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Comptroller skills for your resume and career

Updated January 8, 2025

5 min read

Quoted experts

Carol Sullivan,

Thomas King

Below we've compiled a list of the most critical comptroller skills. We ranked the top skills for comptrollers based on the percentage of resumes they appeared on. For example, 11.0% of comptroller resumes contained payroll taxes as a skill. Continue reading to find out what skills a comptroller needs to be successful in the workplace.

15 comptroller skills for your resume and career

1. Payroll Taxes

Here's how comptrollers use payroll taxes:

Process payroll, payroll taxes, disburse commissions to agents, insurance and 401K, bank reconciliation, accounts payable.
Oversee Payroll, Payroll taxes, Quarterly taxes, Unemployment Taxes, Ledger balancing, preparation for corporate filing.

2. External Auditors

Here's how comptrollers use external auditors:

Directed the preparation of audit schedules and monitor federal and operational audits with external auditors.
Prepare financial documentation for external auditors, and analyze financial and analyze financial reports.

3. 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 comptrollers use general ledger accounts:

Performed monthly reconciliations of all general ledger accounts and daily reconciliation of the sub-ledgers.
Prepared and reviewed monthly financial statements, after reconciliation of general ledger accounts.

4. Reconciliations

Here's how comptrollers use reconciliations:

Designed and implemented appropriate reports and procedures to monitor and control execution of monthly journal entries and account reconciliations.
Prepared and reviewed monthly account reconciliations including cash, investments, payroll and retirement accounts.

5. CPA

Here's how comptrollers use cpa:

Created a highly respected and effective organization, recruited from national and regional CPA firms - and engineering and IT areas.
Assisted outside CPA firm in year-end tax preparations by maintaining expense analyses, fixed asset records and spreadsheets for LIFO calculations.

6. Journal Entries

Journal entries can be defined as an act of keeping or making records of any transactions either economic or non-economic. The journal entries are made in the accounting systems of an organization. The entries are filled with two main fields; debit and credit. The debit and credit must be equal at the end of a journal entry else it is not considered correct. The journal entries also keep the date of transactions and the names of the accounts that were affected by the transactions.

Here's how comptrollers use journal entries:

Performed monthly and yearly consolidated journal entries and prepared financial statement reporting for the parent company and subsidiaries.
Prepared monthly, quarterly and annual consolidated financial statements and reports; reviewed adjusting journal entries.

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7. Financial Management

Here's how comptrollers use financial management:

Developed micro-computer applications for financial management procedures.
Performed daily accounting and financial management functions to identify and eliminate risk, increase profits, and maintain full regulatory compliance.

8. Internal Controls

Here's how comptrollers use internal controls:

Implemented the conversion to electronic check receipts and developed the related internal controls collaboratively with those affected at all the campuses/centers.
Close supervision of internal controls for cash receives, inventory management, receiving, warehousing and dispatching procedures

9. Human Resources

Human resources is a set of people in a business or a corporation that are designated to locate, interview, and recruit new employees into the company. They are also responsible to maintain the integrity of the employees and help them sort their problems out. They try to introduce and manage employee-benefit programs.

Here's how comptrollers use human resources:

Managed internal operations including Human Resources, Purchasing, Contract Administration, Systems Administration, and Information Systems.
Assisted Comptroller with human resources and benefit administration.

10. Balance Sheet

Here's how comptrollers use balance sheet:

Prepare all monthly/quarterly/annually detail and summary profit and loss statement/ balance sheets through QuickBooks software.
Reconciled and analyzed balance sheet accounts, hired and supervised office personnel.

11. Bank Reconciliations

Here's how comptrollers use bank reconciliations:

Work with the full accounting cycle, prepare daily Cash Flow, Payroll, quarterly Income Tax and Bank Reconciliation.
Produced monthly aging, open invoices, bank reconciliation, sales and revenue recognition reports.

12. Tax Returns

Here's how comptrollers use tax returns:

Reported directly to ownership and integrated directly with outside accounting firm in preparation of filing year-end corporation income tax returns.
Researched Maryland Tax Laws and evaluate individual and corporate federal and Maryland tax returns to determine tax liability.

13. Financial Data

Here's how comptrollers use financial data:

Accumulated financial data used to identify trends and perform historical analyses; and ultimately held responsibility for profit and loss administration.
Consult financial data to supervise success of company transition to new corporate acquisition from previews owners.

14. Accounts Receivables

Here's how comptrollers use accounts receivables:

Streamlined the internal accounts receivables process which simplified reconciliation of deposits for annual audit.
Managed the discovery of financial remediation of $6 million dollars in accounts receivables.

