As an accounting assistant, you may find effectively showcasing your attention to detail and strong numerical skills on a resume quite challenging. Our guide will provide you with expert tips and examples to help you highlight these key strengths, ensuring your resume stands out to potential employers.
- Get inspired from our accounting assistant resume samples with industry-leading skills, certifications, and more.
- Show how you can impact the organization with your resume summary and experience.
- Introducing your unique accounting assistant expertise with a focus on tangible results and achievements.
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Creating the best accounting assistant resume format: four simple steps
The most appropriate accounting assistant resume format is defined by precision and a systematic approach. What is more, it should reflect upon how your application will be assessed by recruiters. That is why we've gathered four of the most vital elements to keep in mind when designing your resume:
- It's all about presenting how your experience or skills align with the job. Use the reverse-chronological resume format , if your expertise is relevant to the accounting assistant role. Otherwise, select the functional skill-based resume format or the hybrid resume format to shift the focus to your skill set.
- Resume header - make sure you've filled out all relevant (and correct) information, like your contact details and link to your portfolio.
- Resume length - unless you've over a decade of applicable expertise in the field, stick with a one-page resume format. If you'd like to present more of your professional experience, go up to two pages.
- Resume file - submit your accounting assistant resume in a PDF format to ensure all information stays in the same place.
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Essential sections that should make up your accounting assistant resume include:
- The header - with your contact details (e.g. email and telephone number), link to your portfolio, and headline
- The summary (or objective) - to spotlight the peaks of your professional career, so far
- The experience section - with up to six bullets per role to detail specific outcomes
- The skills list - to provide a healthy mix between your personal and professional talents
- The education and certification - showing your most relevant degrees and certificates to the accounting assistant role
What recruiters want to see on your resume:
- Demonstrated proficiency with accounting software (e.g., QuickBooks, Microsoft Excel) and data entry.
- Detail-oriented with a strong emphasis on accuracy in financial record keeping and reconciliation.
- Experience with accounts payable, accounts receivable, invoicing, and payroll processing.
- Understanding of basic accounting principles and financial reporting.
- Excellent organizational skills and the ability to manage multiple tasks simultaneously.
Advice for your accounting assistant resume experience section - setting your application apart from other candidates
Your resume experience section needs to balance your tangible workplace achievements with job requirements.
The easiest way to sustain this balance between meeting candidate expectations, while standing out, is to:
- Select really impressive career highlights to detail under each experience and support those with your skills;
- Assess the job advert to define both the basic requirements (which you could answer with more junior roles) and the more advanced requirements - which could play a more prominent role through your experience section;
- Create a separate experience section, if you decide on listing irrelevant experience items. Always curate those via the people or technical skills you've attained that match the current job you're applying for;
- Don't list experience items from a decade ago - as they may no longer be relevant to the industry. That is, unless you're applying for a more senior role: where experience would go to demonstrate your character and ambitions;
- Define how your role has helped make the team, department, or company better. Support this with your skill set and the initial challenge you were able to solve.
Take a look at how real-life accounting assistant professionals have presented their resume experience section - always aiming to demonstrate their success.
- Managed the full cycle of accounts payable for over 100+ vendors, ensuring in-time payments and maintaining strong relationships.
- Led the transition from manual bookkeeping to QuickBooks, streamlining accounting practices and reducing reconciliation errors by 30%.
- Collaborated with the senior accountant to prepare accurate monthly and quarterly financial reports, driving the company's strategic financial planning.
- Processed payroll for over 250 employees utilizing ADP, ensuring compliance with tax and employment laws.
- Conducted detailed financial analysis of quarterly budgets against actuals, identifying discrepancies and recommending corrective actions.
- Administered the accounts receivable process, achieving a 20% reduction in outstanding receivables through effective follow-up strategies.
- Oversaw the procurement of office and production suppliers, negotiating with suppliers for cost-saving contracts that saved the company $50,000 annually.
- Participated in the monthly close process, preparing journal entries and ensuring accurate financial statements.
- Supported external auditing processes, compiling necessary documentation and data which resulted in a 15% quicker audit cycle.
- Facilitated inter-departmental billing and invoice reconciliation for a large technology firm, handling more than 500 transactions per month.
- Assisted in the development and implementation of a new internal financial tracking system, improving transaction accuracy by 25%.
- Provided crucial support during year-end taxation period, accurately preparing tax documents for both federal and state requirements.
- Instrumental in automating the expense reporting process using Concur, saving the team upwards of 10 hours per week.
- Maintained impeccable financial records and facilitated internal and external audits, resulting in zero discrepancies for consecutive years.
