Top 12 General Ledger Accountant Skills to Put on Your Resume

In today's hiring scramble, a general ledger accountant who shines does more than post entries. You wrangle systems, reconcile chaos, and translate numbers into something leaders can trust. The skills below—technical and human—signal you can keep the books airtight and the close on time. Trim the fluff, show evidence, and match them to the job’s tech stack.

General Ledger Accountant Skills

1. QuickBooks
2. SAP
3. Excel
4. Oracle
5. GAAP
6. IFRS
7. Reconciliation
8. Forecasting
9. Budgeting
10. NetSuite
11. Financial Analysis
12. Tax Preparation

1. QuickBooks

QuickBooks is accounting software geared toward small and midsize businesses. Invoices, bills, payroll, bank feeds—plus a sturdy general ledger—live in one place, so you can capture transactions fast and surface clean reports without wrestling spreadsheets all day.

Why It's Important

For a GL accountant, QuickBooks reduces manual entry, enforces consistency, and speeds up close activities. Better categorizations, fewer misposts, tighter reconciliations—your month-end gets calmer, and your numbers line up.

How to Improve QuickBooks Skills

1. Tailor the chart of accounts to mirror operations, not a generic template. Use account numbers, class/location tracking, and clear naming conventions.
2. Harden bank feeds with bank rules and payee normalization to cut noise and misclassification.
3. Automate the routine using recurring transactions, memorized reports, and scheduled backups.
4. Reconcile relentlessly—cash, credit cards, loans, clearing accounts—on a cadence you can defend.
5. Tighten controls with roles, closing dates, and audit log reviews. No surprises mid-close.
6. Build reporting packs with custom fields, filters, and comparative periods; export when needed for deeper analysis.
7. Integrate carefully (expenses, time, inventory). Test in a sandbox and document data flows so subledgers tie out.
8. Document workflows for JE approvals, write-offs, and adjustments. Train the team; reduce tribal knowledge.

Less rework. More signal. That’s the aim.

How to Display QuickBooks Skills on Your Resume

2. SAP

SAP is an ERP suite that binds finance with operations. For GL accountants, modules like FI/CO and S/4HANA’s Universal Journal provide real-time postings, document splitting, drilldowns, and sturdy controls from subledger to consolidation.

Why It's Important

It centralizes master data, standardizes postings, and gives audit trails you can trust. Period close runs smoother, intercompany settles faster, and management gets timely, granular reporting.

How to Improve SAP Skills

1. Learn core transactions end to end: journal entries, parked postings, recurring entries, reversals, and mass allocations.
2. Use the closing cockpit and task lists to orchestrate close steps and ownership.
3. Master Fiori apps, variants, and filters for speed, not just classic GUIs.
4. Understand document splitting, cost centers, and profit centers so P&L by segment actually reconciles.
5. Harden master data governance: CoA, posting periods, tolerance groups, and user roles.
6. Exploit drilldown reports and line-item analytics; reconcile subledger to GL with matching rules.
7. Build test scripts and UAT cycles for changes to posting keys, tax codes, and integration points.

Workflow clarity + reliable data = faster close, fewer late nights.

How to Display SAP Skills on Your Resume

3. Excel

Excel remains the accountant’s Swiss Army knife. Data shaping, analysis, and quick reconciliation checks all happen here when your ERP report needs one more cut.

Why It's Important

It enables ad hoc analysis, complex calculations, and tidy schedules that feed audits and leadership decks. Speed and precision, without waiting on IT.

How to Improve Excel Skills

1. Lean on modern functions: XLOOKUP, SUMIFS, INDEX/MATCH, dynamic arrays, and text-splitting functions.
2. Build PivotTables with slicers, timelines, and calculated fields for fast variance analysis.
3. Use Power Query for data cleaning and repeatable transformations; Power Pivot for data models and DAX measures.
4. Standardize data validation and conditional formatting to flag outliers and prevent bad inputs.
5. Automate repetitive steps with macros/VBA or Office Scripts; log assumptions and refresh instructions.
6. Protect sheets and ranges; implement version control and tab color conventions for close packs.

Clean inputs, robust formulas, minimal manual tinkering.

