The ultimate guide to prepare a job-winning accountant CV, with three accountant CV examples and everything to need to know to stand out from the crowd. When pursuing accountancy jobs, your CV is one of the most important tools at your disposal. It’s your first, and possibly only, opportunity to demonstrate your worth to recruiters and stand out from the competition. In this guide, we’ll show you how to do exactly that, step-by-step. The CV templates and advice in this guide have been designed for all accountants, including certified public accountants, chartered accountants, management accountants, cost accountants, forensic accountants, entry-level accountants and investment accountants. This guide includes: - What to include on your accountancy CV and how to format, structure and design it - Which skills are most important for accountants and how to show them on your CV - How to present your accounting experience and accomplishments - Three of the best accountant CV examples and templates Accountant CV Example Use This CV Template How to Write an Accountant CV Step 1 Professional Profile/Personal Statement Professional profiles, which are frequently referred to as personal statements, personal profiles and executive summaries, are short summaries at the top of CVs. The goal of your professional profile is to provide insight into who you are as a professional and how you can add value. Keep your personal statement concise and focus on the most relevant details. As an accountant, you may want to touch on your proficiency with advanced tools or your track record of improving processes. Here is an example of an effective personal statement on an accountant’s CV: Versatile, analytically-minded accountant, with over 14 years’ experience working for global companies with revenues in excess of 100 M. Recognised as an influential leader, with experience managing teams of accountancy professionals and fostering collaborative, positive workplace cultures. Proven track record of maintaining compliance with regulatory requirements and general accountancy standards, as well as internal protocols. Proficient with multiple accounting tools, including EnterpriseOne (E1), NetSuite, Momenteo, Wave Accounting, QuickBooks and Xero. Step 2 Skills Including a professionally formatted skills section quickly draws attention to what you can bring to the table. It can make your CV stand out and show recruiters why you’re a perfect fit for the job. Highlight 9 or 10 of your strongest skills. Avoid including too many as this will dilute the section and the skills won’t stand out as much. In this section, focus on hard skills – skills that are fundamental in performing role-specific tasks. System implementation and financial analysis are examples of hard skills. Which skills are most important for accountants? Staff accounting, forensic accounting, project accounting, cost accounting, management accounting, data analytics, accountancy tools and technology proficiency, budgeting, forecasting, payroll, data trending, regulatory compliance, due diligence, auditing, financial analysis, system implementation, cost allocation, variance analysis, month/year-end closing. As stated in Forbes’ article on the evolving role of accountants, one of the key skills for the modern day accountant is proficiency with advanced tools and technologies. Technology is constantly playing a more active role in allowing accountants and businesses to enhance efficiency and performance. As such, it’s important to draw attention to your proficiency with technologies and tools on your CV. Depending on your level of technical skills, you may want to consider dedicating a large portion of this section to your proficiency with technology and tools. Here is an example of a skills section on an accountant’s CV: Soft Skills Soft skills – such as organisation and communication – don’t add much value on your CV unless they are backed up with examples of times you have utilised the skills. For this reason, it’s more effective to showcase your soft skills through your achievements and duties in your work experience section. Here is an example: ‘Devised, developed and delivered a workshop for junior colleagues to communicate the processes involved in the digitalisation of the invoicing process, which eliminated over 50 working hours per week’. Note how this achievement demonstrates the accountant’s communication skills by highlighting her experience delivering successful workshops. But which soft skills are most important for accountants? And how do you show them on your CV? 1. Communication Accountants should be adept at communicating complex financial information to people who are not financially-savvy. Sound communication acumen enables accountants to convey beneficial information to Senior Management and clients to enable informed decision-making. How do you show your communication skills on your CV? To show your communication skills on your CV, highlight achievements that came about as a result of your communication skills. For example, have you delivered presentations that contributed to improved processes? Have you communicated financial information Senior Management, which led to cost savings? 2. Attention-to-Detail As accountants work with large amounts of financial information and data, it goes without saying that attention-to-detail is an important part of their skill set. How do you show your attention-to-detail on your CV? As with your communication skills, the best way to show your attention-to-detail on your CV is to show how the skill led to positive outcomes. This may include identifying errors and reducing accounting discrepancies. Here is an example: Reduced accounting discrepancies by 41% against the previous five years via attention-to-detail and an analytical approach to tasks. 