Accountant Resume Example (+ Template)

Mid-level sample (senior accountant, about 8 years' experience)

Mid-level accountant resume — sample

JORDAN A. REYES, CPA Columbus, OH · (555) 014-2288 · jordan.reyes@email.com · linkedin.com/in/jordanreyes

SENIOR ACCOUNTANT — CLOSE, CONSOLIDATION AND AUDIT SUPPORT Licensed CPA with eight years across private manufacturing and public practice. Run a six-business-day monthly close for 12 legal entities in NetSuite, reconcile 45 balance-sheet accounts, and prepare the consolidated reporting pack and audit schedules. Comfortable rebuilding a close calendar that has drifted.

EXPERIENCE

Senior Accountant — [Company Name], regional manufacturer, ~$180M revenue · Columbus, OH · Mar 2022 – Present - Own the monthly close for 12 legal entities and cut the cycle from 9 to 6 business days by converting 40 recurring journal entries to NetSuite templates. - Reconcile 45 balance-sheet accounts each month in BlackLine and clear a backlog of 14 aged reconciling items over $25K within two quarters. - Prepare consolidated financial statements and the monthly reporting pack for the CFO, including variance commentary on a $9M monthly cost base. - Lead PBC schedule delivery for the annual external audit, reducing auditor follow-up requests from 62 to 31 year over year. - Review journal entries and fixed-asset work for 2 staff accountants before posting, and train both on prepaid amortization schedules.

Staff Accountant — [Company Name], manufacturer · Columbus, OH · Sep 2019 – Mar 2022 - Posted roughly 120 journal entries per close across accruals, prepaids, payroll and intercompany, with month-end checklists completed by day 5. - Maintained a fixed-asset subledger of 1,400 assets and ~$32M gross book value, running monthly depreciation and quarterly roll-forwards. - Reconciled 9 bank accounts and a $4.2M monthly AP disbursement run, resolving an average of 20 exceptions per month. - Filed sales and use tax returns in 14 states through Avalara with no late filings across 30 months. - Built a Power Query refresh for the inventory valuation file, replacing 3 hours of manual copying each month.

Junior Accountant / AP Specialist — [Company Name], distribution · Columbus, OH · Jun 2017 – Aug 2019 - Processed 900+ vendor invoices per month in QuickBooks with three-way match against purchase orders and receipts. - Prepared and issued 180 Form 1099-NEC filings annually and reconciled vendor master data for 400 active suppliers. - Produced a weekly AP aging dashboard in Excel used by the controller to plan a 30-day cash cycle.

SKILLS Month-end close and consolidation · Account reconciliation · US GAAP financial reporting · Fixed assets and depreciation · Audit preparation (PBC schedules) · Multi-state sales and use tax · Variance and cost analysis · NetSuite · SAP · QuickBooks · BlackLine · Avalara · Excel (Power Query, pivot tables, XLOOKUP, SUMIFS) · Power BI

EDUCATION Bachelor of Science in Accounting — [University Name], Columbus, OH · May 2017 Completed 150 semester hours, including 30 hours of graduate-level accounting and tax coursework, 2019

LICENCES AND CERTIFICATIONS Certified Public Accountant (CPA) — [State] Board of Accountancy, licensed 2021, active Member, AICPA

Entry-level variant (first accounting job, no full-time experience)

Keep the same section order, but put education above experience and let the internship carry the detail.

Entry-level accountant resume — sample

PRIYA N. DESAI Austin, TX · (555) 067-4310 · priya.desai@email.com · linkedin.com/in/priyandesai

STAFF ACCOUNTANT — ENTRY LEVEL Accounting graduate with 150 semester hours completed and two CPA exam sections passed. Four months of audit internship experience testing cash and AP, plus two years part-time in accounts payable handling 300+ invoices a month. Strong Excel, learning NetSuite.

EDUCATION Bachelor of Business Administration in Accounting — [University Name], Austin, TX · May 2025 150 semester hours completed; coursework in intermediate accounting I–II, auditing, federal taxation, cost accounting, accounting information systems

EXPERIENCE

Audit Intern — [CPA Firm Name] · Austin, TX · Jan 2025 – Apr 2025 - Tested cash and accounts payable cycles on 6 client engagements, tying 220 sample items to bank statements and vendor invoices. - Prepared confirmation requests for 45 bank and legal counsel addresses and tracked responses to a 93% return rate. - Drafted 12 workpaper sections in the firm's audit software for senior review, with documentation accepted on first review in 9 cases.

Accounts Payable Clerk (part time, 20 hrs/week) — [Company Name] · Austin, TX · Aug 2023 – Dec 2024 - Coded and entered 300+ vendor invoices per month in QuickBooks Online and matched them to purchase orders. - Reconciled 2 corporate credit card accounts monthly, clearing an average of 60 transactions each. - Chased 25 open vendor statements per month and cut unapplied credits from $18K to under $3K.

