Bookkeeper Resume Sample, Template & Writing Guide for 2024
Are you ready to impress a hiring manager and stand out from other job seekers? If you want to really make an impression, you need a flawless bookkeeper resume. There are lots of people out there looking for well-paying bookkeeping jobs, so you’ll need to prove that you have skills and experiences that they do not. But don’t worry; we’re here to help at every stage of the process.
When you shoot out a resume, it’s an introduction to someone who could potentially hire you. It can’t be hard to read, confusing to understand, or generic. Any of those things are sure to get your resume pushed to the bottom of the pile. Instead, you need to know what makes an outstanding bookkeeper resume and use that knowledge to succeed.
A recruiter can’t see what you can do in person, so you must be adept at getting that across with the written word. This might sound challenging if you’re someone who is more in tune with numbers than the ABCs, but it can be done. This guide will give you all the information you need to build a resume that never gets overlooked.
While you work through this guide, we’ll provide tips that will help you craft a bookkeeper resume that catches the eye. We’ll share some examples of how to put the information on the page in a way that makes sense for a hiring manager. All the information you need will be provided so that you will have an amazing resume at the end of the process.
When you follow our steps, you’ll build a resume you love. It might even take much less time than you expected. You’ll get all the tools you need to move forward while showing off all your outstanding bookkeeper skills. This is exactly what you need to move forward and find yourself in an interview down the road.
As you continue reading, you’ll get to glimpse a professional bookkeeper resume that has all the details that a recruiter could want. You’ll learn about the best format to use, what information must be included, and how to create each section on its own to make crafting a bookkeeper resume a bit easier.
Sample Bookkeeper Resume
Bookkeeping resume samples are one of the number one ways to arm yourself with the knowledge needed to create your professional document. When you look at various samples, you can see what is the same between them and what might vary. You’ll learn how to best incorporate your skills and highlight the things that make you stand out from other applicants.
When you browse bookkeeper resume samples, you’ll see how each section is formatted to pack a punch and ensure the important details are noticed. As you work through this guide, you’ll find several examples of resume sections for bookkeepers. You can use these in tandem with a larger sample of the entire resume to keep yourself on track.
One of the reasons we recommend checking out resume examples for a bookkeeper is because your own resume needs to be noticed immediately. If it isn’t, that could mean never getting a chance at a position you’d do a great job at. To get an idea of what a bookkeeper resume might look like, check out the image below.
Download this resume example - Bookkeeper
Now that you have the big picture in mind, you can use the sample bookkeeping resume to keep yourself on track. You can easily see how things are sectioned off and use that information to create bite-sized parts of the resume to avoid being overwhelmed. The sections that are must-haves include the following:
· Contact information
· Resume objective
· Employment experience
· Educational background
· Skills
· References
These sections are common in all sorts of resumes, not just those for bookkeepers and accountants. Managers are used to seeing them and can easily decipher their meaning. This is a good thing. While it’s okay to get a little creative, your resume needs to be simple to read and understand.
This doesn’t mean that you should be generic and send the same bookkeeper resume to every job you apply for, though. The next section will go into how and why you should customize your resume. Then we’ll dig into the actual art of creating a bookkeeper resume.
Writing a Bookkeeping Resume in 2024: Full Guide & Bookkeeper Job Description for Resume
You know you need a great full-charge bookkeeper resume to get a great job, but you might not be sure where you should start. The good news is that this isn’t as complicated as you might expect. Your bookkeeper resume and the description for the job should be utilized together. Save the description so you can easily glance at it while you make your resume.
Why do you need a bookkeeper description for the resume? It largely comes down to keywords. All the skills, experiences, and other things a hiring manager wants to see will be included in the job description. Those keywords are essential to include in your resume. The more of these keywords you use, the more accomplished you look. It helps you ensure you tailor your resume to a specific role.
Keywords are useful because most of the time, a human isn’t the first person to look over your resume. Most companies use ATS (applicant tracking systems) to do the first pass of resumes sent in with a job application. The closer you match the expected verbiage, the more likely a person will see your resume and decide to move forward with the hiring process.
As you view our bookkeeping resume example, you can see how certain words really stand out and say something special. While it takes more time to customize every resume you send out, it also gives you a much better chance of getting the job you want. Spending a few minutes changing out keywords is well worth it for that reason.
