Staff Accountant Resume Examples & Writing Guide

Staff accountant resume template

How to write a staff accountant resume

If you’re detail-oriented and love handling the finances of a business —analyzing balance sheets, making journal entries, tracking cash flows, and making budget projections — then staff accountant might be the perfect role for you.

Every company values a good staff accountant because poor money management often leads to a business’s failure. This value translates into actual income, with staff accountants enjoying job security and higher salaries.

However, getting a job as a staff accountant isn’t easy. You need to showcase your professional accounting skills, achievements, and necessary qualifications in a way that convinces employers you’re the best fit for the job.

Here are four resume-writing tips to help you write an effective staff accountant resume:

1. Highlight your accounting skills and certifications

To show employers you’re the right fit for the role, your resume’s skills section should touch upon your most relevant achievements and skills.

Here is a list of key skills and certifications to add to your staff accountant resume:

• Certified Public Accountant
• Financial planning & analysis
• Cost accounting
• Accounting management
• SAS
• Microsoft Office (Word, Excel, PowerPoint)
• Intuit QuickBooks
• Salesforce
• QlikView
• Tableau
• Oracle Business Intelligence Enterprise Edition
• Microsoft Access
• Time management skills
• Data entry software
• Microsoft Dynamics
• SAP
• Swift
• R
• Microsoft Planner

2. Add hard numbers to your achievements

Hiring managers will evaluate your staff accountant resume in terms of the quantifiable impact you had on your previous companies. They’ll be looking for details like the dollar amount you saved, how your work impacted the business’s profitability, and how many projects you advised on.

In your work experience section, back up your accomplishments with hard numbers whenever possible.

Here are some examples of how you can quantify your achievements on a staff accountant resume:

• Realized $2M savings in annual costs by identifying and fixing a recurring error in the accounting system
• Managed client billing to vendors, ensuring the accuracy by comparing PO to invoices, and conducting bank/credit card reconciliations with 1,000+ transactions

3. Include strong action verbs related to accounting

Staff accountants perform a host of tasks that help a business run smoothly.

Including strong action verbs in your staff accountant resume will help better capture your ability to keep things level, plus they also better highlight your accounting-related achievements and accomplishments (which is a bonus).

Below are some strong action verbs for a staff accountant resume:

• Handle
• Audit
• Manage
• Develop
• Reconcile
• Prepare
• Distribute
• Process
• Assist
• Update
• Present
• Analyze
• Report
• Supervise
• Collect
• Inspect
• Advise

4. Open with a strong resume summary

A resume summary is a 2–3 sentence introduction at the start of your resume that briefly conveys your most important professional achievements to the hiring manager.

A well-written resume summary includes basic information like your current job title, your experience in the industry, and your primary responsibilities.

You should also add notable projects, achievements, skills, and qualifications to quickly show why you’re a good fit for the role you’re applying for.

Here’s an example of an effective resume summary for a staff accountant:

Staff Accountant with 5+ years of experience in full-cycle accounting management. Proven track in developing and implementing accounting and financial systems, processes, and controls that enhance business profitability.

Build your resume in minutes

Use an AI-powered resume builder and have your resume done in 10 minutes. Simply select your template, and our software will walk you through each step.

Build My Resume

Average staff accountant salaries in the US

After you’ve written your resume, make sure you use it to apply for jobs within a fair salary range.

The following table includes information from the US Bureau of Labor Statistics’ latest Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics report for 2025. Here are the ten states with the highest salaries for accountants, as well as the national average for your reference when applying for work.