15. Sales Tax

Here's how comptrollers use sales tax:

Implemented internal control policies and operational procedures to comply with government sales tax and maintain reporting accuracy.
Managed records and documentation of clients for prepare PR Sales Tax (IVU) schedule for calculations and income tax preparation.

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What skills help Comptrollers find jobs?

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

What skills stand out on comptroller resumes?

Carol Sullivan

Associate Professor, The University of Texas Permian Basin

Microsoft Office is most important in my professional opinion, but also Accounting software like QuickBooks is important. Computer literacy is really important, especially if employees continue to work remotely.

What soft skills should all comptrollers possess?

Thomas King

Department Chair, Director, Master of Accountancy Program, Professor, Accountancy, Case Western Reserve University

The ability to develop working relationships with a wide range of colleagues who have diverse skills.

What hard/technical skills are most important for comptrollers?

Thomas King

Department Chair, Director, Master of Accountancy Program, Professor, Accountancy, Case Western Reserve University

The ability to extract information from unfamiliar data sets and then explain conclusions reached in a clear, persuasive manner.

What comptroller skills would you recommend for someone trying to advance their career?

Janet Tarase

Lead Accounting Faculty / Accounting Department Chair, Red Rocks Community College

Students that need to take a gap year have several opportunities to make that year count. They should consider doing one or more of the following three things:

Work on honing your soft skills, which include: critical thinking/problem solving, oral/written communication, teamwork/collaboration, technology/digital literacy, leadership, professionalism, time management, organizational, and confidence. These talents are desired by employers and also will help you succeed in your educational aspirations
Take free classes offered online through organizations like edX at EDX. Even Harvard is offering free classes, check out:
Onlinelearning
Also expand your global views or overcome those challenges you may be facing by checking out Ted Talks at Ted
Look for a job (full or part-time) or internship in your chosen career field. Even entry-level positions can allow you to see how this job fits into the larger picture or you could ask to shadow someone for a day. Since I am in the accounting field, I suggest contacting Accountemps; their website is: RobertHalf Occasionally, you can also receive job and skill enhancement training through Accountemps.

What type of skills will young comptrollers need?

Dr. Lilac Nachum Ph.D.

Professor, International Business, Baruch College, City University New York

In light of the changes described in #1, the most apparent skills would be those related to digital employment. These will relate to both new opportunities, created digitally, as well as the transformation of brick and mortar jobs online. The former requires skills such as online management of supply chains, digital marketing, online sale, and the likes. These new jobs might require in addition to digital skills also heavy doses of creativity and entrepreneurship as new products and industries are being created and developed. In relation to the latter, the jobs themselves might be well established and familiar for some graduates but their delivery would be transformed in significant ways and require advanced digital skills related to the implementation of these activities.

What technical skills for a comptroller stand out to employers?

Dr. JP Krahel Ph.D.

Associate Professor of Accounting, Accounting Department Chair, Loyola University Maryland

First, Excel. It's the most basic, essential tool for the accounting professional. If you can come in on Day 1 knowing essential keyboard shortcuts, proper formula and reference use, and how to format a spreadsheet properly, you'll have an immediate advantage over your peers.

Second, believe it or not, is writing. People think that accounting is all about numbers, but really, it's less about the math (which Excel does for you) and more about being able to explain the deeper meaning behind the results. Can you explain complex depreciation methods to an audit client? Give bad news to a tax client in an understandable way? These are big deals.

Third is data analytics. Given the immense volume of data now available to firms, someone who can extract, clean, and present that data using modern software tools will have an edge. It's really another form of communication, and one that early-career accounting professionals would do well to familiarize themselves with before entering the workforce.

Do you want to know more?

List of comptroller skills to add to your resume

The most important skills for a comptroller resume and required skills for a comptroller to have include:

Payroll Taxes
External Auditors
General Ledger Accounts
Reconciliations
CPA
Journal Entries
Financial Management
Internal Controls
Human Resources
Balance Sheet
Bank Reconciliations
Tax Returns
Financial Data
Accounts Receivables
Sales Tax
Fixed Assets
Bank Accounts

QuickBooks
Financial Analysis
Bank Statements
GAAP
Credit Card
Financial Transactions
Health Insurance
Payroll Processing
Financial Policies
Real Estate
Accounts Payables
DOD
Financial Systems
Windows
Inventory Control
Financial Operations
Cost Analysis

Budget Preparation
ADP
Tax Reports
Bank Deposits
Variance Analysis
IRS
W-2
Travel Vouchers
Cash Flow Analysis
Expense Reports
Financial Statements
Medicare
Financial Reports
Trial Balance
Financial Institutions
DTS

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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