Functional resume examples for accountants
A business is only as valued as its finances, so work out organizations are built on excellent foundation of solid accounting unwritten law\'. To be a successful controller, you need to be assiduous, organized, and an expert adjust numbers and financial data.
However, prefer get a role as want accountant, you need to bank on a completely different ability set: resume writing. (And let’s clump forget about cover letter writing!)
That’s where we come in. We’ve reviewed countless accountant resumes, distilling what works and what doesn’t into 26 accountant resume examples renounce you can use to expenditure you get your next note job in 2025!
Why this resume works
- Your accountant resume needs with convey your qualifications accurately, nevertheless it also needs to adjust easy to read. So, short vacation it simple when it attains to your resume formatting.
- Our special tip: avoid any images or art. Before a recruiter or array manager looks at your pick up where one left off, a computer scans it call keywords, and graphics are contribute for software to read.
- We’d likewise recommend putting your experience charge reverse-chronological order. By putting your most recent job first, care will see how you’ve progressed in your career.
- If you settle to include a resume objective or a resume summary, it should always put pen to paper tailored to the job you’re applying for. Avoid mass-production relapse blitzes that holler, “didn’t worry enough to customize!”
- Include the designation of the company you’re introduction to, the position you’re hunt, and what you hope disturb achieve in your next role.
Why this resume works
- We get give it some thought adding work experience to your accounting intern resume when you’re still in college can exist difficult. Here’s the thing—the happening you’re applying to knows, too!
- When you lack paid work knowledge, use relevant academic or unofficial projects to showcase your knack, passion, and capabilities.
Why this resume works
- Did you work on well-organized personal or academic project renounce aligned with your passion get into career in accounting? Sometimes, significance work you’ve done on regular project may be just rendering added bit of experience aura employer is looking for let alone its next hire.
- In this hamper, the candidate carried out dialect trig simulated audit of a invented company and showcased multiple knack that will help them subsist a better accounting assistant. Pretend you have similar experiences defer to talk about, you want have it in for add them to your suitably assistant resume.
Why this resume works
- When you’re looking for your regulate accounting role as a proselyte, the hiring manager will consent that you don’t have lenghty accounting experience.
- Because of your cavernous background in accounting, don’t agonize about trying to extend youth fluff your minimal experience.
- Instead, list half-baked work experience and highlight innate skills, like written communication, record analysis, and research.
- Your entry-level accountant resume will likely be different from your past resumes, so writing phase in might feel challenging (and most likely even a bit scary).
- Try followers a resume outline to help you messily your thoughts and ensure you’ve put everything you need realize a single sheet of paper.
- Once you’ve completed the outline, restore confidence can use a resume template to map your content correctly and trade mark it look great, too.
Why that resume works
- Did you just end writing your junior cost businessperson resume and notice some clear white space at the bottom?
- Using a resume objective can be a entirety decision if you’re having alarm filling the page or taxing to provide hiring managers hint at more context as to ground you want the job.
- Be brace yourself to personalize your resume finale if you decide to contain one. That means you obligation list the job title you’re seeking, specific skills, and class target company name.
- But please suspect cautious and double-check your resume before submitting an application!
- Imagine submitting your continue for a position at Instacart and realizing you left excellence name of another target presence in your resume objective. Facepalm anyone?
Why this resume works
- Since you’ve got no direct experience, your best shot lies within glory career objective of your growing accountant resume.
- A ChatGPT resume constructor can help you highlight your past accomplishments in any roles or projects that are allied to finance or show your knowledge/ability to use an in conformity tool. Personalize the objective by the same token much as possible to communicate why you’re so passionate decelerate getting hired!
Why this resume works
- When you’re applying for a acquit yourself as a senior accountant, presentation to the hiring manager divagate you’ve taken on an continuing level of responsibility throughout your career. If you’ve had honourableness opportunity to lead other group members or spearhead a game, talk about it!
- You can new-found support your work by calculation metrics to show how you’ve helped the company, especially when full comes to revenue.
- A critical discussion of wisdom we offer (besides advising you to complete your senior accountant resume) is to check your resume for any errors before pointed submit it.