Another thing to consider going into making a bookkeeper resume is what resume format works best. For most people, the reverse-chronological format works best. This puts your most recent experience and education at the forefront, which is typically where your advanced skills are showcased. However, feel free to choose a different format if you have little experience or want to focus on education more than work experience.
The next thing we’ll do is start digging into the different sections of your bookkeeper resume. But first, we have one more tip to share with you. Most resumes for a bookkeeper should be only one page long. If you have a decade of relevant experience, it’s okay to go longer. But keep in mind that the longer the resume is, the less likely it will be fully read.
Section #1: Contact Information
For a bookkeeper position, the first section to focus on is contact information. This gives you the chance to introduce yourself and make sure the employer has a way to contact you. This is one of the simplest parts of the resume so it’s a great place to start before moving to more complicated sections.
Contact Information Example
For this applicant looking for a bookkeeper role, you can see how all the information fits together and looks good in the process. The name stands out so it’s not likely to be overlooked. Underneath, you can see the address and two ways to contact the individual. This is a good template for what you want your own contact information to look like.
How to Format This Section
Starting off right is important when crafting the perfect resume. Thankfully, the formatting on your contact info is easy to get right. All you need to worry about is choosing colors and fonts that fit well together since this needs to be simple to read. After all, you want the manager to be able to easily email or call you if they are impressed with your abilities.
Section #2: Resume Objective
From the contact section, we move into the bookkeeper resume objective. This is where you want to put in a lot of powerful words and dig into your accomplishments from the past. The objective for a bookkeeper resume should feel a lot like an elevator pitch but in written form.
Also called a resume summary, this section is all about capitalizing on what you do best. Make sure to include your largest achievements and talk yourself up. Using numbers and other evidence of how you’ve helped past organizations succeed is a great idea for this section.
Resume Objective Example for an Entry-Level Bookkeeper Resume
For someone who is entry-level and looking into an assistant bookkeeper job, you may have fewer achievements to share. That’s okay. Remember to add skills that matter, such as being detail-oriented. Feel free to delve into your education too.
Resume Objective Example for Experienced Bookkeeping Resume
Those with a few years of experience will have more achievements to talk about. This is good since you can easily fill up the objective. However, you also don’t want to go overboard with what you include. Think about your past jobs and impressive things you’ve done that relate to the new job. Those are the things to focus on.
How to Format This Section
As a certified bookkeeper, making sure your resume looks good is important. However, the resume objective focuses less on aesthetics and more on the information. This is going to be a paragraph of text without any extras. There is one thing to be aware of, though. The best objectives will be between two to four sentences so keep that in mind.
Section #3: Professional Work Experience
Listing bookkeeping duties for a resume based on what you’ve done in the past can help employers learn more about you and what you’re capable of. Of course, you want to customize this since one job might want very different skills than another. The work experience section lets you start sharing the bookkeeper duties for a resume.
Here is where you share your bookkeeping experience, as well as work in other fields that have some relevance to the position you want. Think back to what you’ve done in the past and how it relates to the responsibilities of the job you hope to get.
Professional Work Experience Example
Here’s an example of a bookkeeping resume for someone who has had past experience. You can see how each position is broken down and all pertinent information is included. Everything is put together in a way where the information is easy to understand. This is what a manager wants to see on your resume.
How to Format This Section
Formatting is a bit trickier for this section since you want your information to stand out. First, add the details about the job to the header. This includes where you worked, when, and what position you were in. Then you can move to the bullet points. This is where you share the responsibilities you had at the company in your position.
Section #4: Educational Background
Whether you have a high school diploma or a degree from a university, the education section is where you share this information. This section goes into detail about your education and any certifications you might have. It’s similar to the experience section but a bit less detailed.
For those who have education beyond high school, you only need to start with your first degree. However, if that’s the extent of your schooling, keep the diploma on the resume to let employers know that you have it. Many jobs will require at least a diploma.
Educational Background Example
Education is an important aspect of a resume for a bookkeeper job application. The example above gives you an idea of what a typical education section might look like. In this situation, you can see the applicant’s associate degree and all the information related to it.
How to Format This Section
Whether you have a college education, a high school diploma, certifications, or a combination, here’s where you share it all. This is similar to the experience section but less information is needed. The main idea is to provide what degree you have, where it’s from, and when you acquired it. Other information can also be added if you have a lack of experience.