SKILLS Accounts payable · Bank and credit card reconciliation · Journal entries · US GAAP fundamentals · Audit sampling and workpapers · Excel (pivot tables, XLOOKUP, VLOOKUP, data validation) · QuickBooks Online · NetSuite (coursework) · Power BI (coursework)

LICENCES AND CERTIFICATIONS CPA candidate — passed FAR and REG; remaining sections scheduled Volunteer tax preparer certification, 2024 and 2025 filing seasons

1. Header

Five items on one or two lines: name, credential, city and state, phone, email, LinkedIn URL.

• Put earned credentials after your name — Jordan A. Reyes, CPA or , CMA. Do not put CPA candidate after your name; that belongs in the certifications section.
• City and state only. No street address.
• Use a plain email address built from your name. Keep your university email off it once you have graduated.
• Set your name at 18–22 pt and the contact line at 10–11 pt.

2. Summary

Three or four lines, no first-person pronouns. Use this formula:

Summary formula

[Level and credential] with [years] in [industry or practice area]. [The core cycle you own, with its scope: entities, accounts, dollars or days]. [One technical specialism and the main system]. [One line on what you want to do next, matched to the posting].

Example 1 — industry, mid-level

Licensed CPA with eight years in private manufacturing and public practice. Run a six-business-day close for 12 legal entities, reconcile 45 balance-sheet accounts monthly and prepare consolidated statements and audit schedules. Deep NetSuite and BlackLine user with multi-state sales tax experience. Looking for a senior role in a company moving to a shorter close calendar.

Example 2 — public practice, moving to industry

Audit senior with five years in a regional firm, leading field work on 9 private-company engagements a year with revenues from $20M to $400M. Built PBC request lists, tested revenue and inventory cycles, and drafted full financial statements with footnotes. Moving in-house to own technical accounting and the close for a single reporting entity.

3. Experience

Use reverse-chronological order. For each job give employer descriptor, city and state, and month-and-year dates. Three to five bullets for your current and last role, two or three for older ones.

Bullet formula

Action verb + the task or deliverable + the system or standard + scope in your own units (entities, accounts, journal entries, invoices, filings, close days, dollars) + the result or the control it protects.

Example bullets you can adapt:

• Close and reconcile 38 balance-sheet accounts per month in FloQast, with 100% of reconciliations signed off by day 5.
• Prepare the monthly consolidation for 7 entities in 3 currencies, including intercompany elimination entries and FX revaluation.
• Draft quarterly financial statements and 14 footnotes under US GAAP for review by the controller and external auditors.
• Manage the fixed-asset register of 2,100 assets, running monthly depreciation and an annual impairment review on $48M of gross assets.
• Prepare and file 60 multi-state sales and use tax returns per quarter in Avalara, with no notices received in 2 years.
• Prepare 140 federal and state business returns per filing season in CCH Axcess, covering S corporations, partnerships and single-member LLCs.
• Build the annual operating budget for 6 cost centres totalling $24M and report monthly variances over a $50K threshold.
• Rebuild the bank reconciliation workbook in Power Query, cutting preparation from 5 hours to 45 minutes each month.
• Test the three-way match control over a population of 11,000 invoices, documenting 4 exceptions and the remediation steps.
• Train 3 new staff accountants on the close checklist and review their first two closes entry by entry.

Write in the present tense for your current job and the past tense for everything before it.

4. Skills

One block, grouped so a reader can scan it in five seconds: accounting processes first, then systems, then analysis tools. Twelve to sixteen items is enough. Do not rate yourself out of five stars — show the skill in a bullet instead. Name versions and modules where they matter: NetSuite (multi-book), SAP S/4HANA, Excel (Power Query, pivot tables, XLOOKUP).

5. Education

Degree, major, institution, city and state, and month and year of graduation. Most accountant and auditor jobs expect at least a bachelor's degree in accounting or a related field such as business, and some employers prefer a master's in accounting or an MBA with an accounting concentration (U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2026-08-27). In ONET's survey data for this occupation, 69% of respondents said a bachelor's degree is required, 7% an associate's degree and 7% a post-baccalaureate certificate (ONET OnLine, 2026).

• If you have completed the 150 semester hours that states require for CPA licensure, say so on its own line — recruiters look for it.
• List GPA only in your first three years out, and only if it is 3.5 or higher.
• Holders of an associate's degree, and bookkeeping or accounting clerks who meet an employer's education and experience requirements, can move into junior accounting positions and advance by demonstrating accounting skills on the job (U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2026-08-27) — in that case, lead with experience and keep education to two lines.
• Drop high school once you hold a degree.

6. Licences and certifications

Give the credential, the issuing body, the state where relevant, the year and the status.

• CPAs are licensed by a state Board of Accountancy, and licensure requires passing a national exam and meeting other state requirements, including 150 semester hours of college coursework — 30 hours more than a usual four-year bachelor's degree (U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2026-08-27). Name your licensing state and say active.
• Any accountant who files a report with the Securities and Exchange Commission must be a licensed CPA; others pursue it to improve job prospects or win clients, and some employers pay the costs associated with the exam (U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2026-08-27).
• Mid-exam? Write CPA candidate — FAR and AUD passed, remaining sections scheduled for [quarter]. Partial progress is worth listing.
• Other credentials to name if you hold them: Certified Management Accountant from the Institute of Management Accountants, Certified Internal Auditor from the Institute of Internal Auditors, CGMA through AICPA and CIMA, Enrolled Agent, and Certified Fraud Examiner. A directory of accounting and auditing certifications is available from CareerOneStop (U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2026-08-27).
• Add professional memberships on one line if they are current.

