Top 12 Enrolled Agent Skills to Put on Your Resume

In today’s crowded job market, an Enrolled Agent stands out by showing sharp, relevant skills that cut through complexity. The right mix proves you can prepare returns with precision, advise with authority, and steer clients through thorny rules without breaking a sweat.

Enrolled Agent Skills

1. Tax Preparation
2. IRS Representation
3. QuickBooks
4. Tax Planning
5. Audit Defense
6. TurboTax
7. Financial Analysis
8. Drake Software
9. Compliance Management
10. ProSeries
11. Tax Research
12. Xero

1. Tax Preparation

Tax preparation, for an Enrolled Agent, is the end-to-end process of gathering data, analyzing tax positions, and filing accurate returns for individuals and businesses while meeting every requirement of the tax code.

Why It's Important

Accurate preparation reduces risk, captures legitimate savings, and keeps clients compliant. It’s the foundation of trust and the springboard for broader advisory work.

How to Improve Tax Preparation Skills

Sharpen the process and the judgment behind it:

1. Stay educated: Maintain required CPE and track annual updates to forms, thresholds, and credits; keep a practical change log by tax year.
2. Tight intake and checklists: Use standardized organizers, engagement letters, and scope definitions. Build checklists by return type (1040, 1120-S, 1065, 1041).
3. Source doc discipline: Create naming conventions, version control, and a paperless folder structure. Tie every figure to a document.
4. Quality review: Adopt a two-pass review—mechanical, then analytical. Reconcile to wage statements, 1099s, brokerage totals, and prior-year carryovers.
5. Calendar mastery: Track deadlines, extensions, and state/local filings. Use reminders for quarterly estimates and post-filing notices.
6. Client education: Teach clients what documentation matters and when to send it. Fewer surprises, cleaner files.

Consistency wins. Precision keeps it won.

How to Display Tax Preparation Skills on Your Resume

2. IRS Representation

IRS representation is the authority to stand between the taxpayer and the IRS—handling audits, appeals, notices, collections, and resolutions from start to finish.

Why It's Important

Clients need a steady hand when the IRS calls. Effective representation can reduce assessments, secure relief, and protect rights, all while keeping the process orderly and calm.

How to Improve IRS Representation Skills

1. Master the playbook: Know Circular 230, the Internal Revenue Manual, and common exam procedures. Understand Appeals, reasonable cause, and penalty abatement.
2. Authorization and access: Get Form 2848 in place, monitor CAF processing, and pull transcripts quickly through approved channels.
3. Case strategy: Build timelines, issue lists, and documentation maps. Prepare IDR responses that are complete, concise, and corroborated.
4. Negotiation and communication: Keep a professional tone, clarify facts, and propose practical resolutions (installment agreements, OIC, CNC) with strong support.
5. Documentation discipline: Maintain a contact log, retain all IRS correspondence, and summarize each call or meeting with action items and due dates.

Calm, prepared, persistent. That triad moves cases.

How to Display IRS Representation Skills on Your Resume

3. QuickBooks

QuickBooks is accounting software that tracks income, expenses, payroll, and reporting. For EAs, it’s a clean ledger and a faster path from books to tax returns.

Why It's Important

Solid books shrink errors, speed up preparation, and surface advisory opportunities you can actually quantify.

How to Improve QuickBooks Skills

1. Tailor the chart: Align accounts to tax lines. Use classes/locations for multi-activity clients. Map accounts to return forms.
2. Automate cleanly: Set bank rules, recurring transactions, and memorized reports. Reconcile monthly without fail.
3. Document flows: Use expense capture tools (e.g., Dext, Hubdoc) and lock a closing date after each month-end.
4. Accountant toolbox: Leverage reclassify tools, batch actions, and review dashboards to catch miscoding fast.
5. Security and access: Apply role-based permissions, two-factor authentication, and a backup rhythm your future self will thank you for.

How to Display QuickBooks Skills on Your Resume

4. Tax Planning

Tax planning means structuring decisions—timing, entity choice, elections, investments—so the after-tax picture is brighter and compliant.

Why It's Important

It’s the difference between reporting what happened and shaping what’s next. Clients remember the savings and the foresight.

How to Improve Tax Planning Skills

1. Annual change tracker: Monitor inflation adjustments, expiring provisions, phaseouts, and state conformity.
2. Client-first scoping: Map goals, cash flow, risk tolerance, and horizon. Build plans around real constraints.
3. Tactics library: Contributions (retirement, HSA), timing income/expenses, QBI optimization, basis tracking, loss harvesting, reasonable comp, depreciation strategy.
4. Scenario modeling: Run what-ifs for entity choice, multi-state exposure, and exit planning. Show numbers, not just narratives.
5. Cadence: Midyear and year-end checkpoints. Adjust estimates, revisit safe harbors, and document advice given.

How to Display Tax Planning Skills on Your Resume

5. Audit Defense

Audit Defense is representing taxpayers through examinations, corralling facts and support, and negotiating to fair outcomes.

Why It's Important

Handled well, audits become structured, evidence-driven, and far less costly—in money, time, and anxiety.

How to Improve Audit Defense Skills

1. Pre-audit scrub: Reconcile reported items to source docs. Identify high-risk areas early and prepare substantiation packets.
2. Clear narratives: Build issue briefs with law, facts, and exhibits. Make it easy to say yes.
3. Transcripts and timelines: Pull transcripts, track statutes, and calendar every response deadline with buffers.
4. Appeals awareness: Know hazards of litigation, settlement ranges, and when to elevate.
5. Client coaching: Set expectations, practice Q&A, and centralize communications through you.

How to Display Audit Defense Skills on Your Resume

6. TurboTax

TurboTax is software for preparing and e-filing tax returns. In the hands of a pro, it becomes a fast, accurate assembly line with guardrails.

