Bookkeeper resume skills. The words recruiters search for.
The 17 skills, tools and credentials that come up in bookkeeper job posts, sorted by type, and how to put them in bullets a recruiter believes.
By Nazir Elmurodov, Founder, LaunchCV · Updated
/ The list
Keywords by type. Use only the ones that are true for you.
Hard skills · 11
- Full-charge bookkeeping (used in Rebecca's sample resume)
- Bank reconciliation (used in Rebecca's sample resume)
- Accounts payable (used in Rebecca's sample resume)
- Accounts receivable (used in Rebecca's sample resume)
- General ledger (used in Rebecca's sample resume)
- Month-end close (used in Rebecca's sample resume)
- Financial statements (used in Rebecca's sample resume)
- Journal entries (used in Rebecca's sample resume)
- Payroll (used in Rebecca's sample resume)
- 1099s (used in Rebecca's sample resume)
- Job costing (used in Rebecca's sample resume)
Tools & software · 4
- QuickBooks Online (used in Rebecca's sample resume)
- Xero (used in Rebecca's sample resume)
- Gusto (used in Rebecca's sample resume)
- Excel (used in Rebecca's sample resume)
Licenses & certifications · 1
- Certified Bookkeeper (CB) (used in Rebecca's sample resume)
Soft skills · 1
- Attention to detail
16 of 17 appear in Rebecca's sample resume. See where
/ How to use them
Put keywords in bullets, not just in a skills list.
A skills list tells the software you have a skill. A bullet shows a recruiter what you did with it.
Full-charge bookkeeping, Accounts payable, Month-end close, QuickBooks Online
Weak: Skills: Full-charge bookkeeping, Accounts payable, Month-end close, QuickBooks Online
Strong: Run full-charge bookkeeping in QuickBooks Online for a $9M HVAC contractor, from accounts payable and receivable to month-end close
Payroll, 1099s, Gusto
Weak: Skills: Payroll, 1099s, Gusto
Strong: Process biweekly payroll for 45 employees in Gusto and file 1099s for 60+ subcontractors each January
Job costing
Weak: Skills: Job costing
Strong: Track job costing by project so the owners can see margin on every job before it closes
QuickBooks Online, Xero
Weak: Skills: QuickBooks Online, Xero
Strong: Kept the books for 14 small-business clients in QuickBooks Online and Xero
Strong bullets come from Rebecca's sample resume and our bookkeeper bullet examples. Names and figures are illustrative.
/ Use them honestly
Keywords get you found. Proof gets you hired.
Mirror the job post's wording for skills you really have. If a bookkeeper post asks for Full-charge bookkeeping and you've used it, say Full-charge bookkeeping, in the post's spelling, and show where.
Mirror the job post's wording
If a bookkeeper post says "Bank reconciliation", write "Bank reconciliation", not a near-synonym — as long as it's accurate. Recruiters search for the post's exact term.
Only claim what you can back up
Expect to be asked about every term you list. If you couldn't spend two minutes on Full-charge bookkeeping — what you did and what changed — leave it out.
Show it in a bullet
A skills list says you know Full-charge bookkeeping. A bullet like the one under Full-Charge Bookkeeper in the example above shows what you did with it.
No stuffing, no hidden text
Repeating a word or hiding keywords in white text doesn't make you a better match. A person reads the resume in the end.
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/ Questions
Bookkeeper keywords, answered.
Something else? support@launch-cv.com
How many keywords should a bookkeeper resume have?
There's no magic number. Rebecca's sample resume uses 16 of the 17 terms on this page — the ones that fit that job. Cover what your post asks for that you can back up, each where it fits; repeating a keyword doesn't help.
Should I copy keywords exactly from the job post?
Use the post's wording for skills you really have. If a bookkeeper post says "Full-charge bookkeeping", write "Full-charge bookkeeping" rather than a synonym, so a recruiter searching for that term finds you. Don't add skills you don't have just because the post lists them.
Where should keywords go on my resume?
In your summary, a short skills section and, above all, the bullets under each job, where you show what you did with the skill. In Rebecca's sample, Full-charge bookkeeping shows up in a bullet under Full-Charge Bookkeeper. Plain text in the body of the page is easiest for applicant tracking systems to read.
Which tools should I list on a bookkeeper resume?
The ones you've used and the post mentions. Common ones in bookkeeper posts include QuickBooks Online, Xero, Gusto and Excel. Name the tool in the bullet where you used it, not only in the skills list.
How should I list Certified Bookkeeper (CB) on my resume?
Spell it the way the job post does, and include both the abbreviation and the full name if you have room. Put licenses and certifications in their own section or next to your education, and only list ones that are current.
Keywords for related roles
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