Top 12 Entry Level Accountant Skills to Put on Your Resume
The market is crowded. If you’re breaking in as an entry-level accountant, what moves the needle is a resume that blends tools you can operate with the judgment you bring to the numbers. Technical fluency. Clean execution. Clear communication. Put them together and you look ready for day one.
Entry Level Accountant Skills
1. QuickBooks
QuickBooks is accounting software widely used by small and mid-sized businesses to manage sales, expenses, payroll, and financial reporting in one place.
Why It's Important
It speeds up bookkeeping, cuts errors with automation, and produces reliable reports fast. That means cleaner closes and fewer headaches for the team.
How to Improve QuickBooks Skills
Build muscle memory and tighten your workflow.
Train with intent: Work through core workflows (invoicing, bills, bank feeds, payroll) until they’re second nature.
Use shortcuts: Keyboard shortcuts and batch actions save minutes that add up over a month-end close.
Tune the chart of accounts: Align accounts, classes, and locations with the business so reports actually answer questions.
Reconcile monthly: Bank and credit cards—no exceptions. Investigate differences immediately.
Automate what repeats: Recurring transactions, bank rules, and memorized reports reduce manual entry and slipups.
Lock periods: Close prior periods and set user permissions to protect finalized data.
Review reports: Run and save standard packs (P&L, Balance Sheet, A/R Aging, A/P Aging, Cash Flow) with consistent filters.
Stay current: Keep software updated and skim release notes so you don’t miss helpful features.
How to Display QuickBooks Skills on Your Resume
2. Excel
Excel is the go-to spreadsheet tool for organizing data, building models, analyzing results, and turning raw numbers into decisions.
Why It's Important
It powers reconciliations, schedules, variance analysis, and quick ad hoc work when systems fall short. Accuracy, at speed.
How to Improve Excel Skills
Work smarter, then faster.
Nail the fundamentals: Functions like SUM, AVERAGE, IF, SUMIF/SUMIFS, COUNTIF/COUNTIFS, XLOOKUP or INDEX/MATCH, and date math.
Pivot with purpose: PivotTables for summarizing large data sets; slicers for quick filtering.
Clean data: Text-to-columns, TRIM, CLEAN, FLASH FILL, and Power Query for repeatable transformations.
Build sturdy models: Separate inputs, calculations, and outputs; use named ranges; add checks and error flags.
Visualize clearly: Choose charts that fit the data; avoid clutter; tell the story in a glance.
Shortcuts and navigation: Learn hotkeys, structured references, and quick selection tricks to move quickly without the mouse.
Automate repetitive tasks: Explore macros and simple VBA where it saves hours, not minutes.
How to Display Excel Skills on Your Resume
3. SAP
SAP is an enterprise resource planning system with finance modules that handle general ledger, accounts payable/receivable, asset accounting, and controlling.
Why It's Important
It centralizes data and standardizes processes, enabling precise postings, strong controls, and reliable reporting across large organizations.
How to Improve SAP Skills
Learn the map, then walk it often.
Master navigation: Understand key transactions, screens, and posting logic in FI and CO.
Follow the document trail: Trace entries from subledgers to the GL; read document types, posting keys, and line items.
Use variants and layouts: Save report variants and ALV layouts to speed recurring work.
Practice common cycles: Vendor invoices, customer receipts, asset additions, depreciation runs, and period-end close steps.
Control and compliance: Learn user roles, tolerances, workflow approvals, and period controls.
Documentation: Keep process notes and screenshots; build your own quick-reference library.
How to Display SAP Skills on Your Resume
4. Oracle
Oracle provides ERP systems (including Oracle Cloud ERP and NetSuite) used to manage financials, procurement, projects, and reporting at scale.
Why It's Important
It connects transactions to the ledger with strong controls, giving finance teams clean data and audit-ready records.
How to Improve Oracle Skills
Focus on workflows you’ll touch daily.
Learn core modules: General Ledger, Payables, Receivables, Fixed Assets, and Cash Management.
Understand configurations: Chart of accounts, accounting rules, and approval workflows—know how they affect postings.
Work with saved searches/reports: Build filters and parameters so recurring reporting is click-and-go.
Practice end-to-end: Enter a transaction, post it, reconcile it, report on it—see the whole chain.
Use sandboxes: Test scenarios safely; document what works.
Keep notes: Your own playbook beats guessing during close.
How to Display Oracle Skills on Your Resume
5. GAAP
GAAP (Generally Accepted Accounting Principles) is the U.S. framework that standardizes how financial statements are prepared and presented.
Why It's Important
Consistency and comparability. When everyone plays by the same rules, stakeholders can trust what they read.
How to Improve GAAP Skills
Turn rules into reflexes.
Study the standards: Revenue recognition, leases, inventory, contingencies—build fluency in common areas.
Bridge policy to practice: Map company policies to the underlying GAAP guidance so treatment is consistent.
Work examples: Journal entries, disclosures, and footnotes; redo past cases until the logic sticks.
Follow updates: Track new pronouncements and adoption dates; note impacts on your schedules.
Ask for review: Senior accountants can spot gaps quickly—learn from their comments.
How to Display GAAP Skills on Your Resume
6. TaxAct
TaxAct is tax preparation software used to prepare and file federal and state returns accurately and efficiently.
Why It's Important
It helps entry-level accountants produce clean returns, catch common errors, and stay compliant—without getting lost in the forms maze.
How to Improve TaxAct Skills
Turn the software into a checklist-driven workflow.
Know the forms: Learn when to use key forms and schedules and what documents feed them.