Why It's Important

Efficient workflows, clean diagnostics, and reliable e-file handling mean fewer amendments and happier clients.

How to Improve TurboTax Skills

1. Form fluency: Know the forms, schedules, and interview paths cold. Jump between entry and form views to validate.
2. Data imports: Use CSV/1099-B and W-2 imports where available; still reconcile totals to statements.
3. Diagnostics first: Run checks early and often. Clear critical errors before you go deep into planning.
4. What-if modeling: Copy returns, test timing shifts, contributions, or filing status options. Label scenarios clearly.
5. E-file mastery: Track acknowledgments, resolve rejects quickly, and document fixes. Keep an eye on common reject codes.
6. Templates and letters: Standardize cover letters, organizer requests, and estimate vouchers.
7. Speed tools: Learn shortcuts, custom views, and batch printing to shave minutes off every return.

How to Display TurboTax Skills on Your Resume

7. Financial Analysis

Financial analysis evaluates performance and trends across statements, budgets, and projects, turning raw numbers into decisions and tax-aware strategy.

Why It's Important

Understanding the story behind the figures lets you advise beyond compliance—cash flow health, risk flags, and opportunity spotting.

How to Improve Financial Analysis Skills

1. Accounting depth: Strengthen GAAP fundamentals, revenue recognition, and expense classification.
2. Excel power: Master lookups, pivot tables, dynamic arrays, and sensitivity models. Build templates you can reuse.
3. Modeling discipline: Document assumptions, separate inputs/logic/outputs, and include error checks.
4. Ratio and trend work: Track margins, turnover, leverage, and cash metrics over time—and benchmark.
5. Tool stack: Combine accounting systems with analysis tools and dashboards to spot anomalies fast.

How to Display Financial Analysis Skills on Your Resume

8. Drake Software

Drake Software is professional tax software that streamlines preparation, diagnostics, and e-filing across return types.

Why It's Important

All-in-one processing, fast data entry, and robust diagnostics help you finish more returns with fewer mistakes.

How to Improve Drake Software Skills

1. Keep current: Update promptly for law changes and fixes. Note new features each season.
2. Customize defaults: Set firm templates, organizer settings, preparer notes, and print packets.
3. Diagnostics workflow: Clear red flags first, then informational notes. Create a standard review path.
4. Batch power: Use multi-return updates, batch e-file, and reporting to manage volume.
5. Security posture: Enforce MFA, encrypt backups, and restrict user roles. Test your restore process.

How to Display Drake Software Skills on Your Resume

9. Compliance Management

Compliance Management ensures clients meet federal, state, and local tax rules on time, with procedures that stand up to scrutiny.

Why It's Important

It prevents penalties, protects reputations, and proves professionalism. Systems matter as much as expertise.

How to Improve Compliance Management Skills

1. Written procedures: Document engagement, intake, review, sign-off, and retention policies. Keep them living, not dusty.
2. Calendar and tracking: Centralize deadlines, extensions, estimates, notices, and confirmations. No silent misses.
3. Due diligence: Standardize support for credits, residency, and filing status. Use preparer checklists religiously.
4. Security and privacy: Maintain a written information security plan, role-based access, encryption, and incident response steps.
5. Internal reviews: Periodically audit your own files. Correct drift before it becomes habit.

How to Display Compliance Management Skills on Your Resume

10. ProSeries

ProSeries is professional tax software for preparing and filing a broad range of returns with built-in diagnostics and tools.

Why It's Important

Reliable workflow, powerful diagnostics, and timesaving import features raise accuracy and throughput.

How to Improve ProSeries Skills

1. Update cadence: Install updates quickly and review release notes so you use new features immediately.
2. HomeBase hygiene: Keep client lists clean, tags consistent, and statuses accurate for quick triage.
3. Templates and letters: Customize organizers, letters, and estimate vouchers to your voice and process.
4. Import and data flow: Use K-1 imports, depreciation tools, and prior-year carryforward checks to reduce manual entry.
5. Diagnostics workflow: Clear critical issues, then informational items; document exceptions with memos.
6. Security basics: Strong passwords, MFA, regular backups, and minimal-access permissions for users.

How to Display ProSeries Skills on Your Resume

11. Tax Research

Tax research is the disciplined hunt through primary law and authoritative guidance to answer real client questions with confidence.

Why It's Important

You can’t plan well or defend a position if you don’t ground it in authority. Research gives you footing and a paper trail.

How to Improve Tax Research Skills

1. Primary first: Start with the Code, regs, IRB guidance, and case law. Secondary sources help, but they don’t rule.
2. Structured memos: Frame issues, lay out facts, analyze authority, and conclude clearly. Cite precisely.
3. Stay current: Track legislative changes, new guidance, and court decisions. Summarize major shifts per quarter.
4. Build a library: Keep templates, common citations, and topical folders (basis, residency, NOLs, QBI, international).
5. Peer review: Discuss tough issues with trusted colleagues. Fresh eyes catch leaps in logic.

How to Display Tax Research Skills on Your Resume

12. Xero

Xero is cloud accounting built for small and midsize businesses, bringing live bank feeds, invoicing, and clean reporting into one place.

Why It's Important

Real-time books mean faster, better tax prep and space for proactive advice.

How to Improve Xero Skills

1. Bank feed rules: Automate coding with precise conditions. Review exceptions daily; reconcile fully each month.
2. Tracking categories: Segment by location, project, or line of business for sharper analysis and tax mapping.
3. Find & Recode: Clean misclassifications in bulk, but document changes and lock periods after closes.
4. Reporting packs: Build custom management reports you can repurpose for tax tie-outs and advisory.
5. App ecosystem: Connect payroll, expense, and document tools that sync reliably with Xero.

How to Display Xero Skills on Your Resume