Top 12 Accounts Payable Clerk Skills to Put on Your Resume

Building a sharp resume for an accounts payable clerk role means putting the right skills front and center. Show the mix: systems know‑how, precision, and crisp communication. Keep your toolkit obvious, your results measurable, and your judgment steady. That’s what gets attention in a noisy market.

Accounts Payable Clerk Skills

1. QuickBooks
2. SAP
3. Excel
4. Oracle
5. Data Entry
6. Invoicing
7. Reconciliation
8. NetSuite
9. Financial Reporting
10. ERP Systems
11. Vendor Management
12. Compliance

1. QuickBooks

QuickBooks (Online and Desktop) is accounting software used to manage invoices, bills, expenses, vendors, and reporting. In AP, it keeps bills flowing, approvals tight, and payments accurate.

Why It's Important

It speeds up the payables cycle, cuts keystroke errors, and keeps vendor balances and reporting tidy. Less chaos, more clarity.

How to Improve QuickBooks Skills

1. Automate entry: Use tools like Dext (formerly Receipt Bank) or AutoEntry to capture bills and receipts directly.
2. Online bill pay: Connect a bill pay service to approve and pay inside QuickBooks while keeping a clean audit trail.
3. Bank feeds and rules: Turn on bank feeds, build rules, and let routine coding happen automatically.
4. Custom reporting: Create saved reports for AP aging, unpaid bills by vendor, and payment forecasts.
5. Vendor hygiene: Keep W‑9s, terms, and default expense accounts current. Fewer mismatches. Fewer delays.
6. Regular reconciliations: Reconcile bank and credit card accounts monthly (or faster). Catch drift early.
7. Tailored setup: Tune the chart of accounts, classes, locations, and approval workflows to match your processes.
8. Stay current: Training and certifications help you keep up with new features and smarter workflows.

How to Display QuickBooks Skills on Your Resume

2. SAP

SAP is an enterprise platform (including SAP S/4HANA) that manages finance, procurement, and operations. For AP, it handles invoice capture, three‑way matching, approvals, and payments at scale.

Why It's Important

It enforces controls, standardizes payables, and provides real‑time visibility into liabilities and cash needs while supporting compliance.

How to Improve SAP Skills

1. Targeted training: Focus on AP and procurement transactions, vendor master data, and matching logic.
2. Hands‑on practice: Run sandbox scenarios: PO and non‑PO invoices, credit memos, blocked items, and payment proposals.
3. Use Fiori apps: Learn the AP‑relevant tiles for faster approvals and exception handling.
4. Master data discipline: Clean vendor records, payment terms, and banking details; great data makes SAP hum.
5. Keep up with releases: New S/4HANA features often reduce manual steps—adopt them.
6. Community and peers: Share tips, troubleshoot edge cases, and trade configurations that save hours.

How to Display SAP Skills on Your Resume

3. Excel

Excel is the workbench for data cleanup, analysis, and reconciliations. Think invoice logs, aging pivots, and payment calendars you can slice any way you need.

Why It's Important

It accelerates analysis, standardizes calculations, and turns raw numbers into decisions. Fast, flexible, dependable.

How to Improve Excel Skills

1. Core functions: XLOOKUP, SUMIFS, INDEX/MATCH, IF/IFS, TEXT functions. Real power, fewer errors than old VLOOKUP chains.
2. Pivot Tables: Summaries by vendor, terms, or due date in seconds. Drill in, filter, spot outliers.
3. Power Query: Import, clean, and reshape messy data without manual rework.
4. Data Validation: Drop‑downs and rules that stop bad entries before they start.
5. Conditional Formatting: Flag overdue items, duplicate invoice numbers, or amounts above thresholds.
6. Shortcuts: Keyboard fluency turns a long day into an efficient one.
7. Macros/VBA (where allowed): Automate repetitive formatting and imports.

How to Display Excel Skills on Your Resume

4. Oracle

Oracle Financials (including Oracle Cloud ERP Payables) streamlines invoice capture, approvals, and payments while feeding strong reporting and controls.

