Accountant CV example

A accountant CV is the one or two page document used to apply for a accountant role in admin and finance: it brings together the professional headline, the profile summary, experience with measurable results and the competencies the trade expects you to evidence, such as Month-end close and VAT and corporation tax. Unlike a generic CV, it is ordered around what the applicant tracking system and the hiring manager look for in a accountant: the words used in the advert and the numbers of the actual job.

• The headline reads «Accountant running full month-end close with tax experience»: the job title (accountant) appears literally in the first line, not as a creative synonym.
• The trade's keywords —month-end close, VAT, bank reconciliation— sit inside the experience and summary, where the filter reads them in context.
• Every achievement carries its figure. «Closed four entities monthly, cutting the timetable from 12 to 7 working days» is the pattern to copy: volume, timeframe and result.
• Skills such as Month-end close, VAT and corporation tax, SAP FI are written as plain text, never as rating bars or stars, which no parser can read.
• The Helsinki template is single-column and rated ATS verified, so the sections come out in order.

Check your CV and see the ATS score

1. 01

   Writing “general accounting” with no scope

   Everyone writes it and it says nothing. Spell out what you closed, who reviewed it and what you filed; scope is precisely what separates two accountants' salary bands.

2. 02

   Not separating practice from industry

   Practice means many small entities with a compliance focus; industry means one company with management reporting and cost focus. They are different profiles — say which you come from and which you are targeting.

3. 03

   Leaving out audit exposure

   Preparing an audit file, answering auditor queries or working under a sector-specific framework is a credibility signal. Almost nobody writes it, and it is what marks out a reliable accountant.

4. 04

   Sloppy figures in the CV itself

   In a role whose value is accuracy, an inconsistent date or a wrong figure in your own document is the fastest and fairest rejection there is.

Usual range

Typically £32,000-£45,000 a year depending on qualification and scope; part-qualified sits below, ACA/ACCA-qualified above

What moves the figure

Practice usually pays below industry at the same level, and the step up comes with full ownership of the close and board reporting.

Where the figure comes from

Ranges observed in UK accountancy adverts through 2026.