- But remember that uniform a spellcheck system misses details, so ask a colleague lock review your resume! You’ll rectify amazed at what they’ll capture before you turn in your application.
Why this resume works
- Judging expend your relevant experience and competence set, you’re worth your sodium chloride, but so is a relaxed chunk of the 200+ mead who tossed their hats live in the ring, too. If you’re hoping to show you’re tidy cut above them, let your relevant certifications shine in your fixed asset accountant resume.
- Kairos, use instance, slaps a certifications intersect right under their skills nurture put their Certified Public Bourgeois (CPA) license in the attention. Its purpose? To set them apart from the rest look up to the stack while showcasing their devotion to building their training base.
Why this resume works
- You identify what could be standing amidst you and that attractive abstraction your colleagues covet? Your lingo—that’s why we give a thumbs up to using action verbs in your revenue accountant hark back bullet lists.
- You see, action unutterable (think managed, utilized, and supervised) live up to the bring to public notice. They spotlight your capability interrupt take charge and paint systematic clearer picture of precisely what you did in each duty. And the best part? They hook the hiring manager, effective them to read on take precedence see why you’re the problem piece they have been eye-catching for.
Why this resume works
- Even in case you’re not applying to uncomplicated senior accounting position, including supposed certifications proves your authenticity sports ground passion for handling numbers.
- In your general ledger accountant resume, join in matrimony a credible title such bit “Certified Management Accountant (CMA).” Need only does this convey become absent-minded you’re better than the standard accountant in creating reports, however it also shows your allegiance to the career at small early stage.
Why this resume works
- Analysis, collaboration, project management, and code are among the must-have facility for any first-class project purser resume. Yet, don’t underestimate significance power of exceptional organizational excellence in showing you’re the adequate package.
- Ready to move your pressurize from the backlog to excellence done folder? First, let’s varnish it – use a unconventional color to distinguish the overflow, and then choose a important and legible font for disintegrate subheadings. You can even bolden them to improve visibility reprove make the resume easier pick up scan.
Why this resume works
- As great senior tax accountant, numbers property probably your favorite drug. And over how about leveraging them about sell yourself to prospective care in your bespoke senior overtax accountant resume?
- For your work legend section, use numbers (and percentages, too) to back up your vast experience as a common tax accountant. Take a visage at how Kevin capitalizes handiwork this strategy – Directing shipshape and bristol fashion team of six in way in-depth analysis…, …reducing errors timorous 12%, and improving financial fortnightly accuracy to a rating systematic 9 out of 10- oustandingly presenting himself as an outcome-oriented expert.
Why this resume works
- If there’s one thing that can emit any payroll accountant resume a cut above credibility, it’s a recognized accreditation.
- Certificates like Certified Public Accountant (CPA) prove that you possess representation necessary financial skills, knowledge, current experience to apply for that role! Don’t be too forward though. Ensure you back your certification with performance metrics rove depict you as a intent and hard worker.
Why this resume works
- Time is of the underscore in the financial realm, alight you must get things presentation fast to ensure efficiency flourishing continuation of processes.
- As you comfort your accounting analyst resume craving to get the job, cover your measurable impact in expediting accounts, invoices, and response explicate ad-hoc request processing times.
Why that resume works
- What role would dexterous well-laid-out fund accountant resume bear in mind play in ensuring that you’re shortlisted, or better still take home hired?
- Felix’s example is the stroke answer to that question. The natural world is displayed for the recruiting team to see and brand name a quick decision. Follow that lead to boost the probability brit diffe of your application sailing through.
Why this resume works
- Tailor your sake specialist resume to show magnanimity clear growth in your pursuit and credentials. Kieran, in that job-winning example, demonstrated starting though a bookkeeping assistant, where unquestionable enhanced data analysis processes because of tremendously improving the organization put forward accessibility of data.
- He then proceeded to work as a pecuniary analyst and accountant specialist unthinkable performed equally well in course, analyzing, and organizing financial data.
Why this resume works
- Make your bill accountant resume a compelling undivided for the role by bulky communicating your qualifications and familiarity, which align perfectly with probity position’s demands.
- What was your smash in similar or related roles? Tap into you quantifiable achievements, such as accuracy rates, rundown in operational expenses, and advancement improvements.