Why It's Important

Integrated workflows reduce manual effort, improve auditability, and keep payables accurate and timely across the business.

How to Improve Oracle Skills

1. Automated matching: Configure two‑ or three‑way match rules and tolerances to shrink exceptions.
2. Electronic payments: Set up ACH, wires, and payment files to cut paper and speed cash movement.
3. Supplier master care: Standardize naming, terms, tax profiles, and banking; lock down approvals for changes.
4. Custom reporting: Use BI Publisher and dashboards to monitor aging, holds, and discount capture.
5. Close discipline: Reconcile subledger to GL, review unapplied credits, and clear holds before period end.
6. Continuous learning: Product updates arrive often—adopt the ones that remove clicks and reduce risk.

How to Display Oracle Skills on Your Resume

5. Data Entry

In AP, data entry means capturing invoice details with accuracy and speed: vendor, dates, amounts, terms, coding, and approvals—cleanly into the system.

Why It's Important

Accuracy protects the ledger, preserves cash, and prevents duplicate or fraudulent payments. Small errors can snowball. Precision stops that.

How to Improve Data Entry Skills

1. Automate capture: Use OCR and intake tools integrated with your accounting system.
2. Standardize: Templates, naming conventions, and checklists make consistency automatic.
3. Double‑checks: Two‑person reviews for high‑risk items and systematic duplicate detection by vendor/amount/date.
4. Shortcuts and forms: Pre‑filled defaults for frequent vendors and recurring bills.
5. Training rhythm: Brief, frequent refreshers on coding rules, tax handling, and exception types.
6. Metrics: Track error types and fix causes at the source.

How to Display Data Entry Skills on Your Resume

6. Invoicing

Invoicing covers how bills arrive, get validated, coded, approved, and paid. The path from vendor email or portal to “paid” should be smooth and traceable.

Why It's Important

Clean invoicing enables timely payments, accurate accruals, and strong vendor relationships—plus early‑pay discounts when you can grab them.

How to Improve Invoicing Skills

1. E‑invoicing first: Encourage electronic intake to reduce manual entry and lost paperwork.
2. Standard formats: Ask vendors for consistent fields (PO number, itemized lines, remit details). Fewer exceptions.
3. Three‑way match where needed: PO, receipt, invoice—tight tolerances for high‑value or risky buys.
4. Approval workflows: Route by amount, department, or category; time‑box approvals with reminders.
5. Discount capture: Surface 2/10 Net 30 and similar offers on your dashboards. Act fast.
6. Reconciliation cadence: Regularly align invoices to POs and receipts; resolve discrepancies early.
7. Vendor communication: Clear SLAs for responses and dispute resolution. Simple and predictable.
8. Playbooks: Document exceptions (missing PO, wrong terms, returns) and how to resolve them.

How to Display Invoicing Skills on Your Resume

7. Reconciliation

Reconciliation means matching internal activity to external evidence—vendor statements, bank records, POs, receipts—until the numbers agree and the trail is clear.

Why It's Important

It protects cash, catches duplicates, and ensures financial statements reflect reality. No surprises at close.

How to Improve Reconciliation Skills

1. Automate matching: Use reconciliation tools to pair transactions by amount, date, PO, and vendor.
2. Do it often: Weekly (or rolling) reconciliations beat month‑end panic.
3. Standard procedures: Checklists for bank, card, GR/IR, and vendor statement reconciliations.
4. Exception queues: Triage by risk and aging; resolve the oldest and largest first.
5. Close check: Tie subledgers to the GL and document the tie‑outs every period.

How to Display Reconciliation Skills on Your Resume

8. NetSuite

NetSuite is a cloud ERP that centralizes AP—vendor records, bills, approvals, and payments—with real‑time reporting and strong controls.

Why It's Important

It cuts manual steps, improves visibility across teams, and scales as volumes grow.

