Crafting the perfect Bookkeeper resume can be as meticulous as balancing the books themselves.
To give you a leg up, we’ve concocted a guide with all the tips and tricks you’ll need to showcase your numerical prowess.
Check out our friendly Bookkeeper resume example below to get your ledger (and career) into tip-top shape.
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Bookkeeper Resume Example
This Bookkeeper resume example acts as a great guideline for structuring your own.
Its professional format and clear presentation make it an ideal example for creating a smooth reading experience for recruiters.
Next, we’ll break down the steps to develop your own interview-winning Bookkeeper resume.
Bookkeeper resume structure & format
Resume structure
An effective resume structure is crucial for catching the eye of recruiters and securing job interviews.
Make sure your resume includes these essential sections:
- Contact details: Full name and how recruiters can contact you.
- Resume summary: A quick snapshot of your skills and experience tailored for Bookkeeper jobs.
- Core skills: A bulleted list of your primary Bookkeeper skills.
- Work experience: A comprehensive list of your roles, starting with the most recent.
- Education: A summary of your educational background.
- Additional info: Optional section for hobbies, achievements, or other personal interests that are professionally relevant.
How to format your Bookkeeper resume
The layout of your resume is crucial in making it appealing and accessible to hiring managers.
Keep these key points in mind when arranging your resume format.
- Resume length: Keep your resume short and sweet, ideally around 1 to 2 pages, as recruiters have loads to get through daily and not much time to read each one.
- Font & colour scheme: Use a simple font which is easy to read and avoid elaborate ones which might make reading difficult. Go for black-text-on-white background, but feel free to add a splash of colour in the design to help your resume stand out.
- Page layout: Divide the page into clearly visible sections using bold headings or borders, so that readers can quickly pinpoint the information they want.
- Break text up: Break text up into concise bullet points and short paragraphs to make it easy for busy recruiters to digest the info.
- Photos: In Australia, photos aren’t compulsory, but you can include a small headshot at the top if you want.
Quick tip: Achieving a professional look for your resume can be difficult and time-consuming. If you want to create an attractive resume quickly, try our Resume Builder and use one of our eye-catching professional resume templates.
Contact Details
Employers need to know who you are, and how to contact you – so whilst your contact details section is fairly simple, it’s important to get it right.
Add these 4 essential details to the top of your resume, trying not to take up too much space:
- Your name and a professional title: (e.g. Marketing Manager or Management Accountant) Tailor the title to match your target jobs.
- Email address: Ensure that it look professional (e.g.shane.smith21@gmail.com) and don’t use an old one with your school nickname in like shanzeybwoySmitho666@gmail.com.
- Phone number: Ideally your mobile so that you can be easily reached. Don’t forget to tripe check the number is correct!
- Location: Add the general location of where you are looking to work (e.g. Sydney, Brisbane).
You can also add some of the following details optionally:
- Webpage links: You can link out to a relevant social profile such as LinkedIn or even a portfolio. Make sure anything you link to is high-quality and kept up-to-date.
- Photograph: Photographs aren’t normally required but employers in creative industries sometimes like to see them. If you decide to add, make sure that you look professional and don’t take up too much space on the page with it.
You do not need to add personal details such as your date of birth, full address, or gender. These details aren’t needed to make a hiring decision and will waste space on your resume.
Bookkeeper Resume Summary
Your resume summary is a crucial, concise introductory paragraph located at the top of your resume. It’s your opportunity to provide a snapshot of your professional strengths and demonstrate your fit for the role.
To capture the recruiters’ interest immediately and motivate them to delve deeper into your resume, follow these strategic tips:
- Keep it short: Keep your summary between 3 to 5 sentences long so it can be read within seconds. Save the detail for your work experience section.
- Tailor to target jobs: For maximum impact, try to reflect as many matching skills from your target job adverts as you can. This will make recruiters more likely to pay attention.
- Avoid using cliches: Resist the temptation to describe yourself as a “self-starter” or a “results-driven professional” – these clichés offer little insight into your actual capabilities.
Bookkeeper resume summary example
What to include in your Bookkeeper resume summary
- Summary of your experience: Provide a summary of your work history, including the types of roles you’ve held, the companies you’ve worked for, and the extent of your experience.
- Relevant skills: Highlight your most valuable skills, focusing on job-specific skills for Bookkeeper jobs.
- Qualifications: Remember to mention any qualifications applicable to Bookkeeper jobs, showcasing your suitability for the role.
- Benefits of hiring you: Employers want to know what value you will bring them, whether it’s increasing their revenue or helping them to complete projects ahead of schedule.
