Most accountant CVs describe a job description instead of a person. “Responsible for accounts payable, bank reconciliations and monthly reporting” tells a recruiter what the role was — not what you changed while you held it. And before a recruiter reads anything, more than 98% of Fortune 500 companies run the file through an Applicant Tracking System (ATS) that only understands plain headings and plain text.
This template fixes both problems. It is written for accountants, it is ATS-safe, and it is free — copy it, replace the bracketed parts with your own numbers, and you have a CV. Nothing here is locked.
The free accountant CV template
Copy everything between the lines. Keep the section names exactly as they are — those are the headings ATS software looks for.
[FULL NAME] Accountant — [Financial Reporting / Tax / Audit / Payroll / AP–AR] [City, Country] · [Phone] · [Email] · [LinkedIn URL] PROFESSIONAL SUMMARY Accountant with [X] years in [industry], responsible for [month-end close / AP and AR / VAT and corporate tax / IFRS reporting] across [N] legal entities with [annual revenue or transaction volume]. Reduced [process] from [X] to [Y]. [ACCA / CPA / CIMA — level or status]. Works daily in [SAP / Oracle NetSuite / 1C / QuickBooks / Xero] and advanced Excel. CORE COMPETENCIES Financial reporting (IFRS / GAAP) · Month-end and year-end close · Accounts payable and receivable · VAT and corporate tax returns · Payroll · Bank and account reconciliation · Fixed assets · Budgeting and forecasting · Internal controls · Audit support PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE [Job title] — [Company], [City] [Month Year] – [Month Year or Present] · [Owned / Prepared / Managed] [what exactly] for [N entities / N invoices per month / revenue size]. · Reduced [close, reconciliation or reporting] time from [X] to [Y] by [what you actually changed]. · Filed [VAT / corporate tax / statutory] returns for [N] entities with [zero] penalties over [period]. · Supported the [external / internal] audit: prepared [schedules], cleared [N] queries, closed with [N] adjustments. [Previous job title] — [Company], [City] [Month Year] – [Month Year] · [Achievement with a number]. · [Achievement with a number]. · [Achievement with a number]. CERTIFICATIONS [ACCA — N papers passed / CPA — licensed in State] · [IFRS certificate] · [QuickBooks / Xero / SAP certification] EDUCATION [Degree in Accounting / Finance / Economics] — [University], [Year] SYSTEMS & SOFTWARE [SAP FI/CO] · [Oracle NetSuite] · [1C] · [QuickBooks] · [Xero] · Excel ([XLOOKUP, PivotTables, Power Query]) · [Power BI] LANGUAGES [Language — level] · [Language — level]
How to fill each section
Professional summary. Four lines maximum. Scope first (how many entities, what size), then one result with a number, then your qualification and your ERP. A recruiter should know within five seconds whether you have handled work of their size.
Core competencies. This is the keyword line. Write the terms the way the job advert writes them — if the advert says “month-end close”, do not write “monthly closing procedures”.
Experience. Every bullet needs a number: entities, invoices, accounts, days, employees, currencies, penalties. “Improved the reconciliation process” is invisible. “Cut reconciliation from 3 days to 4 hours” is not.
Certifications. If ACCA or CPA is in progress, say so honestly with the level — “ACCA, 9 of 13 papers passed” is stronger than silence and safer than an implied qualification.
Eight achievement lines you can adapt
- Cut the month-end close from 12 days to 6 by rebuilding the accrual checklist and automating three reconciliations.
- Reconciled 14 bank accounts in 3 currencies every month with no unexplained differences carried forward for 18 months.
- Filed VAT returns for 5 legal entities with no late filings or penalties over 3 years.
- Reduced overdue receivables from 62 to 28 days by introducing a weekly ageing review and a written collection sequence.
- Ran payroll for 240 employees, including overtime and severance, with an error rate below 0.2%.
- Migrated the chart of accounts from 1C to SAP for 2 entities, mapping over 600 accounts with no post-migration restatement.
- Built a rolling 12-month cash-flow forecast that flagged a funding gap four months in advance.
- Cleared 180 auditor queries in the first IFRS audit and closed it with 2 immaterial adjustments.
Replace the numbers with yours. If you do not remember them exactly, use the range you can defend in an interview.
Keywords an accountant CV should contain
ATS software matches your text against the advert. These are the terms that appear most often in accounting adverts: month-end close, year-end close, IFRS, GAAP, accounts payable, accounts receivable, general ledger, journal entries, bank reconciliation, VAT return, corporate tax, payroll, fixed assets, accruals and prepayments, budgeting, variance analysis, internal controls, audit support, ERP, Excel.
Only include what you have actually done. An ATS gets you read; a person decides, and an interview will find an invented keyword in about two questions.
Accountant achievement bank — free, by email
20 ready-made CV lines with real numbers, grouped by audit, tax, payroll, AP/AR and reporting — plus the full ATS keyword checklist for accountants. We send it as text you can copy straight into your CV.
One email with the material. Unsubscribe from any of our emails in one click.
What gets an accountant CV rejected
- Tables, columns and text boxes. Many ATS parsers read them out of order or skip them. One column, plain headings.
- A duties list copied from the job description. It makes every accountant look identical.
- No software named. The ERP you know is often the first filter — write SAP, 1C, NetSuite, QuickBooks or Xero explicitly.
- The file sent as an image or an unusual format. Send a text-based PDF unless the advert asks for something else.
- Creative fonts and coloured headers. For accounting roles they cost more than they gain.
Turn the template into a finished CV in about a minute
If you would rather not format it by hand, paste your details into MyEasyCV and it will lay the CV out for you, keep it ATS-readable and let you switch design and language afterwards. Your first CV is free and no card is required.
Build my accountant CV — free →
Questions accountants ask about this template
Is the template really free? Yes. Copy it from this page and use it anywhere, including in Word. Creating your first CV in MyEasyCV is also free and does not ask for a card.
Is it ATS-friendly? Yes — one column, standard section names, no tables, no graphics, no text in headers or footers. That is what parsers handle reliably.
One page or two? Up to about five years of experience, one page. Beyond that, two pages are normal for accounting roles, especially with audit or multi-entity work.
Should I add a photo? It depends on the country. In Azerbaijan, Turkey, Germany and much of continental Europe a photo is common; for the UK, the US and Canada, leave it out.
I am a student or newly qualified — what do I write in Experience? Use internships, university projects and any bookkeeping you did for a family business, and keep the numbers in: how many invoices, which software, which reports.
Kamran Taghiyev is a marketing professional with 5+ years of experience and a background spanning three universities. As the lead behind projects such as Easy Marketing School, Animators, MyEasyCV and Business Talks, he has reviewed thousands of job-applicant CVs.
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