How to Improve NetSuite Skills

1. Automation: Use SuiteScript and built‑in automations to reduce repetitive entry (recurring bills, scheduled payments).
2. SuiteFlow approvals: Build tiered approvals with reminders and escalations.
3. Dashboards: Customize saved searches and KPIs for aging, credits on file, and discount opportunities.
4. Vendor prepayments: Track deposits and prepayments cleanly so reports stay honest.
5. Integrations: Connect expense, procurement, and payment platforms for straight‑through processing.
6. Training: Keep current with updates; small features often shave minutes off every transaction.

How to Display NetSuite Skills on Your Resume

9. Financial Reporting

Financial reporting translates activity into statements and schedules. From AP’s side: accurate liabilities, clean aging, proper accruals, and clear variance stories.

Why It's Important

Leaders plan cash, auditors rely on accuracy, and compliance depends on complete, timely data. AP feeds all of it.

How to Improve Financial Reporting Skills

1. Automation: System‑generated aging, accruals, and payment forecasts reduce manual edits.
2. Regular reconciliations: Subledger to GL, vendor statements to AP aging, bank to book.
3. SOPs: Document close steps, owners, and deadlines. No guesswork at month‑end.
4. Analytics: Use pivot tables and dashboards to track trends—days payable, discounts taken, hold reasons.
5. Keep learning: Stay current on accounting rules that affect AP (accruals, tax, 1099/withholding, VAT/GST).

How to Display Financial Reporting Skills on Your Resume

10. ERP Systems

ERPs bring finance, procurement, inventory, and more into one system. For AP, that means unified data, consistent workflows, and fewer blind spots.

Why It's Important

Centralized processes reduce errors, speed approvals, and strengthen compliance and reporting across the company.

How to Improve ERP Systems Skills

1. Automate intake: Use invoice automation and RPA for capture, coding, and routing.
2. Data controls: Validation rules, required fields, and vendor master governance prevent garbage‑in outcomes.
3. Supplier portals: Let vendors self‑serve on invoices, status, and updates. Fewer emails, fewer delays.
4. Analytics: Tie ERP data to dashboards for cycle times, exception rates, and cash needs.
5. Cloud readiness: Cloud ERPs bring faster updates, better security, and remote access—often with simpler integrations.

How to Display ERP Systems Skills on Your Resume

11. Vendor Management

Vendor management covers onboarding, terms, compliance, communication, and performance. It sits at the heart of smooth AP operations.

Why It's Important

Healthy relationships, predictable deliveries, fewer disputes, and better pricing—plus the right paperwork in the right place.

How to Improve Vendor Management Skills

1. Standardize onboarding: Collect tax forms, banking details, and compliance docs up front. Verify and lock down changes.
2. Clear terms: Set payment terms and discount programs that match cash strategy.
3. Technology: Use supplier portals, EDI where appropriate, and payment automation to reduce friction.
4. Performance reviews: Track disputes, late deliveries, and pricing drift. Adjust or renegotiate based on facts.
5. Communication cadence: Regular updates on status and policy changes. Quick responses prevent escalations.
6. Training: Keep the team current on tools and vendor risk practices.

How to Display Vendor Management Skills on Your Resume

12. Compliance

Compliance means following laws, regulations, and company policies in every step of AP—authorizations, taxes, reporting, and recordkeeping.

Why It's Important

It prevents penalties and fraud, safeguards the company’s reputation, and strengthens audits. Clean processes, clean outcomes.

How to Improve Compliance Skills

1. Know the rules: Keep up with tax reporting (e.g., 1099‑NEC in the U.S.), withholding, VAT/GST, and invoice requirements in your regions.
2. Internal controls: Segregation of duties, approval thresholds, and vendor change controls are non‑negotiable.
3. Audit trails: Ensure approvals, edits, and payments are fully logged and easily retrieved.
4. Policy playbooks: Document procedures for exceptions, returns, credits, and disputes.
5. Periodic reviews: Self‑audits and spot checks catch gaps before external auditors do.
6. Continuous training: Short, regular refreshers keep the team aligned with evolving requirements.

How to Display Compliance Skills on Your Resume