Keyboards For Accountants: Which Ones Are The Best For Working With Numbers?

Best Key­board For Accoun­tants / Account­ing Keyboard Account­ing is a high­ly spe­cial­ized pro­fes­sion. Whether you’re the book­keep­er for a small fam­i­ly busi­ness or a char­tered pro­fes­sion­al accoun­tant (CPA) at a large con­glom­er­ate, work­ing with num­bers and num­bers-based data is detailed, chal­leng­ing work. It would help if you had the prop­er tools to do your job well, par­tic­u­lar­ly dur­ing stress­ful times like tax sea­son. Imag­ine not hav­ing the right gear to help you through those chaot­ic months. Your job would be even more challenging! In this arti­cle, we at seizeyourlifetoday.com take a look at the lat­est key­boards that make the work of pro­fes­sion­al accoun­tants and book­keep­ers more effi­cient and more com­fort­able. We scoured online sites that use these key­boards in the real world and made rec­om­men­da­tions to you, our read­ers, based on cer­tain fac­tors, includ­ing com­fort, price, and accuracy. If you work with num­bers, you’ll find the options for an eco­nom­i­cal and com­fort­able key­board detailed below. Con­tin­ue read­ing, and you’ll be able to choose one that’s right for you or the “num­bers guru” who works for you! (Note: No key­board is designed sole­ly for account­ing. How­ev­er, some designs are more per­fect for this pro­fes­sion than others!)

1- Microsoft Sculpt Ergonomic Keyboard

Plen­ty of pro­fes­sion­als rec­om­mend this mod­el, whose top pri­or­i­ty is com­fort at a rea­son­able price. This key­board is designed in two sec­tions, offer­ing the num­bers pad (or numpad, in pro­fes­sion­al account­ing par­lance) that’s sep­a­rate from the let­ters keyboard. If you’ve been using a tra­di­tion­al unit for ages, you may find that this two-part design takes a lit­tle get­ting used to. How­ev­er, online reviews sug­gest it’s a smart, effi­cient and eco­nom­ic key­board that’s worth the extra effort to become accus­tomed to it. And since the numpad is detached, you can move it else­where or even car­ry it to anoth­er desk, should you want to. This key­board gets top billing on plen­ty of account­ing equip­ment web­sites, so be sure to con­sid­er it when you’re look­ing to buy a new one. Fur­ther­more, it’s avail­able on Ama­zon for around $75 USD and goes upwards there to a max­i­mum of $150 (USD). The key­board has a USB don­gle that comes with it, but it does­n’t con­nect via Bluetooth.

2- Logitech G613 Lightspeed Wireless Mechanical Accounting Keyboard

This wire­less key­board gets rave reviews from account­ing pro­fes­sion­als, even though this one was actu­al­ly designed for gamers. The mechan­i­cal input does make a slight “click” when you’re using it, so if you share office space, the sound may be a bit dis­tract­ing for oth­ers. But it has oth­er ben­e­fits that out­weigh that slight issue, such as its pro­gram­ma­ble six inputs. (The soft­ware is provided). This is a real plus if you, like so many accoun­tants, want to add oft-used macros to par­tic­u­lar keys. And last­ly, this key­board can be con­nect­ed to Blue­tooth or with a don­gle that comes with it. All this, and raves from the indus­try, for about $120 (USD) on Ama­zon.

3- Logitech Ergo K860 Accounting Keyboard

Accord­ing to online reviews, this mod­el is the Cadil­lac of key­boards for accoun­tants. It’s an expen­sive unit, but reviews say it’s worth every pen­ny. It’s designed with com­fort as the top pri­or­i­ty, which is achieved with its low keys, which give you greater speed, and a cush­ioned wrist pad. The low­er the keys, the faster you type, which makes you more effi­cient at inputting info and num­bers. It may sur­prise you to learn that low-pro­file keys are not par­tic­u­lar­ly com­mon­place in ergonom­ic key­boards, which is anoth­er way this mod­el sep­a­rates itself from the crowd. It’s designed with a thick palm rest, per­fect for “marathon account­ing work,” as one review describes it. The keys have a scooped cen­tre, so even though your typ­ing gets faster, it retains its accu­ra­cy. All in all, this key­board – though not the cheap­est on the mar­ket – has earned praise from users who say it’s well worth the invest­ment. Approx­i­mate­ly $152 (USD) on Ama­zon.

4- Microsoft Surface Keyboard

This key­board has been designed for sev­er­al uses, includ­ing account­ing. Its design is com­pact and not fussy – it fea­tures low-pro­file keys that aid in mak­ing you a faster typ­ist. The keys are remark­ably easy to press. This is a very pop­u­lar key­board in home and office set­tings. How­ev­er, it does­n’t fea­ture pro­gram­ma­ble keys, so it’s best to look else­where if that’s a fea­ture you’re intent on get­ting. Prices range from $87 (USD) to $191, all avail­able on Ama­zon.