Section #5: Skills
There are a lot of useful bookkeeping skills for a resume and each job will prioritize different ones. When choosing your own bookkeeping resume skills, look at the job description. If you are adept at something mentioned there, it’s likely a good idea to include it.
While you decide on skills, consider a mix of hard skills (like technical skills) and soft skills (such as communication skills). You want to show you can handle the numbers side of things but it’s also useful to be someone with who colleagues enjoy spending time.
Skills Example
A few of the common skills for a bookkeeper resume can be seen in the image above. However, you’ll want to consider what you do best when making your own list. Several skills that you may want to include depending on the position include:
· Accounting software
· Accounts payable
· Accounts receivable
· Auditing
· Balance sheets
· Bank reconciliation
· Data discrepancies
· Data entry
· Financial data
· Financial records
· Financial reports
· Financial statements
· Financial transactions
· General ledger
· Journal entries
· Microsoft Excel
· Monthly payroll
· MS Office
· Problem-solving
· Purchase orders
· QuickBooks
· Reconciling
· Tax returns
How to Format This Section
When formatting skills for a professional resume, you want things to look neat and easy to read. In this case, that means opting for a list instead of a paragraph of information. In addition to listing your skills, make sure you indicate your level of proficiency with each of them. This gives the manager more insight into what you can do.
Section #6: References
Finally, we come to the references. Managers and recruiters will often want to see them so it’s best to include them on the resume itself. The main idea here is to share a few people who will back up your abilities as a bookkeeper (or all-around good person). Supervisors are good but personal references can be used. Just avoid family members or friends.
References Example
The best way to list your references will be similar to what you see above. It has all the information needed in a neat space so managers quickly understand what you’re sharing. You can copy this idea or make some tweaks depending on what works best for the document you have in mind.
How to Format This Section
For formatting references, there are several options but we recommend one above the others. It’s best to share the name of your reference and what organization they are affiliated with. However, instead of listing their email address and phone number, note that the manager can have them if they ask. This keeps the information private unless it becomes needed.
Related Resume Templates
Now that we’ve talked about all the sections in a bookkeeper resume, it’s time to put all that knowledge to work. Using a bookkeeper resume template is an excellent way to cut down on how long it takes to build the actual resume document. You’ve seen one in our example images and you’re welcome to use it. A template lets you plug in your information to get a great-looking resume.
Compared to using Microsoft Office to build a resume, templates are far easier. If you aren’t sure that you want to use the one displayed in this guide, that’s okay. Below are a number of other templates that can be used for a bookkeeper resume. Check them out and choose the one that appeals to you. While these aren’t specifically for bookkeepers, they can be easily adapted for your resume needs.
· Data Center Technician Resume
So how do you use a bookkeeper resume template? Open it up and start making changes to the information so it has your own skills, experience, and additional details you want a recruiter to see. Use our Resume Builder to create resumes on the fly as often as you need. There’s no need to worry about formatting since it’s done for you.
Final Points on Successful Bookkeeper Resume Examples
You’re prepared at this point to create a fantastic bookkeeper resume. That means you’ll be much more likely to get an interview than if you’d used a boilerplate resume. Of course, even when using a template, make sure you add details to make it your own. After you’re happy with the resume, it’s time to move on to the final steps. Follow along below:
· Look over the resume for anything that stands out negatively. Read over it to check the flow but don’t get hung up on small errors. This is just a way to make sure everything looks good when a hiring manager flips to your document.
· Think about the fonts and colors used for the resume. Do you like them? Do they look good together? Make sure there’s some contrast so it’s easy to understand your information. Edit anything that doesn’t seem quite right.
· Focus on errors as you read the resume again. Clean up grammar issues and misspellings. A tool like Grammarly can be used for this to ensure you don’t miss anything.
· Check to be sure the resume is well-spaced, organized appropriately, and professional. This is another chance to make any small changes that might be needed.
· Finally, read the resume but do it out loud. This can help you catch any final things that you might want to change before you send in that application.
If you’ve done all this, you’re ready to go. Make sure you turn in the bookkeeper resume as a sample PDF since this makes it look best on a wide range of devices. Include your cover letter and any other documents and take the plunge. You can feel good about turning in a resume that is sure to turn heads. Good luck!