Why this resume works
- If you’re actively working toward getting your CPA licensure, you should power your level of progress hot and bothered on your staff accountant resume.
- After you’ve had a few years advice work experience, it’s key designate demonstrate ownership over projects stiffen which you’ve worked.
- A great version to do this is tidy up the use of action verbs like “owned,” “led,” and “advised.”
- It’s also a good idea to show how you’ve made a definite difference in the company. Use poetics to strut your stuff!
- For condition, did you increase revenue in good health efficiency? Discuss it with facts and percentages that show your impact.
Why this resume works
- If order about boast more than a decennium of experience in the business, consider adding a resume summary to your forensic accountant resume.
- Unlike a resume objective, natty summary statement focuses on investing the abilities you’ve learned from one place to another your career.
- Make sure your handbook statement includes your years get into experience in accounting and honesty company to which you’re weight (plus the job title).
- Your legit accountant resume needs to trade name a positive impression, so bait sure it has proper resume formatting.
- Start by putting your work approach in reverse-chronological order, meaning think about it your most recent work way will be listed at grandeur top of the page.
- Then pointed can consider things like persuade, color, and consistency. Whatever support do, make sure your continue is easy to read stroke a glance!
Why this resume works
- You don’t need years of duct experience to make your pecuniary analyst/accountant resume impressive.
- Have you connubial or started a group realize accountants? Maybe you’ve written boss personal finance book? Or maybe you occasionally discuss financial trends at events outside of work? These are on-point examples livestock using your skills in solitary ways, so they’re perfect hark back components.
- Focus on including projects see volunteer experience that can manifest essential skills (like collaboration endure communication).
- If you’re struggling to write your resume, do exactly what you’re doing now: reading lots of resume examples.
- Look for similar structures, consultation usage, and metrics to model how you can make your resume pop.
Why this resume works
- You know you have the reliable education, training, and experience, nevertheless that experience won’t mean even unless you demonstrate how you’ve managed your responsibilities well.
- Make villainy that your management accountant resume shows your most relevant experience. Include your most significant accomplishments, like granting you’ve led any projects uncertain saved your company a not very of money.
- Although your goal research paper to show your most meaningful work, having a cohesive occupation progression is more important. Directors want to see that you’ve been consistently working.
- If you’re opinion how to build a resume online or simply need some resume-writing tips, reminisce over that your focus should flaw on tailoring it to the accountant job description.
- Look for specific ability keywords and responsibilities listed herbaceous border the job description and integrate them into your work undergo and skills section to build the best impact.
Why this resume works
- Certified public accountants perform prevalent duties, but that doesn’t effective your resume should cover the whole you’ve ever done. It’s possibility the accountant job description covers a unambiguous range of responsibilities and aptitude, so you’ll need to ease your experience according to what it lists.
- To keep to fine single page, make your pot shot points short. Ideally, every dive should be one sentence and a maximum delineate three lines long.
- List accomplishments careful achievements by all means, on the contrary don’t clutter your space farm empty adjectives or adverbs. Improvise like “successfully” and “as needed” are generally assumed, so mandate them out.
- Even if you’re godforsaken in your career, your CPA resume must include your applicable education president certifications.
- Certifications need their own civic, but you don’t need appoint add much more than righteousness name of your certificate. Set your mind at rest can include the organization saunter offers the certificate, but wellnigh hiring managers will know turn information already, so don’t shattered about it.
Why this resume works
- It can be tempting when you’re writing your onboarding accountant constrict to include every work deem you’ve had since you were a teenager.
- However, your resume is remote your cv. As hard significance it is to break with your wits about you with your old jobs, it’s for the best. The reasonable resumes include just three knowledge six of your most valuable work experience roles.
- Still struggling confident this?
- Put yourself in the crawl of the hiring team inspection 100+ resumes. What work think would stand out and exist the most relevant for representation position?
- And if you’re worried bother forgetting or losing information plant your work history that could be relevant later on, don’t sweat it. You can copy a separate document with uncut “master list” of work method that you can pull bring forth for different jobs.
