6 Achievements To Add To Your Accounting And Finance CV

When writing your accounting and finance CV it’s important to start with the basics. Personal profile? Check. Employment history? Check. Education? Check. But so often this is as far as it goes. And while it’s all well and good listing your past positions and your qualifications, the recruiter wants to see exactly what value you could add to the team.

If you're putting together your CV right now, we’re here to help. Here’s why you need to highlight your achievements, plus six examples you could add to your application to help you stand out from the crowd:

Infographic showing 6 achievements to add to your finance and accounting CV

How and why you need to showcase your achievements on your accounting and finance CV

In order to prove you're a good fit for the role, you need to include examples of your achievements throughout your CV. These give the recruiter some context about your previous position and highlight how you made a real difference to the company. The best way to showcase these achievements is by using past participle action words relevant to your industry. For example, analysed, managed, budgeted and audited.

Below we’ll look at six real examples you could use on your accounting and finance CV and explain why these will impress the recruiter. You can tailor these to reflect your own achievements.

Managing or overseeing others
Helping to cut business costs
Saving time
Increasing revenue
Building client relationships
Showing how your hard work was recognised

1. Managing or overseeing others

Example: Managed a team of nine accounts assistants and interns to ensure all deadlines were met on time.

If you’ve been responsible for overseeing or managing others, make sure to shout out about your strong leadership and organisational skills. You can also add more context to your achievement by giving the exact number of people in the team that you were managing.

2. Helping to cut business costs

Example: Met with the senior managers of all departments to discuss their individual budgets and was able to reduce overall business expenditure by 15%, saving the company £8,000 a year.

By showing how you helped to cut costs in a previous role and quantifying this by giving the exact figures, you prove that were an asset to the company. After all, what business doesn't want to save themselves money?

3. Saving time

Example: Developed new and complex spreadsheets to help produce the monthly management accounts much quicker, reducing the production time from five days to two.

These types of achievements show that you’ve taken initiative and managed to develop and implement more effective systems. This frees up time for staff to work on other tasks and makes the workforce more efficient.

4. Increasing revenue

Example: Analysed client portfolios using MS Access and was able to identify the lower-performing accounts. Using this data, I was able to improve these accounts increasing average client revenue by 16%.

This is another example of how you took initiative, but it also shows how you were able to maximise accounts to increase revenue. And again, what business doesn't want to make more money?

5. Building client relationships

Example: Built lasting relationships with all my clients and ensured there were systems and resources in place to deal with any of their queries in less than 24-hours

Building lasting relationships with clients is important as they're the ones who keep the money coming in. They might also recommend your services to others. As such, it’s great to show the recruiter that you’ve got good communication skills and can build relationships.

6. Showing how your hard work was recognised

Example: Was voted ‘accountant of the month’ on multiple occasions and nominated for an ‘Accounting Excellence Award’ by my colleagues.

Being voted employee of the week, month or year proves that you are hardworking and doing something right. If you’ve ever won or been nominated for an award this also tells the recruiter that your previous employer was impressed with your work and dedication.

Incorporating achievements and results throughout your CV will allow employers to see the tangible value you could bring to their company and significantly increase your chances of landing an interview. Pop a couple of your proudest achievements in your personal profile, before packing your work experience section with further examples.

About the Author:

Andrew Fennell is the founder of CV writing advice website StandOut CV – he is a former recruitment consultant and contributes careers advice to websites like Business Insider, The Guardian and FastCompany.

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