Each pair below says roughly the same thing. The strong version adds the unit an accountant is actually measured in: accounts, entities, entries, days, filings or dollars.

Weak

Responsible for month-end close activities and journal entries.

Strong

Own the monthly close for 12 legal entities, posting 120 journal entries and cutting the cycle from 9 to 6 business days through NetSuite entry templates.

The weak version could describe a first-year staff accountant or a controller. The strong one fixes the level — entity count, entry volume, close days.

Weak

Detail-oriented in performing account reconciliations each month.

Strong

Reconcile 45 balance-sheet accounts monthly in BlackLine and clear a backlog of 14 aged items over $25K within two quarters.

Accuracy is a claim; a cleared backlog is evidence. Give the account count, the tool and what changed.

Weak

Assisted with the annual audit and provided documents to auditors.

Strong

Led PBC schedule delivery for the annual external audit across 23 requests, reducing auditor follow-up questions from 62 to 31 year over year.

Assisted hides your scope. Count the schedules, the requests or the adjustments proposed.

Weak

Handled sales tax filings for multiple states.

Strong

Prepared and filed 60 multi-state sales and use tax returns per quarter in Avalara across 14 states, with no late filings over 30 months.

Multiple is two or twenty. Name the states, the return count, the system and the compliance record.

Weak

Improved reporting processes using Excel.

Strong

Rebuilt the inventory valuation and bank reconciliation workbooks in Power Query, replacing 3 hours of manual copying each close and removing 2 formula errors found in prior periods.

Process improvement only counts when the reader can see the time or the error rate that moved.

Pick the ones the job posting names, then prove the top four or five somewhere in your bullets. The Bureau of Labor Statistics lists analytical and critical-thinking skills, communication, attention to detail, maths and organisational skills as important qualities for accountants and auditors (U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2026-08-27), and ONET lists reading comprehension, active listening, critical thinking, writing, mathematics, speaking, active learning and monitoring as essential skills for the occupation (ONET OnLine, 2026).

Pay for accountants is usually a base salary, often with an annual bonus tied to company and individual performance. Public accounting firms commonly add overtime or busy-season pay for staff below manager level, and many employers cover CPA exam costs — the Bureau of Labor Statistics notes that employers may pay the expenses associated with the exam (U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2026-08-27).

The median annual wage for accountants and auditors was $83,680 in May 2025, or $40.23 an hour, with the lowest 10 percent earning less than $56,020 and the highest 10 percent more than $144,090 (U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, May 2025). That spread is the single most useful thing to know before you name a number: the same job title covers a first-year staff accountant and a technical accounting lead.

Industry moves the midpoint. Median annual wages in May 2025 were $93,290 in finance and insurance, $91,940 in management of companies and enterprises, $83,350 in government excluding state and local education and hospitals, and $81,490 in accounting, tax preparation, bookkeeping and payroll services (U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, May 2025). Accounting and tax preparation services employed the largest share of accountants and auditors at 21 percent, followed by finance and insurance at 8 percent, government at 8 percent, management of companies at 6 percent, and self-employed workers at 5 percent (U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2025).

Beyond industry, the things that usually push an offer up are: CPA licensure or another credential, the complexity of what you close (multiple entities, currencies, consolidations, SEC reporting), the systems you can run without training, and location — metropolitan cost of living varies widely by state and city, and so do rates for the same title.

On demand: accountants and auditors held about 1,595,200 jobs in 2025, employment is projected to grow 5 percent from 2025 to 2035 — faster than the average for all occupations — and about 115,300 openings are projected each year on average over the decade, mostly from workers transferring to other occupations or leaving the labour force (U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2026-08-27). Most accountants and auditors work full time, with longer hours during quarterly audits and tax season (U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2026-08-27), so ask in interviews what busy season looks like in hours and how it is compensated.

Check current rates yourself before you talk numbers. The official sources are the Bureau of Labor Statistics Occupational Outlook Handbook entry for accountants and auditors and the BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics programme, which publishes wages by state and metropolitan area. CareerOneStop, also referenced by BLS, carries certification information and local wage data. Your state CPA society and recruiters' annual salary guides are useful for a city-level sanity check, but treat the federal data as the baseline.

Next steps once the resume is done:

• Accountant Cover Letter Example (+ Template)
• Accountant Interview Questions and Answers
• How to Explain a Career Gap on an Accounting Resume

Neighbouring roles, if you are comparing paths or applying widely:

• Staff Accountant Resume Example
• Senior Accountant Resume Example
• Auditor Resume Example
• Internal Auditor Resume Example
• Cost Accountant Resume Example
• Bookkeeper Resume Example
• Accounts Payable Specialist Resume Example
• Payroll Specialist Resume Example
• Financial Analyst Resume Example
• Tax Preparer Resume Example
• Controller Resume Example