Top 12 Tax Consultant Skills to Put on Your Resume

In today’s fast-shifting tax world, a sharp resume turns heads. Showcasing the right tax consultant skills signals precision, calm under pressure, and the ability to wrestle messy rules into clean, compliant outcomes. You’re not just filing returns. You’re decoding complexity and making it look simple.

Tax Consultant Skills

1. QuickBooks
2. TurboTax
3. Excel
4. SAP
5. Oracle
6. TaxAct
7. H&R Block
8. Lacerte
9. ProConnect
10. Xero
11. Drake Software
12. CCH Axcess

1. QuickBooks

QuickBooks is accounting software for small and mid-sized businesses. It centralizes income, expenses, invoicing, payroll, and core reports—handy territory for tax prep and client advisory work.

Why It's Important

It keeps books clean and consistent, speeds up year-end prep, and reduces avoidable errors through standardized workflows and reconciliations.

How to Improve QuickBooks Skills

1. Tune the chart of accounts: Align categories with tax lines you care about. Less reclassing later. Fewer surprises.
2. Build saved reports: Monthly and year-to-date tax-ready views, with memorized filters. Push them to clients on a cadence.
3. Master bank rules: Automate categorization for recurring transactions. Tighten reconciliations and slash manual clicks.
4. Use integrated workflows: Connect receipt capture, time, payroll, and your tax software to shrink data entry.
5. Close periods: Lock prior months after review to protect data integrity before filing season.
6. Get certified: Training and certification deepen product knowledge and speed. Practice on a sample company to test changes safely.

How to Display QuickBooks Skills on Your Resume

2. TurboTax

TurboTax is guided tax preparation software focused on individuals and small businesses, with step-by-step workflows and built-in checks.

Why It's Important

It enables fast, accurate filing for straightforward returns, keeps up with current law changes, and provides a friendly interface for client-assisted work.

How to Improve TurboTax Skills

1. Explore every interview path: Walk through common and uncommon scenarios in a sandbox return (multi-state, self-employment, investments, credits).
2. Learn forms view: Drill into form logic and overrides so you can troubleshoot diagnostics without guesswork.
3. Use organizers: Standardize client intake to match TurboTax sections—clean inputs, fewer follow-ups.
4. Harness carryforwards: Track basis, passive losses, and credits from year to year. Verify rollovers carefully.
5. Review diagnostics: Clear every alert. Understand why each one fires. Build a checklist from the frequent offenders.
6. Stay current: Read release notes each season and test new features on dummy files before go-live.

How to Display TurboTax Skills on Your Resume

3. Excel

Excel is the all-purpose spreadsheet engine for analysis, reconciliation, and modeling—vital when tax data sprawls.

Why It's Important

It powers fast calculations, audit-ready schedules, and repeatable processes. When software can’t, Excel often can.

How to Improve Excel Skills

1. Go deep on formulas: MASTER SUMIFS, INDEX/MATCH/XMATCH, XLOOKUP, FILTER, LET, and dynamic arrays.
2. Own PivotTables: Summarize giant ledgers in seconds; build slicers and measures that actually answer questions.
3. Automate with Power Query: Import, clean, and reshape messy data. Refresh beats rework.
4. Use data validation: Lock inputs to sane values. Stop garbage at the door.
5. Record macros or write VBA sparingly: Automate recurring steps. Document them so they don’t become mysteries.

How to Display Excel Skills on Your Resume

4. SAP

SAP is an enterprise platform that integrates finance, operations, and reporting. For tax, modules and add-ons can streamline determination, provisioning, and compliance.

Why It's Important

It centralizes data, supports complex business rules, and enables real-time calculation and audit trails. Less stitching. More control.

How to Improve SAP Skills

1. Learn the finance core: Get comfortable with FI/CO basics, tax codes, and how postings flow into reports.
2. Map tax determination: Understand condition records, jurisdiction logic, and edge cases (cross-border, reverse charge).
3. Use automation: Configure workflows for approvals, recurring entries, and close tasks that hit tax.
4. Build reports: Create tax-specific variants and drilldowns; verify source tables for reconciliation.
5. Stay trained: Follow release notes and complete role-based learning paths focused on tax processes.

How to Display SAP Skills on Your Resume

5. Oracle

Oracle’s ecosystem (Oracle Cloud ERP, E-Business Suite, Tax Reporting) supports large-scale financials, tax provisioning, and compliance.

Why It's Important

It handles complex data volumes with robust security, enabling standardized tax workflows and reliable reporting across entities and regions.

How to Improve Oracle Skills

1. Focus on financials and tax modules: Learn how subledgers feed GL and tax. Trace postings end to end.
2. Master reporting tools: Set up management and compliance reports with drill-downs to source transactions.
3. Configure tax rules: Build and test condition-based rules; document exceptions so audits move quickly.
4. Use sandbox environments: Pilot process changes, upgrades, and integrations safely.
5. Pursue training and certification: Target paths aligned to ERP Financials and Tax Reporting.

How to Display Oracle Skills on Your Resume

6. TaxAct

TaxAct is tax preparation software for individuals and professionals, with tools for accurate filings and compliance checks.

Why It's Important

It supports efficient preparation, solid diagnostics, and reliable e-filing—great for cost-conscious practices and straightforward returns.