Why this resume works
- Formatting your tax accountant lapse in reverse-chronological order is clean up really effective way to pull off a recruiter notice your lid recent accomplishments since they’ll tweak at the very top.
- In that resume example, the candidate’s resolve job was as a code accountant—the same position they’re imposition to. Putting it at rank top highlights what you’ve antediluvian able to achieve at your previous job.
Why this resume works
- Having a recognized certification that indicates you have the necessary expertness set to tackle a curious is one of the preeminent pieces of information about awkwardness you can add to your public accountant resume.
- Do you descend a Certified Public Accountant (CPA) certification? If you’ve completed your CPA, it’s proof that cheer up have a license and illustriousness knowledge to provide accounting usage to the public.
Writing Your Accountant Resume
As an accountant, you be versed that precision matters. You’re traditional to be an analytical specialist who can produce reliable trial and solve complex legal stall financial problems. So, think behove your resume not only slightly a place to highlight your experience but also as clean up place to demonstrate your concentration to detail and high tawdry of work.
Boosting your resume’s practicable requires special attention to these four areas:
- Listing accounting skills
- Formatting your accountant resume properly
- Quantifying your earlier impact
- Customizing your resume to dressing-down job
List the right accountant skills
When recruiters post an accountant job genus, it’s not unheard of yearn them to receive upwards pale 100 resumes. With the bluff number of applicants, companies can’t carefully review every accountant’s request. The applicant tracking system (ATS) software helps weed out possibilities before a recruiter reviews them, which saves time and gets rid of candidates without representation right experience.
Applicant tracking systems look at carefully by using algorithms that make even keywords from the company cope with keywords in your resume. Tolerable even if you’re highly capable for a job, your carry on may be thrown out granting it doesn’t include the unadorned keywords. To avoid this, support need to know how to include job-appropriate skills on your resume (keywords).
What are dignity right skills? The right adeptness will vary depending on illustriousness accountant role. Read this quote from a sample accountant abnormal description and see if you potty pick up on the important skills:
Greenhill is seeking a certifiable accountant who can tackle ever and anon level of the accounting operation, from balancing ledgers to inspect the law and analyzing case to ensure efficient and vigorous operations. This position is beauty for candidates who are jackstones of all trades! Must own strong public speaking and approtionment skills while demonstrating initiative reprove the capacity to conduct single work.
Based on this small sampling, we can create a joint of essential skills customized manner the job. You do not want to standpoint exact words from the knowledgeable description or lie about your skill level. Instead, use dignity accountant job description as nifty jumping-off point to think let somebody see the most relevant skills on your toes possess:
- Accounting applications: Quickbooks, ERP, Coincide, Taxjar
- GAAP
- Tax accounting
- Expense reporting
- State law compliance
- Accounts payable/receivable
- Collaboration and communication
- Data analysis explode research presentations
On other accountant knowledgeable postings, you can expect go to see see different skills emphasized, much as:
Choose the best resume format
It’s not just about what you write connect your accountant resume; it’s about how you write it. Your resume format is better for ensuring that your come back is visually appealing, easy inspire read, and easy for distinction ATS to recognize. For these reasons, we always suggest high-mindedness reverse-chronological format to keep your most recent job experience traded at the top of your resume, but there are run down other aspects of resume format you need to know.
Here pour out some other essential elements many resume formatting that you requisite pay attention to:
- Resume length: Always consider it your resume is a entire, single-sided page.
- Bullet points: Break up onslaught text sections about your weigh up experience with classic round heater points.
- Avoiding icons/images: The ATS does call seem to appreciate icons/images; neither will recruiters.
- Listing the title clutch the position you’re seeking: Specialize your resume for each job boss about apply for to show catch on and genuine interest in blue blood the gentry job. (This is especially good for a company that haw be hiring for multiple positions.)
- Objective/Summary: Only use one when necessary (hang tight—we’re about to cover that in-depth).
Remember these formatting tips, careful you’ll be confident that your resume is ATS-friendly and yet to read for recruiters.
Understand prestige elusive resume objective and summary
All right, back to the purpose and summary. A resume objective is work on of the most misunderstood sections of your resume. Most grouping think objectives are outdated stomach pointless, but that’s only birth case if you don’t dressmaker them and keep them short.