5- Apple Magic Keyboard

This mod­el gets plen­ty of raves online from accoun­tants who use Apple sys­tems to per­form their tasks. One user says that typ­ing on this key­board is a “near per­fect” expe­ri­ence – high praise indeed! This unit fea­tures low-pro­file keys that help do your typ­ing faster and smoother. Although this key­board can fit with PCs, it’s bet­ter to choose one that is designed to work with Win­dows. So, if you’re equipped with Apple sys­tems, it’s a ter­rif­ic option for accoun­tants. Prices start at $149 and range upward to $249 (USD), all avail­able on Ama­zon.

6- Redragon K556 RGB LED Backlit Wired Affordable Mechanical Keyboard

Though this unit was ini­tial­ly designed for gamers, it gets praise from bud­get-mind­ed accoun­tants, too. This mod­el is, in essence, a key­board that’s eco­nom­i­cal, wired, and comes in a full-sized design. It has qui­et brown switch­es, mak­ing it a good choice for accoun­tants work­ing in group set­tings, where even the low clicks of a key­board can irri­tate others. Mechan­i­cal key­boards are slight­ly slow­er than oth­ers, but since your top pri­or­i­ty is accu­ra­cy with num­bers, it’s not real­ly a trade-off. This key­board is back­lit with RGB lights, so you can choose from a range of options before order­ing it. Reviews say that if you’re look­ing for a mechan­i­cal key­board to use in an office set­ting, this unit is a good choice you should def­i­nite­ly con­sid­er. It’s avail­able on Ama­zon at prices rang­ing from $48 (USD) and up.

In Summary

Choos­ing the right key­board is a very indi­vid­ual deci­sion. Much depends on the cir­cum­stances you, or your accoun­tant, work in. The choice should take into account sev­er­al fac­tors, such as com­fort, noise, and whether pro­gram­ma­ble keys are a pri­or­i­ty. Below is a list of the most impor­tant fea­tures for con­sid­er­a­tion when pur­chas­ing a new key­board for your­self or the accountant(s) in your office:

1- The All-Important Numbers Pad

Some mod­els fea­ture a sep­a­rate numpad, while oth­ers incor­po­rate this fea­ture into the body of the key­board. It’s entire­ly up to you which style is best suit­ed to your needs and per­son­al preference. Some accoun­tants do pre­fer hav­ing the numpad sep­a­rate, while oth­ers insist it does­n’t real­ly mat­ter. How­ev­er, if you’re pur­chas­ing a key­board for some­one else in your office, this is an impor­tant ele­ment of the deci­sion, so be sure to ask what they want – a sep­a­rate numpad or an all-inclu­sive design. The Microsoft Sculpt key­board we men­tioned above is a fine exam­ple of one with a sep­a­rate numpad.

2- Should You Choose Wireless?

Accoun­tants have plen­ty of items on their desks besides their com­put­ers and key­board. Usu­al­ly, they’re sur­round­ed by papers, files, and oth­er doc­u­ments con­tain­ing the fig­ures they work with. You can decrease the clut­ter by opt­ing for a wire­less key­board. How­ev­er, it’s impor­tant to remem­ber that if you don’t choose a high-qual­i­ty one, you may expe­ri­ence a bit of lag time when typ­ing. These are con­nect­ed either via Blue­tooth or USB ports. Again, which one you choose is up to you.

3- Comfort

This is a very impor­tant fea­ture, as accoun­tants spend a great deal of time inputting fig­ures into their com­put­ers. Some mod­els are a tra­di­tion­al size that’s often bet­ter for any­one with larg­er hands. Oth­er peo­ple pre­fer a com­pact model. Eval­u­at­ing sev­er­al dif­fer­ent designs is the best way to dis­cov­er which key­board is best suit­ed to your indi­vid­ual com­fort needs. Some designs come with palm pads, while oth­ers come with keys that are smooth and easy to press. If pos­si­ble, try these vari­a­tions in design before decid­ing on one to buy.

4- Price

For some, the price of a key­board is a very impor­tant fea­ture. Costs range, depend­ing on the com­pa­ny, from as lit­tle as $40 (USD) to hun­dreds of dol­lars. While it’s under­stand­able that you may want to choose an eco­nom­i­cal key­board, in real­i­ty, com­fort and the oth­er fac­tors men­tioned above should take pri­or­i­ty, if possible. After all, you (or the accoun­tant you’re buy­ing this for) will be using it for hours on end, and you need to be sure the mod­el you buy is best suit­ed to these tasks. And you want a key­board that fos­ters speed and accu­ra­cy. Get­ting those fea­tures at a rock-bot­tom price may not be pos­si­ble, so con­sid­er spend­ing a lit­tle more to get the essen­tial features. There are many key­boards on the mar­ket today that are ide­al for accoun­tants. They may have been designed with anoth­er pur­pose in mind – gam­ing, for instance – but the ones we’ve men­tioned here are excel­lent choic­es for any­one in the account­ing busi­ness. They all “add up”, so to speak, to the per­fect pro­fes­sion­al tool need­ed by some­one who works with num­bers all day!