 10.4.
11. Internal Revenue Service, Frequently asked questions: Do I need a PTIN? Page last reviewed October 9, 2026.
12. Internal Revenue Service, Instructions for Form 8821, Tax Information Authorization, and Instructions for Form 2848, Power of Attorney and Declaration of Representative.
13. Internal Revenue Service, Third party arrangement chart, page last reviewed June 30, 2026; Form 8655, Reporting Agent Authorization, Rev. January 2024.
14. Internal Revenue Service, Instructions for Form 1120-S (2025).
15. Internal Revenue Service, Annual Filing Season Program, describing who the directory lists. Page last reviewed January 29, 2026.
16. National Association of State Boards of Accountancy, Getting a license and CPAverify.