Use interview modes and diagnostics: Step through prompts carefully; clear every warning before filing.
Practice scenarios: Prepare sample returns with different filing statuses, credits, and state situations.
Create templates: Standardize organizer requests and workpapers so input is consistent.
Reconcile to source docs: Tie out wages, interest, and basis to underlying statements; document adjustments.
Track changes: Keep versioned copies; note what changed and why.
Stay current: Monitor annual tax law changes and update your process at the start of each season.
How to Display TaxAct Skills on Your Resume
7. Xero
Xero is cloud accounting software for small and mid-sized businesses, covering invoicing, bank feeds, reconciliation, payroll, and reporting.
Why It's Important
It enables real-time collaboration and tidy books, which keeps cash flow visible and decisions timely.
How to Improve Xero Skills
Lean on structure, then automate.
Understand the basics: Chart of accounts, bank rules, tracking categories, and contact management.
Bank reconciliation mastery: Set bank rules, auto-match transactions, and clear exceptions daily.
Use the demo company: Practice safely; explore features end to end.
Standardize reports: Build custom layouts for P&L, Balance Sheet, and Aged Receivables/Payables.
Leverage the ecosystem: Connect add-ons for expenses, inventory, and time tracking where relevant.
Close cadence: Create month-end checklists and lock completed periods.
How to Display Xero Skills on Your Resume
8. Payroll
Payroll is calculating and paying wages, taxes, and benefits while staying compliant with federal, state, and local rules.
Why It's Important
People need to be paid correctly and on time. Compliance matters, morale matters, and so do clean records.
How to Improve Payroll Skills
Precision over guesswork.
Adopt payroll software: Use a reliable system (e.g., QuickBooks Payroll, ADP, Gusto) to automate calculations and filings.
Stay current on rules: Track tax tables, wage thresholds, overtime rules, and filing deadlines.
Reconcile regularly: Match payroll registers to GL, tax payments, and benefits invoices.
Document policies: Pay schedules, cutoff times, approval workflows, and correction procedures.
Audit employee data: Validate rates, classifications, bank details, and deductions before each run.
Quarter-end discipline: Tie out filings to cumulative payroll and resolve variances promptly.
How to Display Payroll Skills on Your Resume
9. Auditing
Auditing examines financial records and controls to confirm accuracy, completeness, and compliance with standards.
Why It's Important
It builds trust in the numbers, strengthens internal controls, and keeps organizations aligned with regulations.
How to Improve Auditing Skills
Skeptical, systematic, documented.
Know the standards: Understand audit objectives, evidence, sampling, and documentation expectations.
Sharpen analytics: Use trend, ratio, and variance analysis to spot anomalies before they become findings.
Leverage tools: Work with data analysis software (e.g., IDEA, ACL) for larger datasets and repeatable tests.
Test controls: Walkthroughs, design assessments, and operating effectiveness tests—evidence first, opinions later.
Write clearly: Workpapers should tell the story: objective, procedure, results, conclusion.
Request feedback: Reviews from seniors point out blind spots; adjust your approach next time.
How to Display Auditing Skills on Your Resume
10. Forecasting
Forecasting estimates future financial results using historical data, drivers, and reasonable assumptions to guide plans and budgets.
Why It's Important
Better visibility means better decisions—hiring, inventory, spending, all of it.
How to Improve Forecasting Skills
Make the model reflect the business, not the other way around.
Map key drivers: Volume, price, churn, seasonality, headcount—model what truly moves results.
Clean inputs: Use consistent definitions and vetted data; small errors snowball.
Choose the right methods: Simple run-rates, driver-based models, or time-series techniques depending on the need.
Scenario thinking: Build base, upside, and downside cases; define triggers for each.
Backtest: Compare forecasts to actuals; note bias and tighten assumptions.
Iterate often: Rolling forecasts beat annual guesses—update monthly or quarterly.
How to Display Forecasting Skills on Your Resume
11. Reconciliation
Reconciliation compares independent records—bank statements, subledgers, schedules—to the ledger to confirm balances and catch discrepancies.
Why It's Important
It keeps financial statements trustworthy and prevents small issues from turning into restatements.
How to Improve Reconciliation Skills
Clarity, cadence, and controls.
Standardize: Use consistent templates with beginning balance, activity, supporting detail, reconciling items, and ending balance.
Automate matches: Apply bank rules and auto-match features where possible; focus attention on exceptions.
Organize evidence: Store statements, invoices, and support in clearly labeled folders with dates and preparer/reviewer signoffs.
Age reconciling items: Track what’s outstanding; escalate anything that lingers beyond policy thresholds.
Segregate duties: Preparer and reviewer should be different; lock periods once approved.
Monthly discipline: Reconcile on a schedule; don’t let accounts pile up.
How to Display Reconciliation Skills on Your Resume
12. Budgeting
Budgeting builds a plan for income and spending over a period so leaders can allocate resources wisely and track performance.
Why It's Important
It sets expectations, reveals tradeoffs, and keeps spending aligned with strategy.
How to Improve Budgeting Skills
Structure first, then feedback loops.
Define ownership: Assign budget owners, timelines, and approval paths before numbers start flying.
Use driver-based models: Tie costs and revenue to measurable drivers; reduce arbitrary plugs.
Build bottoms-up and top-down: Reconcile department inputs with company targets to close gaps transparently.
Version control: Track changes with clear assumptions and commentary.
Monitor vs. actuals: Monthly variance analysis with root-cause notes and action items.
Roll forward: Layer in rolling forecasts so the plan stays alive as reality shifts.
How to Display Budgeting Skills on Your Resume