Quick tip: Choose from hundreds of pre-written summaries across all industries, and add one to your resume with one-click in our Resume Builder. All written by recruitment experts and easily tailored to suit your unique skillset and style.
Core skills section
Highlight your suitability for Bookkeeper roles by including a core skills section in your resume.
Present a list of your essential skills in bullet-point format, each capped at four words, ensuring they are immediately noticeable to hiring managers.
Skills for your Bookkeeper resume
Financial Reporting – Preparing accurate financial statements, including balance sheets, income statements, and cash flow statements, in compliance with accounting standards.
Double-entry Bookkeeping – Recording financial transactions systematically using the double-entry bookkeeping method to ensure the accuracy of accounts.
Accounts Payable and Receivable – Managing outgoing bills and invoices to suppliers (accounts payable) and incoming payments from clients (accounts receivable).
Tax Preparation – Completing and lodging Business Activity Statements (BAS), tax returns, and other statutory obligations in compliance with the Australian Tax Office (ATO) regulations.
Payroll Processing – Calculating wages, distributing paychecks, and maintaining accurate payroll records in line with Fair Work Australia requirements.
Reconciliation – Reconciling bank statements against the company’s ledgers and addressing any discrepancies to maintain accurate financial records.
Cloud Accounting Software – Utilising cloud-based accounting platforms such as Xero, MYOB, or QuickBooks for real-time financial tracking and reporting.
Inventory Management – Monitoring and recording stock levels to ensure adequate supply and to account for inventory purchases and usage.
Fixed Assets Accounting – Recording, tracking, and managing the depreciation of fixed assets to reflect their usage and value over time.
Financial Analysis – Analysing financial data to identify trends, forecast future financial positions, and support business decision-making processes.
Quick tip: Our Resume Builder contains thousands of in-demand skills for every profession that can be added to your resume in seconds – saving you time and greatly improving your chances of landing job interviews and getting hired.
Work experience section
The work experience part of your resume allows you to display what you can bring to a potential employer.
Record your previous roles in reverse chronological order, giving particular attention to the past 3-5 years.
Structuring your jobs
Help recruiters quickly understand your past job duties by organising them in the following way.
Outline
Start with a 1 to 2 line outline of the job, including what the employer does, where you sit within the organisation, and the overall goal of the job.
Key responsibilities
List 5-8 bullet points detailing your main responsibilities within the job, highlighting important skills, knowledge and tools that you use.
Keep each point brief and show who you interact with, and how you contribute to the organisation.
Key achievements
Lastly, prove impact by highlight 1-3 key achievements that you made within the role.
Struggling to think of an achievement? If it had a positive impact on your company, it counts.
For example, you might have increased company profits, improved processes, or helped a customer to achieve their goals.
Add numbers to quantify your achievements if you can.
Example job for Bookkeeper resume
Outline
As a Bookkeeper at this wedding caterers I am responsible for assisting and partnering with a variety of clients to carry out payment processes, posting transactions, and ensuring that management of all reconciliation processes to bank accounts are carried out accurately.
Key Responsibilities
- Performs financial calculations such as amounts due, interest charges, balances, and discounts.
- Accesses software to obtain financial information for providing responses to general and specific account related enquiries.
- Prepares statements to show income and transactions.
- Reconciliation of figures / entries from sales invoices, income, receipts, and payments.
Quick tip: Create impressive job descriptions easily in our Resume Builder by adding pre-written job phrases for every industry and career stage.
Education section
Place your education section towards the end of your resume.
It should be formatted as a bullet-pointed list highlighting your qualifications and academic achievements, especially those pertinent to Bookkeeper roles.
Experienced candidates should keep this section concise, but if you have minimal experience you can elaborate on these qualifications to showcase your relevant skills and knowledge.
This section can include:
- University degrees
- Industry specific qualifications for Bookkeeper jobs
- Vocational education and training (VET) diplomas
- Senior Secondary Certificate of Education (SSCE)
Additional information (optional)
At the end of your resume, you can consider incorporating a section for additional information.
This part is suitable for hobbies, interests, awards, publications, or technical skills that could enhance your appeal to employers.
When adding content here, ensure it is either directly relevant to your profession or exceptionally impressive.
Avoid listing everyday activities like watching television or casual socialising, as they are unlikely to influence hiring decisions.
Although creating a standout Bookkeeper resume is no small feat, following these steps will help you produce a resume that not only draws responses from recruiters but also results in a significant number of interviews.
Remember to thoroughly proofread your resume and adapt it to each specific job to ensure it remains relevant.
Good luck with your job search!