Accountant resume example

• Entry level

  Staff accountant with one year of experience in accounts payable and general ledger support at a regional distributor. Reconciled 30 bank and credit accounts monthly, prepared journal entries and supported the year-end audit. Passed three CPA exam sections and seeking a role with exposure to month-end close and financial reporting.

• Mid level

  CPA with six years of experience in corporate accounting, covering general ledger, accruals, fixed assets and consolidation for a $60M manufacturer. Shortened the monthly close from nine to five business days, partnered with external auditors on two clean opinions, and documented controls for SOX readiness.

• Senior

  Accounting manager and CPA with twelve years in public and private practice. Leads a team of six through close, consolidation and technical accounting for a multi-entity group with $180M in revenue. Led an ERP migration, rebuilt the reconciliation calendar and presents monthly results to the CFO and audit committee.

• Tax specialist

  Tax accountant and Enrolled Agent with five busy seasons at a regional CPA firm, preparing and reviewing individual, partnership and S corporation returns. Handles estimated payments, IRS notices and multistate filings for owner-run businesses, and walks each client through a tax position in plain terms before they sign.

• Audit to industry

  Audit senior moving from a mid-sized public accounting firm into corporate accounting after four years of fieldwork with manufacturing and nonprofit clients. Knows what auditors request and why, has tested controls and revenue cycles from the outside, and now wants to own the close and the reconciliations from the inside.

• Graduate

  Accounting graduate with 150 credit hours, a busy-season audit internship and working knowledge of QuickBooks Online and Excel lookups. Sitting for the FAR section of the CPA exam this spring and looking for a staff accountant role with month-end close duties.

• Bookkeeper stepping up

  Bookkeeper for a family-owned construction business with six years running payables, payroll and job costing in QuickBooks, plus a completed accounting certificate. Applying for staff accountant roles where I can learn accruals and audit preparation under an experienced controller.

• Returning CPA

  CPA returning after three years at home with family, previously a senior accountant handling fixed assets and lease accounting under ASC 842. License kept active through CPE, refreshed on current NetSuite releases, and seeking a hybrid general ledger role.

• Describing duties instead of the close and the controls

  Fix: Skip 'responsible for month-end.' State how many days the close took before and after your changes, how many entities or accounts you reconciled, and which controls you introduced or tightened.

• Hiding the audit record

  Fix: If you supported external audits, say so with the outcome: clean opinion, number of adjusting entries, or findings closed. Audit results prove accuracy better than any adjective.

• Listing software without saying at what depth

  Fix: 'Excel' tells nobody anything. Write 'Excel (XLOOKUP, pivot tables, Power Query)' and name the ERP, such as NetSuite, SAP or QuickBooks Enterprise, along with the module you worked in.

• Leaving out the credential status

  Fix: Put CPA, CMA or EA at the top of the resume if you hold it. If you are mid-exam, write 'CPA candidate, 3 of 4 sections passed' with a target date. Recruiters filter on this line more than almost any other.

Match these against the job posting you are applying to: the free resume checker shows which keywords your resume is missing.

CPA

Put the license and issuing state beside your name, or write CPA candidate with sections passed, so it is read in the first line.

Month-end close

Give the close calendar you work to and your share of it, such as owning accruals and twelve balance sheet reconciliations.

GAAP

Tie it to a standard you applied, for example recognizing subscription revenue under ASC 606, inside an experience bullet.

Account reconciliation

State how many accounts, how often and what happened to the unreconciled items you found.

NetSuite / SAP

Name the ERP in a bullet together with the module you used, such as AP or fixed assets, rather than only in the skills list.

External audit

Say whether you prepared PBC items, walked auditors through a cycle or cleared findings, and how the audit ended.

SOX compliance

Mention the controls you documented or tested and whether deficiencies dropped the following year.

Accounts payable

Show monthly invoice volume alongside a control you enforced, such as a three-way match or approval limit.

Tax preparation

List the return types you prepare, such as 1040, 1065 and 1120-S, with a typical season's count.

Journal entries

Describe whether you prepare or review recurring and adjusting entries, and the review step they pass before posting.

• Cut the monthly close from 8 to 5 business days by moving accrual templates into a shared checklist and automating bank feed matching.
• Reconciled 42 balance sheet accounts each month and cleared a backlog of 310 unmatched items within one quarter.
• Supported the annual audit for a $75M company, resolving 28 PBC requests ahead of deadline and ending with a clean opinion.
• Identified a $64K duplicate vendor payment pattern while reviewing AP aging, then set a three-way match rule that stopped repeats.
• Prepared consolidated financials across 5 legal entities, including intercompany eliminations, in under 3 days of the close.
• Documented 35 key controls for SOX readiness and tested 20 of them, reducing deficiencies found by the auditor from 6 to 1.
• Rebuilt the fixed asset register after an ERP conversion, correcting depreciation on 480 assets and recovering $38K in overstated expense.
• Filed quarterly sales tax returns in 9 states and cut late filing penalties to zero in the first full year.
• Trained 2 staff accountants on journal entry review and reconciliation standards, reducing rework on submitted entries by roughly a third.
• Built an Excel model with Power Query that replaced 12 hours of manual accrual work per close with a 90-minute refresh.

• Read the posting for size and systems

  A single-entity startup and a multi-entity group want different proof. Note the ERP, the standards named, such as ASC 606 or SOX, and whether the job leans toward close, payables or reporting. Move the matching bullets to the top for each application and trim software the employer does not use. Compare your resume to the posting's terms

• Put a control or a close in your first paragraph

  Lead the letter with a specific fix, like a reconciliation backlog you cleared or a close you shortened, and what it meant for the team. Connect it to something the posting reveals, such as a new ERP or an upcoming audit. State your license status early and keep the letter brief, since it doubles as a writing sample. Write an accountant cover letter

• Rehearse the technical basics out loud

  Interviewers often test debits and credits, accruals versus deferrals and how one transaction moves through the three statements. Many firms add an Excel task built around a reconciliation or a pivot table. Prepare one story about finding an error, how you traced it and the control you added afterwards. Rehearse accounting interview questions

• Format for a reader who checks figures

  Accounting reviewers notice numbers that do not line up. Use one style for currency and percentages, make sure any totals in your bullets add up and keep dates aligned in one column. A plain single-column layout reads cleanly on screen and in applicant systems. Browse clean resume layouts