How to Display Excel Skills on Your Resume

4. Oracle

Oracle’s financials—whether Cloud ERP (Fusion) or E-Business Suite—deliver a powerful general ledger, subledger accounting, automated postings, and robust reporting that scales across entities and currencies.

Why It's Important

It standardizes accounting rules, reduces manual journals, and sharpens compliance. Consolidations behave. Audit evidence is available on demand.

How to Improve Oracle Skills

1. Configure account hierarchies, segment values, and cross-validation rules so reports roll up cleanly.
2. Use Subledger Accounting (SLA) to codify accounting logic and cut manual JE volume.
3. Set up AutoPost and Account Monitor alerts to catch anomalies before close day.
4. Design Financial Reporting Studio or OTBI reports
5. Lock down period management, approval workflows, and segregation of duties.
6. Document integrations with AP/AR/FA/Projects; reconcile subledger to GL frequently, not just at month-end.

The more you embed rules in the system, the fewer band-aid journals you need.

How to Display Oracle Skills on Your Resume

5. GAAP

GAAP is the U.S. framework of accounting standards and guidance—a common language for preparing and presenting financial statements. For GL work, it’s the guardrail for recognition, measurement, and disclosure.

Why It's Important

Consistency, comparability, credibility. Your ledger becomes a reliable source for audits, lenders, and leadership decisions.

How to Improve GAAP Skills

1. Stay sharp on key areas: ASC 606 (revenue), ASC 842 (leases), impairment, stock comp, and contingencies.
2. Write policy memos and accounting position papers for complex areas; include judgments and citations.
3. Map controls to risks—review JE approvals, access rights, and reconciliation evidence.
4. Embed GAAP rules into systems via consistent CoA usage and posting rules; reduce manual overrides.
5. Run pre-close GAAP checklists and flux analyses to spot misstatements early.

Documentation wins arguments. Controls keep them from starting.

How to Display GAAP Skills on Your Resume

6. IFRS

IFRS is the global accounting baseline used in many jurisdictions. It shapes how transactions are recorded, presented, and disclosed, so cross-border reporting speaks the same dialect.

Why It's Important

For multinational environments, IFRS knowledge lets you bridge local books to group reporting quickly and correctly. Fewer adjustments, cleaner consolidations.

How to Improve IFRS Skills

1. Focus on high-impact standards: IFRS 15 (revenue), IFRS 16 (leases), IFRS 9 (financial instruments), and IAS 1 (presentation).
2. Maintain IFRS vs. local GAAP mapping with documented differences and recurring adjustments.
3. Draft judgment logs and disclosure checklists to support audit-ready financials.
4. Standardize templates for contract review (revenue) and lease abstraction to reduce errors.
5. Run periodic training for operational teams so upstream data feeds IFRS needs.

Clarity on principles translates into fewer last-minute reclassifications.

How to Display IFRS Skills on Your Resume

7. Reconciliation

Reconciliation means aligning GL balances to supporting detail—bank statements, subledgers, schedules—so every number has a proven origin.

Why It's Important

It protects accuracy, exposes misstatements, and anchors internal controls. Reliable reconciliations shrink audit pain and build trust in reports.

How to Improve Reconciliation Skills

1. Adopt a standard template with clear tick marks, sign-offs, and evidence links.
2. Use automation and matching rules where possible; reserve human review for exceptions.
3. Reconcile continuously—mid-month for high-volume accounts, not just at close.
4. Maintain aging analyses for suspense and clearing accounts; escalate stale items.
5. Cross-check subledger-to-GL tie-outs (AP, AR, inventory, fixed assets) before period close.
6. Perform peer reviews on risky accounts and document resolution timelines.

Catch small issues early; avoid ugly surprises later.

How to Display Reconciliation Skills on Your Resume

8. Forecasting

Forecasting projects financial outcomes using history, drivers, and assumptions. Even if FP&A owns the model, GL accountants validate inputs and sanity-check outputs against reality.

Why It's Important

It steers budgets, capacity, and cash. When forecasts align to the ledger’s truth, leadership can move decisively.