3. Leadership Leadership is a key skill for modern-day accountants. Those in more senior accounting roles will have people management and training responsibilities, so strong leadership qualities enable departments to operate more efficiently. For junior accountants or entry-level accountants, strong leadership skills will provide you with a platform to take the step towards more senior roles. How do you show leadership skills on your CV? As leadership is fundamentally about getting results, the best way to show leadership skills on your CV is to highlight your successes. If you’re a junior or entry-level accountant with little or no experience, you can focus on your commitment to training and development to improve your leadership skills. 4. Organisation As accountants usually manage multiple clients simultaneously and work to tight deadlines, they are expected to be well-organised. How do you show your organisation skills on your CV? Highlight times you reorganised processes or utilised your organisation skills to achieve positive outcomes. Here is an example: Sourced and implemented a new accountancy tool to replace manual paper processes, which improved efficiency by 22%. Step 3 Work Experience Now it’s time to include your professional work experience. List your job posts using the reverse-chronological format, starting with your current or most recent job and working backwards. Include your job title, the name of the company you worked for, the location of your employment and the dates of your employment. Before listing your achievements and duties, include two or three lines to provide some context. This will show recruiters or hiring managers what your role involved. Here is an example: Joined this logistics company to support the monthly close process and manage balance sheet reconciliations, reporting directly to the finance director. Numbers and Metrics Use numbers and metrics to bolster your achievements. Numbers and metrics make your CV stand out and provide tangible evidence of your successes. Here is an example: ‘Generated a cost saving of 11 pounds per invoice by implementing new accounts payable software’. Step 4 Education and Training The education and training section enables you to show recruiters that you're qualified and have obtained any necessary certifications. When detailing your qualifications, include the name of your qualification, followed by the school you attended and the dates of study. Consider including a list of the modules you undertook; this will not only show your expertise, but will also help to optimise your CV for recruitment screening software (more on that later in this guide). Here is an example of an accountant CV’s education section: Step 5 Additional Information Include any additional information in the final section of your CV. Relevant additional information includes memberships, language skills, licences, interests and voluntary work. Further Tips to Improve Your Accountancy CV Keywords Nowadays, many recruiters and HR departments use Applicant Tracking Systems (ATS) to filter and rank applicants’ CVs based on specific keywords. Other factors that affect ATS scores include formatting, layout and design. To ensure your CV passes through and ranks highly in ATS, it’s important to optimise it by including the relevant keywords. To learn about the most important keywords for your CV, analyse the job description for the role you’re applying for. This will give you an idea of the essential criteria for the role. These are the keywords you should be including on your CV. What are the most important keywords for accountant CVs? KPI delivery, financial analysis, auditing, management accounting, data, analytics, regulatory compliance, data entry, Microsoft Excel, team leading, staff accounting, payroll systems, cost accountant, forensic accounting, project accounting, budgeting, system implementation, cost allocation. The accountant CV templates in the guide are optimised for Applicant Tracking Systems (ATS), so feel free to use them to enhance your chances of success in the job market. LinkedIn URL If you’ve got a well fleshed-out LinkedIn profile, include your LinkedIn URL with your contact details. Before including a link to your LinkedIn profile on your CV, make sure your profile is as good as it can be. Many recruiters go to your LinkedIn profile after viewing your CV, so it’s important to have an effective profile that demonstrate your value as an accountant. CV Length How long should accountants’ CVs be? There are no hard rules about CV length, but two pages is considered the optimal CV length. Those with little experience would be recommended to opt for a one-page CV as they often don’t have the content to fill two pages. Those with more experience often go with a three-page CV as they have a significant amount of achievements and skills that they want to get across. Two pages sometimes doesn’t offer enough space for those with a great deal of experience. However, try not to exceed three pages. CVs over three pages usually make for a poor reading experience and the key details can be difficult to locate. For more comprehensive assistance with preparing your accountancy CV, view our in-depth guide on how to write a CV. Accountant CV Example Use This CV Template Accountant CV Example Use This CV Template In the United States, the accounting sector is predicated to grow by 10 % by 2026, which accounts for an additional 139,900 jobs. As such, the future is bright for accountants. Use the advice, guidance and templates in the guide to prepare a powerful CV and secure the job you want. Want to ace your job interview? View our free guide to accountancy job interviews, which includes 20 of the most common accountant job interview questions and answers.