10 FREE Accountant Resume Templates (With Examples)

An accountant resume is a documented overview of your education, past work experience, skill set, and other pertinent information about you that relates to your ability to do the job.

The resume is meant to portray you as the most suitable candidate for the position and persuade the employer to hire you. All businesses need accounting services to be sustainable and successful. Accountants are in charge of an organization’s finances which include keeping financial records, monitoring cash flows, analyzing financial data, and offering advice on protecting a company’s financial health. You should also be familiar with basic accounting practices.

An accountant’s duties and responsibilities often overlap with those of a financial analyst. However, accountants are responsible for daily financial duties. Financial analysts evaluate the general company finances and offer recommendations and financial advice accordingly. The first step to finding a job as an accountant is to create an accountant resume. The goal of writing an accountant resume is to communicate your skill set and set yourself apart from other candidates by demonstrating your ability to do the job effectively. 

Before creating your accountant resume, you should first determine the type of position you are applying for. This is because while the duties and responsibilities of accountants will be consistent, different employers will also be looking for specific qualities that align with the role and company. Some skills employers look for in applicants include being well-versed in working with numbers and financial data, being detail-oriented, diligent, organized, and conscientious. While a good resume is not a guarantee for securing the job, it greatly boosts your chances of getting hired.

This article will be discussing:

• What is an accountant’s resume?
• The basic structure of a resume when applying for an accountant job
• How to format your resume when applying for an accounting role
• Tips on how to create an exceptional resume.

Did you know?  Accountants are key staff members in any organization. The US Bureau of Statistics projects that accounting positions will grow by 4% before 2029.

Resume templates are ready-made templates that have predefined sections in them. They help you get started with a general idea of what to include in your accountant resume. The advantage of using templates is that they make it easier to create a good-looking resume when applying for jobs in a short time and with minimal effort.

Using simple templates is generally a good idea as they ensure your resume is direct to the point and includes all the relevant information. The templates are typically formatted and structured to include all the sections needed for a professional accountant’s resume.

On average, employers or recruiters will take 6 seconds to skim through your resume to determine if you are professionally qualified for the position. This is how long you have to make an impression through your resume to demonstrate your suitability for the position.

How to Choose the Best Format for an Accountant Resume 

Formatting greatly contributes to how well the recruiter receives your resume. This is because the resume format determines certain properties of your resume, such as visual appeal, scanability (ATS-friendly), and readability. For an accountant’s resume, a reverse-chronological format is the most popularly used and preferred by most employers. This is because it prioritizes your professional experience and gives the recruiter a better look at how you have performed and progressed in your previous positions.

Other resume formats include functional and hybrid/combination formats. A functional resume format prioritizes your skills. It conveys your accounting skills and other transferable skills you have gained throughout your career. A hybrid/combination format combines the strengths of both chronological and functional formats. It highlights your most relevant work experience and noteworthy skills to illustrate your suitability and qualifications for an accountant position.

Refer to the following formatting tips when writing your resume:

• Your resume should be a single-sided page long.
• Utilize bullet points rather than prose to itemize your work experience.
• You should indicate the specific job position you are applying for in the title. This illustrates genuine interest and specifies which role you are applying for if there are multiple openings.
• Do not include icons or images in your resume as they are not ATS-friendly, and recruiters do not appreciate them.
• You should use a summary or an objective whenever necessary and never include both.

The information you include in your resume should portray you as a well-rounded and adequately qualified candidate for the position. However, you must structure or organize this information correctly to achieve this objective.

To create a well-structured accountant resume that ties in all the details you want to include, you should lay out your resume in the following format:

Header

The header is the first component of your resume. The header is meant to introduce you to the recruiter so they can know who they are selecting. A suitable header will outline your name, email address, contact number, and location. You are not required to provide your full address. You should also consider adding the job title of the position you are applying for. This is because recruiters may be assessing applicants for different positions simultaneously. Also, it is needed if you are changing a career.