How to Improve Forecasting Skills

1. Build driver-based models (volume, pricing, headcount, seasonality) instead of pure top-down guesses.
2. Run rolling forecasts and bake in re-forecast checkpoints after close.
3. Perform scenario analysis with clear levers and ranges; document the logic.
4. Tighten actuals-to-forecast variance workflows; root-cause and remediate quickly.
5. Segment forecasts by business unit, product, or region to expose mix shifts.
6. Close the loop: ensure chart of accounts and reporting structures match forecast lines for clean comparisons.

The best forecasts breathe—updated often, tracked tightly.

How to Display Forecasting Skills on Your Resume

9. Budgeting

Budgeting sets the spending map and revenue expectations for a period. The GL accountant anchors the numbers, ensuring structure and integrity across the plan.

Why It's Important

It disciplines resource allocation and sharpens accountability. With a sound budget, you can measure performance instead of guessing.

How to Improve Budgeting Skills

1. Choose a method that fits: zero-based, driver-based, or incremental—then document the rationale.
2. Use version control for drafts, approvals, and final locks.
3. Align CoA granularity to budget lines so actuals roll up neatly.
4. Set monthly reforecast checkpoints and in-period adjustments for known changes.
5. Partner with ops to validate assumptions; surface constraints early (headcount, lead times).
6. Track commitments vs. actuals to avoid end-of-quarter scrambles.

A budget that no one owns will fail. Assign ownership and cadence.

How to Display Budgeting Skills on Your Resume

10. NetSuite

NetSuite is a cloud ERP with strong GL, real-time reporting, and native workflows for approvals, bank feeds, and period close. Multi-entity, multi-currency, one login.

Why It's Important

It streamlines processes, cuts manual journals, and gives instant visibility into balances and variances. Close gets faster, reconciliations get cleaner.

How to Improve NetSuite Skills

1. Customize dashboards with key KPIs, saved searches, and reminders tied to your close calendar.
2. Automate with SuiteFlow for approvals, JE routing, and exception handling.
3. Leverage SuiteAnalytics and saved searches for drilldowns, variance flags, and flux packs.
4. Use the Period Close Checklist with task owners and prerequisites to prevent bottlenecks.
5. Harden data quality using mandatory fields, custom segments, and duplicate detection.
6. Optimize bank reconciliation with rules and match tolerances; resolve stale items weekly.
7. Document intercompany and elimination processes—no mysteries at consolidation.

Configuration beats heroics. Let the system carry the weight.

How to Display NetSuite Skills on Your Resume

11. Financial Analysis

Financial analysis turns raw ledger activity into insight. Ratios, trends, and narratives that explain what happened—and what might hit next.

Why It's Important

It sharpens decisions, surfaces risks, and validates the health of the business. Numbers start telling stories, not just sitting on a page.

How to Improve Financial Analysis Skills

1. Master variance analysis (price/volume/mix), common-size statements, and period-over-period trends.
2. Track cash flow drivers: working capital turns, DSO/DPO/DIO, and free cash conversion.
3. Build scorecards with KPIs tied to strategy; avoid vanity metrics.
4. Design repeatable flux review packs with thresholds, owner comments, and root-cause tags.
5. Connect operational data (orders, headcount, utilization) to financial outcomes for cause-and-effect clarity.
6. Stress-test assumptions; annotate your models so reviews are quick and clean.

Clarity, brevity, evidence—your analysis should travel well.

How to Display Financial Analysis Skills on Your Resume

12. Tax Preparation

Tax preparation pulls accurate, supportable figures from the GL into returns and filings—income tax, sales/use, payroll, information reporting—on schedule and in compliance.

Why It's Important

It guards against penalties, optimizes liabilities legally, and keeps stakeholders confident. Clean books make clean returns.

How to Improve Tax Preparation Skills

1. Maintain year-round readiness: organized schedules for depreciation, NOLs, credits, and permanent/temporary differences.
2. Track nexus and registrations for sales/use and payroll taxes; update when operations shift.
3. Tighten 1099/1042-S processes: vendor TIN/W-9 collection, classifications, and threshold monitoring.
4. Align book-to-tax adjustments early; reconcile trial balance to tax return categories before deadlines loom.
5. Calendar deadlines and extensions; use preparer/reviewer checklists with sign-offs.
6. Implement review controls and tie-outs for all filed returns; archive workpapers for audit defense.

No last-minute scramble—just organized, defensible filings.

How to Display Tax Preparation Skills on Your Resume