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Accountant-contractor skills for your resume and career

Updated January 8, 2025

4 min read

Quoted experts

Kathi Mettler,

Dr. Jennifer Thayer

Below we've compiled a list of the most critical accountant-contractor skills. We ranked the top skills for accountant-contractors based on the percentage of resumes they appeared on. For example, 13.8% of accountant-contractor resumes contained reconciliations as a skill. Continue reading to find out what skills an accountant-contractor needs to be successful in the workplace.

15 accountant-contractor skills for your resume and career

1. Reconciliations

Here's how accountant-contractors use reconciliations:

Coordinate all account reconciliations including an array of General Ledger account reconciliations, variance analysis and complete resolution of reconciling items.
Worked with budget managers to rectify budget overages and discrepancies providing informational statements from SAP and purchase order reconciliations.

2. General Ledger Accounts

A general ledger account is a practice to keep a record of a company's total financial accounts. The accounts included in a general ledger lists the assets, liabilities, owners' equity, expenses, and income or revenue. It forms the basis of reporting a business's financial statements.

Here's how accountant-contractors use general ledger accounts:

Budget preparation; tracked accounts receivable deposits; developed procedure manuals; reconciled various general ledger accounts.
Reviewed, prepared and analyzed various schedules of general ledger accounts/transactions and billings.

3. Payroll Taxes

Here's how accountant-contractors use payroll taxes:

Prepared bi-weekly payroll including payment of payroll taxes, quarterly/annual payroll reports, and benefits plus maintained employee files.
Prepare A/R, A/P, payroll, payroll taxes, and monthly financial statements; insurance administrator.

4. Balance Sheet Accounts

Here's how accountant-contractors use balance sheet accounts:

Conducted analysis of Balance Sheet Accounts and Presentation resulting in more accurate and timely reporting.
Cost of Sales Analysis Engineering Project spreadsheets Developed monthly support schedules for relevant balance sheet accounts

5. Account Reconciliations

Here's how accountant-contractors use account reconciliations:

Managed monthly journal activities and balance sheet account reconciliations, preparing financial statements and presenting quarterly consolidated package to parent company.
Take on special projects as needed including automation of vendor payments, automation of account reconciliations, and financial reporting improvements.

6. Purchase Orders

Here's how accountant-contractors use purchase orders:

Designed methodology of monitoring receivables against manual Purchase Orders on multiple invoices.
Created purchase orders and maintained vendor information.

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7. Fixed Assets

Here's how accountant-contractors use fixed assets:

Prepared journal entries to record financial information including earned interest income, depreciation of fixed assets and prepaid expenses.
Updated and reconciled Fixed Assets/Depreciation Schedule for current year.

8. Bank Reconciliations

Here's how accountant-contractors use bank reconciliations:

Performed bank reconciliation and prepared related journal entries.
Prepared monthly bank reconciliation for subsidiary account.

9. Credit Card

A type of card issued by banks and other financial institutions, that enable users to manage and borrow their finances is called a credit card. The funds borrowed from a financial institution through a credit card are meant to be paid back along with certain amounts of interest imposed by the bank.

Here's how accountant-contractors use credit card:

Analyzed and reconciled credit card processes between corporate and individual credit unions.
Processed daily reconciliation for Siemens Procurement Credit Card.

10. QuickBooks

Here's how accountant-contractors use quickbooks:

Assisted in preparing tax returns and financial statements and recorded various transactions in QuickBooks
Maintain a high level of confidential information, QuickBooks Proficient

11. GAAP

Here's how accountant-contractors use gaap:

Collaborated with management to develop and implement accounting and operational processes and controls to allow for efficient operations and GAAP compliance.
Evaluated and implemented systems to improve operational efficiency and adherence to GAAP.

12. Tax Returns

Here's how accountant-contractors use tax returns:

Contract with busy Sole Proprietor for tax season preparing most of the individual and a few of the business tax returns.
Worked with a private residence hall in filing five years of back city and state sales and use tax returns.

13. Accounts Payables

Here's how accountant-contractors use accounts payables:

Worked on an implementation of PeopleSoft's financial system that included General Ledger and Accounts Payables for an insurance company client.
Prepared and paid employees and entered journal entries for accounts payables.

14. Pivot Tables

A pivot table is a technique used in data processing to arrange and rearrange statistics to prioritize useful information. The aim of a pivot table is to summarize the findings and interpretations of the data extracted. Pivot tables take information from a database or spreadsheet to report sums, average, and other such statistics. This technique is integral to data analysis since it turns the data to view it from different lenses and perspectives.

Here's how accountant-contractors use pivot tables:

Created Excel reports using pivot tables, macro, and VLOOKUP.
Used Pivot Tables in Excel for AFE & Property analysis.

