Bookkeeper Resume: Templates & Formats [Skills, Objective, Summary]

As a bookkeeper, you will be responsible for recording, analyzing, and preparing the company’s various types of financial materials. While a bookkeeper sometimes is confused with an accounting clerk, many factors differentiate them from each other. The main difference being that bookkeepers manage smaller businesses while accounting clerks usually operate under larger company accountants. 

Preparation for landing a position as a bookkeeper has a similar process. You will want to study and plan out how you will create a strong resume for the recruiters. Impress potential employers with your professional bookkeeper resume using a few tips and tricks.

💡 1. Adopt an ATS-friendly bookkeeper resume format.

Companies want to take as little time as possible to review through all the applicants they have in hand. When the recruiters pull up your bookkeeper resume, they use a tracking system (called Applicant Tracking System or ATS) to scan for important information.

Keep things clean and simple for them by ensuring your resume for the bookkeeper position is in an easy-to-read arrangement. 

💡2. Refer to online bookkeeper resume templates and examples.

Find inspiration to make your bookkeeper resume design more creative by browsing the internet. Check out bookkeeper resume examples online to see what might be useful. Samples are helpful, especially for those looking to build a resume for a bookkeeper with no experience. 

💡3. Tailor your resume for the bookkeeper role and use keywords from the job description.

Carefully examine the bookkeeper job description for resume formation. You want to make sure that you are providing the recruiters their ideal candidate image. Combine keywords from the job description to display that you have the related skills. 

💡 4. Quantify results on your bookkeeper resume. 

When providing details about your past experiences, remember to elaborate with numbers. If you are creating an entry level bookkeeper resume, incorporating numbers within your achievements will impress the employers, without a doubt. 

💡

💡 5. Show your tech-savvy side.  

Make sure to highlight your computer skills for your bookkeeper resume. Whether it is something general like being knowledgeable in Microsoft Office or something more specific like QuickBooks, make sure to emphasize that you are skilled with technology.  

A career objective is a short paragraph summarizing your skills and your ideas of a career path. Having a career objective will be more beneficial if you are forming a resume for a bookkeeper with no experience. 

• Skills first, then goals:
  Let the employers know that you qualify with your bookkeeping skills before you provide them with your career aspirations. 
• Be descriptive but to the point:
  Make your bookkeeper resume objective attention-grabbing with numerical details but make sure that it is still easy to read. 
• Create the bookkeeper resume objective specifically for the role:
  Customize the accomplishments you feature in your bookkeeper resume depending on the bookkeeper role description. 

Different from the career objective for a bookkeeper, a summary is a few sentences that emphasize your most impressive accomplishments. The main difference is that your concentration for a bookkeeper resume summary will be on your skill sets instead of your career goals. A bookkeeper resume summary will be more suitable if you will be crafting a more experienced bookkeeper resume. 

• Start with professional adjectives:
  Lead your bookkeeper resume summary with noteworthy power adjectives. Power adjectives add life to your descriptions of past experiences. 
• Personalize your summary:
  Craft your bookkeeper resume summary to fit the bookkeeper role. By doing this, you kill two birds with one stone: one, you will make it easier for the recruiters to review your bookkeeper resume; and two, you will show them that you are suitable for the role. 
• Be detailed but concise. 
  Your bookkeeper resume summary should be detailed enough to gain the employers’ attention and make sure they keep reading, but brief enough so that it does not give away spoilers for the rest of your bookkeeper resume material. 

Your resume skills will show the employers what you know and the characteristics you have. If you have little to no experience, this is your chance to strengthen your bookkeeper resume profile.

4 different ways to arrange your skill sets:

Tips to write the skills section:

• Choose skills format based on work experience:
  Some bullet formats are more beneficial than others depending on your work experience level. Decide which of the above best fit your bookkeeping skills for your resume. Learn more details on each of the four bookkeeping skills resume formats.
• Include hard and soft skills for your bookkeeper resume:
  Remember to include soft skills on your resume for a bookkeeper position. While technical skills are more relevant to your qualification, your soft skills show the recruiters whether or not you, as an individual, fit the role.
• Include relevant bookkeeping skills for your resume:
   Leave out skills that are unrelated to the bookkeeping job description, especially if you have many skills to list. Adding a bunch of irrelevant skills to your bookkeeper resume indicates to the employers your lack of effort in the specific role.

✔️ Advice 1: Choose the right bookkeeper resume format.

Just like the skills bullet formats, your overall resume formatting choice should relate to your work experience level. Read further about each of the three resume formats to pick the best one for your bookkeeper resume with no experience. 

✔️ Advice 2: Adopt a career objective for a bookkeeper. 

Provide the employers an idea of what your plans down your career path are by using a bookkeeper resume objective. It also gives them an indication as to how your aspirations align with what the role offers.

✔️ Advice 3: Highlight your education.

Use your education to your advantage by providing details on the skills and experiences you learned while in school. Additionally, you can include any awards, certifications, and honor achievements. This can be especially useful if you are creating a bookkeeper resume with no experience. 

✔️ Advice 4: Include your portfolio/side projects/personal websites.

Additional artifacts of your accomplishments, such as your portfolio or personal websites, help demonstrate your other capabilities that were not in your bookkeeper resume to the recruiters. 

✔️ Advice 5: Write a sincere bookkeeper cover letter. 

Your application letter for the bookkeeper role provides employers your interests in the company position and a few in-depth examples of how you utilized your bookkeeping related skills. Make sure to thank them for their time and provide ways of contact for future opportunities.