For example:

Corporate Accountant
Nigel Raymond
Seattle, WA | 837 2092 0101 | [email protected]

Resume objective or summary

Next, add your professional summary or career objective. These are brief descriptions that applicants often misunderstand and interchange. They are used for different purposes. A career objective is basically a short description or encapsulation of your talents, skills, and qualifications that speak to what type of job you are applying for. It should describe why you want to work for a particular company and how your skills will help them improve as a company. It is suitable for graduates entering the professional domain and applicants transitioning from one career to another.

For example:

Career objective
An experienced professional accountant with a proven track record of achieving set goals and objectives. Looking to further enhance my skills in the accounting field and make meaningful contributions to a growing organization as a forensic accountant.

A summary, on the other hand, references your work experience and conveys your most relevant qualifications. For example, it can outline noteworthy achievements you have not mentioned in your work experience section. Professional summary suits established accountants with years of experience applying for senior roles.

For example:

Professional summary
I am an accountant with 16 years of experience in accounting for corporate and small business clients. My resume shows that my service and commitment to my clients has helped them make sound financial decisions. I am proficient in both financial accounting and tax preparation. In addition, I have strong analytical skills, which enable me to use data to make a positive and long-term impact on the business decision-making process.

Both statements should be short – 2-3 sentences long and placed at the top of the accountant’s resume. 

Experience

The next section covers your experience in accounting. It should display your past accounting jobs, how long you have worked there, your achievements during employment, and your skill acquisition in chronological order. Use bullet points to outline your achievements under each job position.

Some of the accomplishments you should include in the resume include:

• Instances when your accounting skills enabled the company to save money.
• Any contributions you made towards helping the company generate revenue. You can also mention the value of the company’s assets and the amount of money you oversaw annually.
• You should also mention how your proficiency in financial regulations helps the company remain compliant and save money that would otherwise be spent on fines.
• Mention any promotions you have had in your previous jobs. Promotions effectively illustrate your determination to rise through the ranks, which requires exceptional conduct and fulfilling duties.  
• Also, include the number of vendor and client accounts you were responsible for and techniques used to analyze these accounts and associated finances.
• You can mention your management skills by highlighting the number of junior accountants you oversaw and mentored. Also, mention your cooperation with senior executives to achieve organizational goals.

For example:

Work experience
West Oak Financial Services, Inc.
Corporate Accountant                                                                           
August 2020 – Present

–Prepare monthly, quarterly, and annual financial reports and ensure they are accurate, detailed, and free from material mistakes before they are submitted to senior management .
–Analyze financial reports to identify business trends and opportunities the company can invest in for short-term and long-term sustainability.
–Ensure all 50+ accounting department staff perform their job duties efficiently according to company policies and procedures.
–Proposed online payment options to be pursued as they facilitated timely payments, which resulted in a 40% increase in debt collection.
–Oversaw and audited a yearly budget of $5 million.
–Deliver financial information to accounting department staff, management team, tax agents, and regulatory agencies as required by law to remain compliant with Federal and State regulations.
–Managed over 20+ client accounts valued between $100 000 and $1.5 million.

A senior accountant is typically assigned a more significant role than a junior accountant. So, when applying for a senior accountant position, you will need to showcase your skills in analyzing financial data, overseeing and managing teams, and experience working with different departments. This can be illustrated by indicating the number of people you managed, past promotions, strategies you formulated to better the company’s financial health, etc.

Tip: Applicants with little experience can include their internship experience in finance and accounting. Internships are known to instill valuable skills that can impress the recruiter. Also, you can include community service experience where you have gained professional skills such as organization, merchandise reconciliation, interpersonal skills, etc.

Education and certifications

Academic qualifications are highly significant in a resume when seeking an accountant position. So, this section should display your education level and any professional certifications you have earned. While most recruiters will prioritize your educational qualifications, certifications, and licenses to distinguish yourself from other applicants and are needed for senior positions. You should list your education level (degree, master’s, Ph.D.), name of distinction, GPA (if you have a high GPA), school name, and location.

