Accountant resume example and writing guide

Whether the job is called accounts executive, accountant or finance executive, the hiring manager is asking the same questions. Can you keep the books accurate and on time? Do you understand the rules the company has to follow? And will the auditors and the tax agent find your work easy to check?

That means your resume should show three things clearly: the accounting cycle you have handled (from daily entries to month-end and year-end), the compliance work you know (tax, SST, payroll statutory contributions, audit), and the software you have actually used. Vague lines such as “handled accounts” do none of this.

Here is a complete example for a mid-level accounts executive. The names, companies and figures are illustrations — replace every one with your own, and only use numbers you can explain in an interview.

Name and title line: “Priya a/p Raman — Senior Accounts Executive. Shah Alam, Selangor · 012-345 6789 · priya.raman@example.com · linkedin.com/in/nurulaisyah”.

Summary: “Accounts executive with five years in audit and in-house accounting for manufacturing and trading companies. Handles full-set accounts, month-end closing and audit schedules in AutoCount and SQL Accounting. Currently closes the monthly books for two subsidiaries within five working days.”

Experience, job one: “Senior Accounts Executive, Bayu Teratai Packaging Sdn Bhd, Shah Alam — March 2023 to present.”

• Prepare full-set accounts for two subsidiaries, including bank, intercompany and supplier reconciliations, and close the monthly books within five working days.
• Prepare the year-end audit schedules and act as the main contact for the external auditors, with all queries answered before fieldwork ended in the last two audits.
• Compile SST returns and supporting sales listings for the taxable periods, and keep a filing calendar so no return has been submitted late.
• Moved supplier payments from cheques to online banking with a two-person approval step, and set up a checklist that stopped duplicate payments.
• Supervise one accounts assistant and review her daily entries, debtor ageing and petty cash records.

Experience, job two: “Audit Associate, Lim, Rashid & Partners PLT, Petaling Jaya — January 2021 to February 2023.”

• Audited around 15 private companies a year in trading, construction and services, preparing working papers for revenue, receivables and payables.
• Performed stock count attendance and bank confirmations, and followed up differences with client finance teams.
• Drafted financial statements under MPERS for small clients and prepared tax computations for the senior to review.
• Trained two new associates on the firm’s working-paper templates during the busy season.

Education: “Bachelor of Accountancy (Hons), Universiti Teknologi MARA — 2020.”

Certifications: “ACCA — all papers completed, 2024 · Member, Malaysian Institute of Accountants (if applicable).” Only list a membership or qualification you actually hold, and say “in progress” with the papers passed if you are still studying.

Skills: “AutoCount, SQL Accounting, Microsoft Excel (pivot tables, XLOOKUP, SUMIFS), MFRS and MPERS, SST, EPF/SOCSO/EIS and PCB, audit schedules, bank reconciliation. Languages: Malay, English.”

• Fresh graduate: “Accounting graduate with a six-month internship at an audit firm, preparing working papers and attending stock counts. Comfortable with Excel and SQL Accounting, and sitting ACCA Applied Skills papers this year.”
• Junior: “Accounts assistant with two years handling accounts payable, receivable and bank reconciliations for a trading company. Keeps daily entries up to date in AutoCount and prepares the monthly debtor ageing report for management.”
• Mid-level: “Accounts executive with five years in audit and in-house accounting, handling full-set accounts, month-end closing and audit schedules for manufacturing companies.”
• Senior: “Chartered accountant with ten years in finance for listed and private groups. Leads a team of six, prepares consolidated accounts under MFRS and manages the relationship with auditors, tax agents and the bank.”
• Career changer: “Former bank operations executive moving into accounting, with four years of reconciliations and payment processing. Completed a Diploma in Accounting part-time and now handles bookkeeping for two small businesses.”

Use these as patterns. Swap in your own figures, software and company types.

