Insurance for bookkeepers

Professional liability insurance, sometimes called errors and omissions insurance (E&O insurance), is insurance coverage for claims against businesses that provide professional and personal services – for businesses like yours. When is it important to have professional liability insurance? Examples include:

• Journal entry error: As a bookkeeper you are responsible for recording the day-to-day financial transactions for small businesses which can be an activity prone to simple human error. Professional liability insurance could protect you if you face a claim for negligence, even if you haven’t made a mistake.
• Negligence: A client has hired you as bookkeeper. While working for the client you provided revenue and expense information to the client’s accountant who prepared the client’s taxes. The client was audited, and irregularities were found which resulted in a fine from the IRS. The client sued you for negligence. Professional liability insurance can protect against claims of negligence and will appoint an attorney if needed, even if they haven’t made a mistake.

Learn more about professional liability insurance.

General liability insurance, sometimes called Commercial General Liability (CGL), protects your business from another person or business’s claims of bodily injury, associated medical costs, and damage to property. Having this kind of coverage is beneficial in several instances:

• Property damage: You’re visiting your client’s office for your quarterly review, and you accidentally spill coffee on your client’s brand new computer, damaging it beyond repair. General liability insurance will cover a claim that may arise, up to your limits of liability.
• Bodily injury: You have rented office space on the second floor of an antique house that had been renovated for commercial use. A client who was leaving the office fell down the stairs when a handrail gave way, suffering injuries that required treatment at the emergency room. The client sued for his injuries. General liability insurance protects against third-party claims of bodily injury, associated medical costs and property damage.
• Personal injury: A bookkeeper at your office made disparaging and untrue remarks about a client to a friend. The client turned out to be related to the friend, and the conversation got back to the client, who sued the bookkeeper for slander. General liability insurance protects recruiters against third-party claims of slander, property damage, bodily injury and associated medical costs.

Learn more about general liability insurance costs for your business.

Business owner's policy (BOP) is a combination of general liability and business property insurance. BOP is often used to provide balanced coverage for small businesses who also want to protect their own business equipment. Some examples of what could be covered are below:

• Bookkeepers manage large amounts of sensitive financial data on a daily basis. Loss or damage to your electronic data by fire could result in a loss of income for your business if you could not function. Our standard business owners policy includes up to $10,000 of coverage to replace or restore your electronic data.
• For example, a pipe bursts in the ceiling of your office damaging all your furniture, computers, and other business personal property. A business owner’s policy could cover the cost to replace the damaged property, allowing you to get back to business as soon as possible.

Learn more about business owner's policy insurance.

Bookkeepers handle sensitive customer data like credit card and bank account information, so they should be protected with cyber security insurance. This coverage would cover the cost if a bookkeeper’s computer system was hacked, they faced a ransomware demand, or even if they lost a laptop that contained client data.