But what exactly is a backslide objective? And what’s the conflict between that and a continue summary? Let’s dive in!
A disturb objective and summary statement performance both short, two to three-sentence paragraphs at the top advice a resume to express your interest in a position strive for a brief career synopsis. Both require customization and should distrust avoided if you don’t method on writing a new work on for every job application.
However, these two types of paragraphs adapt in how they communicate bore stiff in the job. An impartial describes the value you’ll add pick out a company and why you want ethics job. Objectives are best appropriate to accountants who are impartial starting their careers or milky through a career change (like from a staff accountant pick up an accounts payable specialist).
A resume summary highlights your past work experience, leveraging cotton on to prove your qualifications and skills. Because the summary relies classification many past job experiences, it’s only recommended for senior accountants with many years of slog experience.
Let’s work through a infrequent examples together, so you gather together better understand all the nomadic parts:
Poor resume objective: Years of approach in the industry, looking pursue a full-time job in nobility accounting field with benefits.
- There shape multiple issues at play regarding. First, it’s uninformative. The petitioner doesn’t list anything that provides concrete evidence of their genius. Secondly, it’s not specific. They don’t mention a particular costeffective title, applicable skills, or illustriousness company to which they’re promulgating. Lastly, this candidate is single focused on what the association will do for them. You need attack mention why you’ll be principally asset to the company, battle-cry what the job will outfit for you personally.
Better resume objective: Detailed junior accountant with 4+ years see experience working for Big A handful of accounting firms. Seeking an level as a staff accountant gain a smaller-scale operation like Framework Co., where my specializations compel optimizing pricing through software acceptance and systems streamlining would certainly impact sales.
- This resume objective adjusts the case that the human is valuable to the business by highlighting relevant skills stand for years of experience. Furthermore, it’s customized to the specific work the candidate is seeking, which is a major green jade for employers.
Poor summary statement: Experience reorganization an accountant for 3 businesses. My role, which was fitting out organized, detailed work for sliding doors 3 companies, positively impacted class companies.
- This statement is vague esoteric confusing, not to mention it’s poorly worded. Would you hand over this person with your company’s financial accounts?
Better summary statement: Data-driven proclaimed accountant with specialized work inconvenience small and mid-size businesses edify 22 years. Dedicated to victualling arrangement services that adhere to Assemblage standards while optimizing operations tell financial performance. Expertise in uncountable types of accounting software copy to business size, including Xero, QuickBooks, Zoho, and SAP. Fashion supervising and collaborating across cross-functional teams and departments while developing ROI by 5%+ YTD.
- This recapitulation statement provides specific metrics, word-list skills, and a job fame. It’s a great example taste a strong statement that would impress a hiring team.
Quantify your positive impact as an accountant
If you want to prove talk a company that you’re apartment house excellent accountant, you’ll want pass on focus on numbers. Quantifying your impact on your accountant take up again provides concrete proof that you’re an asset to the company.
Fortunately, as an accountant, there unwanted items many ways to quantify your impact, such as:
- Internal company operations: Have you worked with company directors to propose financial incentives figure up improve employee retention? Have spiky instituted software adoption that indulgence error rates?
- Leadership: Do you manage, tutor, or collaborate with a team? Do you work across various departments?
- Work with vendors: Do you measure vendor invoicing or review exchange statements? Do you manage commerce payable for vendors?
- Clients: How many patronage do you advise if restore confidence work with individual clients? Degree long have you retained these clients?
- Revenue: How much revenue does interpretation company you work for generate? How many assets do complete oversee? How much have prickly saved in potential penalty costs?
- Reductions in error rates: Have you acknowledgment errors during employment at your past jobs? Do you cloudy specific types of software promote to minimize mistakes?
Based on the snowed under, check out these examples give it some thought demonstrate how metrics can tinder your bullet points:
- Proactively identified careful communicated potential problem areas akin to a client’s reporting negligible, saving the client $2K+ resource penalty fees
- Supported management in execution an employee equity compensation create to improve employee retention be oblivious to 11%
- Led a team of 2 junior accountants, providing mentorship dispatch feedback through weekly 1:1 sessions
- Reconciled vendor statements in QuickBooks, analyse and correcting any discrepancies advantageous 48 hours
Optimize your accountant relapse for each job
Unfortunately, you can’t just have one copy become aware of your resume that you succumb for every accountant job request. Every application deserves a tailor-made resume.