15. CPA

Here's how accountant-contractors use cpa:

Served as Accounts Payable Supervisor for EchoStar and Dish Network, and as CPA with Gene Fuehrer, CPA.
Assist CPA with all required tax documents, reports and follow up.

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What skills help Accountant-Contractors find jobs?

Tell us what job you are looking for, we’ll show you what skills employers want.

What skills stand out on accountant-contractor resumes?

Kathi Mettler

Director, Graduate Accounting Programs, Instructor of the Practice, Accounting, Fairfield University

Completion of the CPA Exam (passing all four parts before starting to work) is a significant competitive advantage. Analytics is really important now, which is why our Master of Science in Accounting (MSA) Program allows students to tailor their experience by choosing a specialization in either assurance, business analytics, or taxation. Additionally, a student may pursue a Master of Science in Business Analytics (MSBA) with an accounting or taxation specialization. An accounting or taxation specialization is offered in our MBA and MSF programs as well. Another skill important for success is being an effective communicator. In this day and age, accountants no longer hide in the office and crunch numbers; they are at the clients' site and must possess strong people and interpersonal skills. The importance of effective communication (written and verbal) and soft skills is why we have created a new graduate course, "Effective Communication for Accounting Professionals".

What soft skills should all accountant-contractors possess?

Dr. Jennifer Thayer

Assistant Professor of Accounting, Socrates Award for Excellence in Teaching Recipient, Clarksville Chamber of Commerce APSU Distinguished Faculty Award for Community Service Recipient, Accounting Society at Austin Peay Advisor, Austin Peay State University

From speaking with employers in the industry, the number one soft skill seems to be written and spoken communication. Many current students need to hone their written communication skills to avoid "text speak" when communicating with potential employers and/or clients. Other important soft skills include problem-solving, collaboration, adaptability, and willingness to deal with failure and/or criticism. Especially in the world of COVID and ever-changing work environments, the importance of adaptability and problem-solving have only been highlighted. Since most work environments involve people working in teams, effectively collaborating with others and accepting criticism are vital skills.

What hard/technical skills are most important for accountant-contractors?

Dr. Jennifer Thayer

In addition to general accounting knowledge, critical thinking, data analytics, and advanced Microsoft Excel abilities are some of the most important skills. Clearly, having a solid foundation in general accounting knowledge is necessary to be a candidate for a job in the accounting field. However, possessing the ability to critically think and analyze data and use Microsoft Excel beyond the basics, such as pivot tables, will only improve a candidate's chances.

What accountant-contractor skills would you recommend for someone trying to advance their career?

Stephen Moehrle Ph.D.

Professor and Chairman of Accounting, University of Missouri - St. Louis

In the spirit of continuing education I would recommend the following: First and foremost, successfully complete the cpa exam. This is a huge difference-maker in the marketplace. If the young professional has already accomplished that, I would consider developing expertise consistent with their long-term career goals. Potential areas of expertise include data analytics, information systems controls and security, taxation, SEC reporting, or management accounting. There are certificate programs in each of these skills at universities across the country. The internet is also replete with free or relatively inexpensive materials for self-starters.

What type of skills will young accountant-contractors need?

Delvin Grant

Associate Professor, DePaul University

The ability to problem solve, which requires an understanding of the problem and a structured approach towards the solution. The ability to apply concepts learned in one discipline to another. Quite often, students are unable to see how a concept translates from one domain to another, and this stifles innovation.

Do you want to know more?

List of accountant-contractor skills to add to your resume

The most important skills for an accountant-contractor resume and required skills for an accountant-contractor to have include:

Reconciliations
General Ledger Accounts
Payroll Taxes
Balance Sheet Accounts
Account Reconciliations
Purchase Orders
Fixed Assets
Bank Reconciliations
Credit Card
QuickBooks
GAAP
Tax Returns
Accounts Payables
Pivot Tables
CPA
Bank Accounts
ACH

Internal Controls
SOX
Expense Reports
Sales Tax
Financial Analysis
ERP
Financial Data
Bank Statements
Real Estate
Variance Analysis
Vendor Invoices
Management Reports
W-9
Internal Audit
Account Analysis
Balance Sheet Reconciliations
Vendor Statements

PeopleSoft
General Ledger Entries
Audit Schedules
ADP
Customer Accounts
External Auditors
Bank Deposits
Accounts Receivables
Government Contracts
Check Runs
Process Improvement
HR
LLC
Payable Invoices
Cash Application
Trial Balance

Updated January 8, 2025

Zippia Team

Editorial Staff

The Zippia Research Team has spent countless hours reviewing resumes, job postings, and government data to determine what goes into getting a job in each phase of life. Professional writers and data scientists comprise the Zippia Research Team.

Updated January 8, 2025

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