- Played a pivotal role in cost reduction initiatives by closely monitoring expense reports and identifying potential areas for savings.
- Reduced monthly close period by implementing a new system for tracking accruals and prepaid expenses, trimming the process down by 3 days.
- Liaised with the sales team to ensure accurate and prompt client invoicing, thus improving cash flow by 20%.
- Conducted monthly inventory audits and reported findings to the management team, which informed inventory control measures and pricing strategy.
- Managed accounting duties for small business clients, including payroll, accounts payable/receivable, and quarter-end tax preparation.
- Trained two junior accounting assistants in company-specific accounting procedures, increasing department productivity by 15%.
- Implemented a digital filing system for all financial documents, enabling easier access for audits and compliance checks.
- Enhanced the vendor payment process through the implementation of an electronic funds transfer system, reducing processing time by 40%.
- Coordinated with the IT department to integrate accounting software with the CRM, ensuring a seamless flow of financial data across systems.
- Prepared detailed monthly aging reports that assisted management in monitoring the credit control function.
- Streamlined the expense reimbursement procedure which expedited employee reimbursements by two weeks.
- Engaged in monthly ledger reviews and reconciliations, resulting in the maintenance of an error rate of less than 0.5% throughout my tenure.
- Contributed to the successful internal transition of the accounting software from Sage to Oracle, leading training sessions for 15 team members.
- Responsible for the diligent entry and verification of financial transactions amounting to $1M+ annually across various accounts.
- Organized a client information management system that improved data retrieval times by 25% for accounting procedures.
- Supported top-tier accounting projects that enhanced the company's financial reporting capabilities to stakeholders.
Quantifying impact on your resume
- Detail the amount of money managed in your previous position to demonstrate financial responsibility and trustworthiness.
- Include the number of financial reports generated per month to showcase productivity and efficiency.
- Specify the percentage of cost savings achieved through negotiating with vendors to highlight your negotiation skills and cost-cutting abilities.
- List the number of company audits assisted or executed to reflect your experience with compliance and regulatory standards.
- Quantify the volume of invoices processed weekly to illustrate your ability to manage high-volume transactions.
- Indicate the reduction in processing time due to the implementation of new accounting software or procedures to show your drive for process improvement.
- Enumerate the number of financial statements prepared accurately to emphasize your attention to detail and accuracy in financial reporting.
- Present the size of the team you have supported or collaborated with to underline your teamwork and communication skills.
Action verbs for your accounting assistant resume
Four quick steps for candidates with no resume experience
Those with less or no relevant experience could also make a good impression on recruiters by:
- Taking the time to actually understand what matters most to the role and featuring this within key sections of their resume
- Investing resume space into defining what makes them a valuable candidate with transferrable skills and personality
- Using the resume objective to showcase their personal vision for growth within the company
- Heavily featuring their technical alignment with relevant certifications, education, and skills.
Remember that your resume is about aligning your profile to that of the ideal candidate.
The more prominently you can demonstrate how you answer job requirements, the more likely you'd be called in for an interview.
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If you're in the process of obtaining your certificate or degree, list the expected date you're supposed to graduate or be certified.
Shining a light on your accounting assistant hard skills and soft skills
To win recruiters over, you must really have a breadth of skill set presented and supported within your accounting assistant resume.
On hiring managers' checklists, you'd initially discover hard or technical skills. Those are the technology (and software) that help you perform on the job. Hard skills are easy to quantify via your education, certificates, and on-the-job success.
Another main criterion recruiters are always assessing your accounting assistant resume on is soft skills. That is your ability to communicate, adapt, and grow in new environments. Soft skills are a bit harder to measure, as they are gained both thanks to your personal and professional experience.
Showcase you have the ideal skill set for the role by:
- Dedicating both a skills box (for your technical capabilities) and an achievements or strengths section (to detail your personal skills).
- When listing your skills, be specific about your hard skills (name the precise technology you're able to use) and soft skills (aim to always demonstrate what the outcomes were).
- Avoid listing overused cliches in the skills section (e.g. Microsoft Office and Communication), unless they're otherwise specified as prominent for the role.
- Select up to ten skills which should be defined via various sections in your resume skills sidebar (e.g. a technical skills box, industry expertise box with sliders, strengths section with bullets).
Spice up your resume with leading technical and people skills, that'd help you get noticed by recruiters.
Top skills for your accounting assistant resume:
General ledger accounting
Accounts payable/receivable
Bank reconciliation
Financial reporting
Bookkeeping
Tax preparation
Accounting software proficiency
Data entry
Basic math proficiency
Financial analysis
Attention to detail
Organization
Time management
Problem-solving
Teamwork
Adaptability
Communication
Customer service
Ethical conduct
Initiative
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The more trusted the organization you've attained your certificate (or degree) from, the more credible your skill set would be.