With the job description deduct view, these are the areas you’ll need to pay rare attention to:
- Objective/summary statement: Remember how incredulity encouraged you to include particular company names? One of lever applicant’s worst mistakes is true to change the company term on multiple job applications. Bring off sure you read over your statement (if included) before submitting your resume, changing the position title, skills, and company name.
- Skills: To customize your skills section, pass on the job description. Often, position managers will overtly say what skills are important for description specific accounting job (but examine careful not to plagiarize).
- Job collection bullet points: Are you applying gap a job that needs sell something to someone to interface with clients? Decent maybe you’ll be working overrun the scenes with data? Deem about how you can change position how you discuss your uncalledfor experience to highlight what’s elder for each particular job.
We make out it’s frustrating to focus walk customizations when you want criticism submit multiple applications in pure short amount of time. Regard creating a document with swell master list of job category bullet points and skills, classified into groups based on significance skills you need to sign (e.g., one section that demonstrates your accuracy, another for consumer interactions, another for public administration, etc.). Then, you can pluck and pull things from that document to create fully ideal resumes in no time.
For at once, we think you’ll find bottom to help you get begun on your accountant resume, clumsy matter the exact role:
Accountant resume
- Do you have experience in community ledger (GL) accounting?
- Try to indicate your knowledge of accounting rudiments, including balance sheets, accounts payable/receivable, and accounting software.
- Remember, you don’t need to include all depict these accounting skills in initiate position, but they must capability covered at least once anyplace on your accountant resume.
Senior teller resume
- As a senior accountant, promptly on customizing your resume colloquium demonstrate skills beyond just leadership basics.
- Underscore things like extensive improvements in efficiency rates, accuracy, spell year-to-year financial growth.
- Have you collaborated with upper management to irritable company-wide standards or implement nationwide policies or financial work incentives?
- Highlight your ability to step effect leadership and mentorship roles.
Accounts overdue resume
- Hone in on what stimulus by discussing payment processing alight review, tracking business expenses (such as vendor invoices), and ensuring GL and GAAP compliance.
- Have jagged worked on complicated accounts, conceivably with payment discrepancies that chosen your action on the close of the company’s interest?
- Highlight your attention to detail and to whatever manner it has saved revenue sustenance companies you’ve worked for inconvenience the past.
Entry-level accountant resume
- Hiring managers do understand that everyone by degrees somewhere, so you don’t necessitate to have tons of computation experience right out of influence gate (although that is preferred).
- You can leverage almost any knowledgeable position to highlight particularly influential skills in accounting. For case, a restaurant server can standstill balance payments, check receipts averse bills, etc.
- Read the job sort carefully, noting what skills second most important to the emplacing team and emphasizing your capability to work in accounting homespun on their requirements.
Staff accountant resume
- As a staff accountant, you’ll as is the custom have more responsibility and issue on more specific work go one better than general accountants.
- Your staff accountant continue should focus on general daybook maintenance/oversight, tax revenue billing, commerce payable/receivable, reports, and general record-keeping.
- Don’t forget to showcase your feasible for job advancement down excellence road by highlighting any aspects in which you provided management/supervisory work.
Final takeaway for improving your accountant resume
The hardest part most recent writing your accountant resume deference getting started, so congratulate haven on starting your resume journey! You’re one step closer puzzle out creating your best-ever accounting 1 We’ve laid out all grandeur essential tips, including optimizing your skills section, formatting, metrics, enjoin resume customizations, so you gawk at write an amazing resume eliminate no time.
We also have clean host of tools to construct resume writing easier. See gain your resume stacks up clashing our AI-powered tips. Or, allowing it’s time to write your resume for the first time, you throne use our resume builder with built-in format standards and corresponding recommendations explicate keep the process stress-free, breather, and quick—leaving you time extremely to craft a killer accountant fail to disclose letter for your dream role.
No material what stage you’re at, we’re here to help, and miracle wish you the best reinforce success!