This section can be structured as follows:

Education and certifications
The New Hampshire College, Auburn, NH
Bachelor’s Degree in Accounting                                                                      
October 2013
Hamptons view Institute of Business, Hamptons, NJ
Diploma in Business Administration                                                                        
June 2014
Seton Hall University, South Orange, NJ
Certified Public Accountant (CPA)                                                                          
May 2017

Skills

Accounting requires an array of skills, not just data analysis and math skills. So, you need to show the recruiter that you possess most of the skills they want from an ideal candidate for the job position. You should outline both technical and soft skills. However, you should prioritize technical skills.

The skills section should align with what the employer is looking for. This is because they often use an ATS (applicant tracking system) to sort the resumes received. ATS systems scan your account resume to look for specific keywords and rank it compared to other resumes. If your resume does not meet the threshold, it is dismissed. So you should aim to make your resume as ATS-friendly as possible.  

To craft an ATS-friendly resume, always review the job posting and identify how the employer has worded and phrased the job requirements. Incorporate these keywords in your resume.

Some of the skills you can include are:

Technical skills

Soft skills

Other than observing the correct format and structure, there are ways to improve the quality of your resume for an accountant position. Here are six writing tips to help you prepare a convincing and outstanding resume:

Use hard numbers to quantify accomplishments

Quantitative data is a powerful tool for indicating your accomplishments. Use numbers wherever possible to showcase the result of your actions. You can talk about the number of employees you oversaw, the number of clients you handled, the value of assets the company owned, percentages of money saved or errors reduced through your efforts, etc.

For example:

Oversaw and managed 10 client accounts jointly valued at $10 million.

Lead accomplishments with action verbs

Action verbs help create a powerful beginning for bullet points in the work history section. These will help the reader visualize how you went about your job. In addition, using action verbs creates a sense of transition and keeps the reader interested. You should select an action verb that precisely and clearly communicates your role and contribution to the accomplishment.

Here are examples of action verbs you can use:

Tailor your resume to the specific post

Generic accountant resumes are ranked lower by ATS systems. So, it would be best to customize your resume specifically for the position you are applying for. To do so, you will have to analyze that job post thoroughly. You need to relate your skills and responsibilities to the duties and responsibilities stated in the job posting. You can also use any keywords that are mentioned in the job posting.

For example, when applying for a tax accountant job, include tax-related keywords, skills and experiences, such as conversant with federal and state codes.

While it can be laborious to tailor each resume to the job, you should create a separate document that lists job experience bullet points and skills and categorize them based on skills often prioritized by employers.

For example, categorize them based on client interaction, management, team leadership, etc. This way, you can select from this list the bullet points and skills needed for each job you are applying for.

Use conventional resume section titles

Remember that recruiters have a quick scan of your resume when they receive it. Thus, you should use conventional and easily identifiable sections in your resume – education, experience, and skills. This lets the recruiter know where to locate the information they need. If you want to include your experience outside accounting, you can add another section and title it “Other Experience.” However, retain the accounting-related section and label it “Accounting Experience or Relevant Experience.” Recruiters are familiar with these sections and know what information to expect.

Highlight relevant achievements using bullet points

Bullet points improve the readability and scannability of a resume. So, recruiters expect to go through bullet points as they skim through your resume. Thus, you should use bullets to describe achievements rather than responsibilities.

For example:

Audited the financial books of more than 10 departments with an average annual budget of $5 million.

Include relevant keywords in the skills section

ATS considers this section a major factor in assessing your qualifications for a job and ranking your resume. So, you should include keywords that match the job criteria in your skills section. For example, if you are applying for a property accountant position, words like property, real estate, and property tax should be presented in your resume.

• An accountant’s duties and responsibilities can differ from one organization to another. So, you should always review the job ad, identify the specific job requirements and align your resume to these requirements.
• Your accountant resume should always include the conventional sections – experience, education, and skills.
• While you should prioritize technical/hard skills, incorporate soft or interpersonal skills as employers still value them.
• Incorporate keywords in the skills section whenever possible and do so correctly. Also, use action verbs and bullet points in the work history section. Focus on your accomplishments, impact, and contributions rather than your duties in previous jobs.