Including your education and certification on your accounting assistant resume
The significance of your resume education section is paramount. It can show your diverse talents and experiences that are relevnt to the position.
- Incorporate educational qualifications, mentioning the institution and period.
- If you're on your academic journey, pinpoint your expected completion date.
- Opt for leaving out degrees that don't serve the job's purpose.
- Provide an overview of your educational experiences if it spotlights your milestones.
When recruiting for accounting assistant roles, candidates with relevant education and certification definitely stand out amongst competitors.
Showcase your academic background in the best way possible by:
- Listing all degrees and certifications that are part of the candidate qualifications in the accounting assistant advert
- Including any extra certificates, if they make sense to your application
- Not going over the top in details - the certificate name, institution, and dates are enough
- If you're in the process of obtaining a degree or certificate that's relevant to the job, include your expected graduation/certification dates
The education and certification sections help back up your application with years of experience in the industry or niche.
Select some of the most cutting-edge or applicable credentials for your next accounting assistant application from our list:
The top 5 certifications for your accounting assistant resume:
- Certified Bookkeeper (CB) - American Institute of Professional Bookkeepers (AIPB)
- Certified Accounting Paraprofessional (CAP) - National Association of Certified Public Bookkeepers (NACPB)
- Certified Accounts Payable Associate (CAPA) - The Institute of Financial Operations (IFO)
- Certified Payroll Professional (CPP) - American Payroll Association (APA)
- QuickBooks ProAdvisor Certification - Intuit QuickBooks
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The more trusted the organization you've attained your certificate (or degree) from, the more credible your skill set would be.
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Adding a summary or objective to your accounting assistant resume
One of the most crucial elements of your professional presentation is your resume's top one-third. This most often includes:
- Either a resume summary - your career highlights at a glance. Select the summary if you have plenty of relevant experience (and achievements), you'd like recruiters to remember about your application.
- Or, a resume objective - to showcase your determination for growth. The perfect choice for candidates with less experience, who are looking to grow their career in the field.
If you want to go above and beyond with your accounting assistant resume summary or resume objective, make sure to answer precisely why recruiters need to hire you. What is the additional value you'd provide to the company or organization? Now here are examples from real-life accounting assistant professionals, whose resumes have helped them land their dream jobs:
Resume summaries for a accounting assistant job
- With over 5 years of diligent experience in financial recordkeeping, a seasoned Accounting Assistant adept in QuickBooks and advanced MS Excel seeks to leverage expertise in managing payables and receivables, conducting bank reconciliations, and executing payroll processes. Achieved a 30% reduction in overdue accounts at a dynamic retail company through effective account management strategies.
- Formerly a dedicated Retail Manager with a knack for precision and 7 years of managing financial transactions, I am transitioning to the Accounting Assistant domain. Proficient in employing analytical skills to streamline operations, with a proven track record of boosting store revenue by 20% through strategic financial planning and cost reduction initiatives.
- An accomplished Executive Assistant with a decade-long track record, I bring a unique perspective to accounting operations. Versatile in handling complex scheduling and budgeting with a keen eye for detail, I am dedicated to applying transferable organizational skills and financial acumen to support accurate and efficient accounting practices.
- Enthusiastically embarking on an accounting career with no prior industry experience but armed with a Bachelor's degree in Finance and a strong foundation in mathematical analysis. Eager to commit my relentless work ethic and academic knowledge to mastering accounting principles and contributing to the financial success of a forward-thinking organization.
- Driven to cultivate a career in accounting, I am a recent graduate with top honors in Business Administration, motivated by the challenge of translating theoretical knowledge into practical application. Astute, meticulous, and anticipating engaging with a dedicated team to drive financial accuracy and contribute analytic insights for strategic development.
More sections to ensure your accounting assistant resume stands out
If you're looking for additional ways to ensure your accounting assistant application gets noticed, then invest in supplementing your resume with extra sections, like:
These supplementary resume sections show your technical aptitude (with particular technologies and software) and your people skills (gained even outside of work).
Key takeaways
- The format and layout of your accounting assistant resume should reflect on both your career and what matters most to the job you're applying for;
- Use the resume summary and objective to hint at your most prominent accomplishments;
- Always be specific about your experience and consider what value each bullet you curate adds to your accounting assistant application;
- Consider how your academic background and technical capabilities could further showcase your alignment to the role;
- Your soft skills should contribute to your overall accounting assistant profile - aligning your personality with skills and results.