How to Improve TaxAct Skills

1. Standardize intake: Build templates that mirror TaxAct sections to keep data tidy and consistent.
2. Leverage checklists: Create review steps for frequent forms and credits. Close the cracks where issues hide.
3. Use pro features: Explore batch e-file, K-1 imports, and organizer tools to cut prep time.
4. Track carryovers: Confirm basis, NOLs, depreciation, and credits roll correctly. Document your tie-outs.
5. Stay current: Review annual updates and test complex scenarios in sample files before the rush.

How to Display TaxAct Skills on Your Resume

7. H&R Block

H&R Block provides consumer and professional tax preparation tools and services, plus structured workflows for in-person or virtual prep.

Why It's Important

The platform and processes help deliver fast, consistent results at scale—useful experience even when you operate independently.

How to Improve H&R Block Skills

1. Practice the interview flow: Move quickly through intake, document capture, and issue spotting.
2. Use checklists and diagnostics: Clear every warning and note patterns that recur. Fix root causes at intake.
3. Strengthen client communication: Set expectations on docs, timelines, and signatures; use portals to reduce email churn.
4. Expand knowledge: Keep current on new credits, marketplace insurance issues, and state wrinkles you see most.
5. Refine review habits: Second-prepare complex returns. Reconcile to source docs and prior-year returns.

How to Display H&R Block Skills on Your Resume

8. Lacerte

Lacerte is professional tax software built for complex individual and business returns, with deep forms coverage and powerful diagnostics.

Why It's Important

It speeds heavy lifts—consolidations, multi-state, intricate K-1s—and keeps reviewers in control with robust checks.

How to Improve Lacerte Skills

1. Master input screens: Learn shortcuts, jump codes, and cross-links between forms to move faster.
2. Create templates: Standardize engagement letters, organizers, and common return types.
3. Use integrated e-file and esign: Cut paper, reduce bottlenecks, and get clean audit trails.
4. Lean on diagnostics: Track recurring issues and build a pre-file review routine that catches them early.
5. Train regularly: Review new-year updates, depreciation changes, and business entity nuances.

How to Display Lacerte Skills on Your Resume

9. ProConnect

ProConnect (Intuit ProConnect Tax Online) is cloud-based professional tax software for preparing and e-filing client returns from anywhere.

Why It's Important

It pairs collaborative document gathering with strong forms coverage and diagnostics, trimming prep time while improving accuracy.

How to Improve ProConnect Skills

1. Streamline client intake: Use secure document requests and automated reminders to fill gaps before prep begins.
2. Automate data flows: Connect bookkeeping systems to reduce manual entry and reconcile differences faster.
3. Refine review workflows: Build standardized review steps and lock returns after approval to maintain integrity.
4. Track carryforwards: Validate every rollover item—basis, depreciation, credits—to avoid downstream errors.
5. Stay sharp: Study product updates each season and test on non-production files first.

How to Display ProConnect Skills on Your Resume

10. Xero

Xero is cloud accounting for small and medium businesses—bank feeds, invoicing, payroll, and tidy reports.

Why It's Important

Clean books flow into clean returns. Real-time collaboration means fewer end-of-year scrambles and better planning.

How to Improve Xero Skills

1. Master bank reconciliation: Create bank rules, fix coding patterns, and reconcile frequently.
2. Use custom reports: Build tax-ready views with the exact fields you need. Save them and schedule delivery.
3. Automate capture: Add document capture tools for bills and receipts to reduce manual entry.
4. Tighten controls: Review user access, turn on multi-factor auth, and document month-end procedures.
5. Keep learning: Complete advisor training and refresh when Xero updates reporting or payroll.

How to Display Xero Skills on Your Resume

11. Drake Software

Drake Software is professional tax software with fast data entry, strong e-file tools, and helpful document management add-ons.

Why It's Important

It’s efficient, accurate, and cost-effective—popular with firms that prize speed without losing control.

How to Improve Drake Software Skills

1. Adopt firm templates: Pre-build organizer letters, engagement terms, and common entity setups.
2. Use add-ons wisely: Employ document management and secure portals to tighten intake and delivery.
3. Automate repetitive work: Hot keys, data import, and batch processing reduce drudgery.
4. Build review checkpoints: Tie out critical items (basis, depreciation, credits) and clear all diagnostics before e-file.
5. Update and train: Install updates promptly and practice new features on sample returns.

How to Display Drake Software Skills on Your Resume

12. CCH Axcess

CCH Axcess is a cloud suite for tax, workflow, document management, and secure client collaboration.

Why It's Important

It connects the prep process from intake to delivery, with traceable steps and granular controls—ideal for team-based work.

How to Improve CCH Axcess Skills

1. Customize your dashboard: Surface your most-used tasks, returns, and reports. Trim the clicks.
2. Automate workflow: Build templates for prep, review, and delivery stages with due dates and dependencies.
3. Organize documents: Enforce naming, versioning, and folder standards so reviews fly.
4. Use client portals: Move document exchange and signatures out of email. Faster, safer, clearer.
5. Strengthen security: Review permissions by role and audit access periodically.

How to Display CCH Axcess Skills on Your Resume