Bookkeeper Job Description for a Resume

Your resume is a crucial component to landing the job you want. It provides hiring managers with their first impression of who you are and what you can do professionally, and it is often a determining factor between landing interviews immediately and fruitlessly job hunting for months. That is why it is critical to take great care when deciding what information to include and exclude in your document.

Learn how to best present your eligibility for a position and set yourself apart from competing candidates by reviewing our bookkeeper job description for a resume. Follow our helpful tips on how to decide which skills, duties, and accomplishments to include. Then, use our sample resume as a guide when crafting your own document to achieve a knockout resume you can send to hiring managers with confidence.

Using a Bookkeeper Job Description for a Resume

While everyone who applies for a job as a bookkeeper will have different academic and professional qualifications and work histories, hiring managers still expect to see particular skills, certifications, and responsibilities standard to the position on your resume.

Bookkeeper Summary

Your summary statement is often the first section employers read. Therefore, it is imperative to use this opportunity to showcase impressive hard and soft skills and accomplishments. Use your professional title to introduce yourself in the first sentence. Mention soft skills in organization, time-management, or other important areas to emphasize your work ethic. Be sure to incorporate industry keywords by identifying hard skills in areas such as accounting, budgeting, or payroll processing.

Bookkeeper Education & Certification

Many bookkeeping positions do not necessarily require candidates to possess an undergraduate degree. However, most employers do want to see some level of academic training. List any certifications, training programs, or relevant courses you have that apply to the job at hand.

If you have a relevant degree, list it, as this can be an excellent qualification that sets you apart from competing applicants. Include the title of your degree, the institution from where you earned it, and the year you graduated. Feel free to list special honors or academic awards to further stand out among other candidates.

Bookkeeper Duties & Responsibilities

Hiring managers look at your work experience section to see how you use your skills and how you might benefit their company if hired. In this section, you want to clearly showcase your various responsibilities in as many applicable areas of the job as possible. Mention duties in payroll, accounts payable, accounts receivable, and accounting if you have such experience. Consider including descriptions of entering and analyzing data, assisting with budgeting, and compiling financial reports.

Additionally, use numbers and percentages to show concrete ways in which you benefitted previous employers. If you saved your employer money, increased accuracy in a bookkeeping process, or improved daily department efficiency, point it out.

Bookkeeper Skills

Employers scan your skills section to determine if you have key relevant qualifications necessary to succeed in the position. While this section should not be a laundry list of every professional skill you possess, try to incorporate a variety of the most important proficiencies for the job, such as skills in bookkeeping software, payroll, billing, accounts payable and receivable, taxes, or auditing. It is acceptable to include significant soft skills, such as time management or attention to detail, as well.

Bookkeeper Resume

How to Get Your Bookkeeper Resume Past an ATS

Before your resume can impress hiring managers, it often must pass an Applicant Tracking System. In competitive job markets, many companies receive dozens, even hundreds, of resumes and applications for one position. Rather than sort through each individual resume, hiring managers often use an ATS to filter through the many documents.

An ATS pre-screens resumes by scanning them for specific industry words and phrases to determine their relevance. It then gives the documents a mathematical score and only passes along documents that receive a high score. If you want employers to see your resume, make sure it can pass as ATS. To do this, use the bookkeeper job description as you construct your resume.

How do you use a bookkeeper job description for creating a resume? Peruse the description for key industry words and phrases. Incorporate in your document the specific job title, critical skills, and other words or phrases the employer emphasizes. Use the exact wording the description uses to ensure ATS recognition.

Notice how the jobseeker in the sample resume clearly identifies herself as a bookkeeper. She includes many bookkeeping terms such as “payroll,” “accounts payable,” and “accounts receivable” as well as the specific names of relevant computer programs. The jobseeker repeats important words and phrases a couple of times throughout the different sections of her document, but she doesn’t overdo it, as an ATS will usually reject resumes that are too congested with keywords.

As you craft your resume, improve your chances of passing an ATS by keeping your format and font simple and professional. Write a concise summary statement rather than an objective section, as the objective section is increasingly becoming obsolete. Stick to standard headers such as Work Experience, Skills, and Education so you don’t confuse the ATS, and make sure you proofread extensively to avoid spelling errors.