• Month-end closing: “Closed monthly accounts for three entities within six working days by preparing accruals and prepayment schedules in advance.”
• Month-end closing: “Built an Excel closing checklist with owners and deadlines, which the team still uses after I moved roles.”
• Accounts payable: “Processed invoices and payments for about 150 suppliers and matched them to purchase orders and delivery orders before payment.”
• Accounts receivable: “Followed up overdue customers weekly and reduced debtors over 90 days by agreeing instalment plans with the largest accounts.”
• Reconciliation: “Cleared two years of unreconciled bank items left by a previous system migration.”
• Audit: “Prepared lead schedules and supporting documents for the statutory audit, with no adjustments raised on the areas I owned.”
• Tax: “Prepared the CP204 tax estimate and revisions with the tax agent, and compiled the documents needed for the Form C submission.”
• Tax: “Prepared the company’s move to e-invoicing through MyInvois by cleaning customer tax identification data in the accounting system.”
• Payroll: “Processed monthly payroll for 80 staff, including EPF, SOCSO, EIS and PCB, and prepared Form EA for every employee.”
• Systems: “Helped migrate the company from UBS to AutoCount, mapping the chart of accounts and checking opening balances.”
• Reporting: “Prepared monthly management accounts and a variance report that the directors use in their board meeting.”
• Audit firm: “Led fieldwork for small audit engagements, reviewing work by two juniors before sending files to the manager.”

Job ads for accounting roles in Malaysia often name the software and the compliance areas directly. Use the exact words from the posting where they are true for you, so both the applicant tracking system and the hiring manager find them.

• Accounting software: AutoCount, SQL Accounting, UBS, Xero, QuickBooks, SAP Business One, Microsoft Dynamics, Oracle. List only the ones you have used for real work.
• Excel: name specific skills — pivot tables, XLOOKUP or VLOOKUP, SUMIFS, data validation — rather than writing “advanced Excel”.
• Standards: MFRS for listed and larger companies, MPERS for private entities. Say which one you have worked with.
• Tax and statutory: corporate tax computation, CP204, Form C, SST, e-invoicing (MyInvois), EPF, SOCSO, EIS and PCB.
• Process words: full-set accounts, month-end closing, bank reconciliation, intercompany, fixed asset register, accruals, consolidation, management accounts, audit schedules.

The Malaysian Institute of Accountants (MIA) is the statutory body for the profession, and only registered members may call themselves Chartered Accountants under the Accountants Act 1967. Membership needs a recognised qualification plus relevant work experience, so state clearly whether you are a member, eligible, or working towards it.

Common routes include an MIA-accredited accounting degree, ACCA, CIMA, CPA Australia and the MICPA professional programme. Write the qualification name in full once, and show partial progress honestly, for example “ACCA — 9 of 13 papers passed”.

• Listing duties copied from the job description, such as “responsible for accounts payable”, without scale or outcome.
• Writing “knowledge of accounting software” instead of naming AutoCount, SQL Accounting or whatever you used.
• Calling yourself a Chartered Accountant or CA (M) before you are registered with MIA.
• Leaving out the company size or industry. Closing the books for a small trading company and a listed group are different jobs, and the reader needs to know which you did.
• Small errors in figures, dates or spelling. An accounting resume with a typo in a number makes the reader doubt your attention to detail.

For an audit firm, put audit experience and qualification progress near the top. Mention the industries you audited, the number of engagements, which areas you owned in the working papers, and any supervision of juniors. Firms also want to know you can handle busy-season deadlines.

For an in-house role, lead with the accounting cycle you run: full-set accounts, closing timelines, reconciliations, payroll and tax compliance. Name the software, because many companies want someone who can start without training. If you are moving from audit to in-house, translate audit work into what a finance team cares about, such as “understand what auditors need and prepare schedules that pass first time”.

For shared service centres and larger groups, highlight the specific process you handled (for example accounts payable or intercompany), the volume, and any work with ERP systems such as SAP or Oracle.