Bookkeeper Cover Letter Example

A bookkeeper cover letter is read by someone who wants to stop worrying about the books: a small business owner, a controller or the partner at a bookkeeping firm. The letter has to reassure that reader in the first few lines with the software you keep, the volume you handle and the fact that payroll, sales tax and the reconciliations are done on time without being chased. Everything else can wait for the interview.

The sample below goes with the bookkeeper resume example: Maria Castellanos, a full-charge bookkeeper managing fourteen client files at a small firm in Mesa, Arizona, applying for an in-house bookkeeper position at a mechanical contractor that has outgrown its outside bookkeeper. It opens by saying why she wants to come in-house, spends one paragraph on her portfolio with the transaction, payroll and penalty numbers her resume states, uses her earlier landscaping job to prove the job costing the posting asked for, and closes by asking to see the owner's file.

Write one letter per posting. A firm with many clients wants speed and organization across files; a single company wants depth in its business. Lead with whichever this reader is.

Updated . The person, the employer and the recipient in this sample letter are fictional. It goes with the bookkeeper resume example for the same person.

Bookkeeper sample cover letter

About 319 words, one page in the style of the Classic template.

Maria Castellanos

Full-Charge Bookkeeper, QuickBooks ProAdvisor

Mesa, AZmaria.castellanos@example.com(480) 555-0117

Mr. Luis ArredondoOwnerSonoran Peak MechanicalTempe, AZ

Application for Full-Charge Bookkeeper

Dear Mr. Arredondo,

Your posting for an in-house full-charge bookkeeper describes a 40-person contractor that has outgrown its outside bookkeeper and needs job costing, payroll and the monthly close done under one roof. I have kept books for contractors for five years, first in-house at a landscaping company and now for a portfolio of small-business clients, and I would like to bring that work back in-house for one company.

At Saguaro Books & Payroll I keep the books for fourteen clients with revenue from $300K to $4M, reconciling more than 2,000 bank and card transactions a month in QuickBooks Online and Xero. I run biweekly payroll for three of them, 46 employees in all, and file the quarterly payroll and sales tax returns; there has not been a late penalty since I joined. When a new restaurant client arrived with two years of uncategorized transactions, I cleaned up the file in six weeks so their CPA could file on time, and every client gets a one-page cash-flow summary from me each month, which two owners now use to decide when to buy equipment.

The job costing in your posting is the part I know best. At Desert Bloom Landscaping, a 30-person company in Chandler, I handled payables and receivables of about 180 vendor bills and 250 customer invoices a month, set up job costing classes in QuickBooks so the owner could see profit by crew and by contract for the first time, and cut the average days to collect from 52 to 34 by sending statements on a fixed schedule and calling accounts at 45 days. I am a QuickBooks Online ProAdvisor and Xero certified, and I run payroll through Gusto.

My resume is attached with both positions and my certifications. I would welcome the chance to talk through your current file and the close you want to reach, and I am available for an interview any weekday. Thank you for your consideration.

Sincerely,

Maria Castellanos

Start yours from this letter

Opens this letter in the editor, in one of the templates below. Swap in your details and the employer's, then fit it to each vacancy in about two minutes.

Use this letter

How this bookkeeper cover letter is built

  1. The opening says why an in-house job, which is the owner's first question

    An owner hiring away from an outside bookkeeper wants to know why someone with a client portfolio would come in-house. The first paragraph answers it in the owner's own terms, job costing, payroll and the close under one roof, and names the two kinds of bookkeeping Maria has done, so the move reads as a return to a kind of work she knows rather than a step down.

  2. The second paragraph gives the portfolio in numbers the owner can check

    Clients, revenue range, transactions a month, employees on payroll and the penalty record are all on the bookkeeper resume. The restaurant cleanup is the story to keep: an owner leaving an outside bookkeeper usually has a messy file, and six weeks is a timeline he can hold her to. The cash-flow summary shows she reports as well as records.

  3. The third paragraph takes the posting's phrase, job costing, and proves it

    The posting asked for job costing, so the landscaping job gets its own paragraph: bills and invoices a month, the classes by crew and contract, and the days-to-collect result with how she got it. The software certifications close it in one sentence because a contractor's owner wants to know she can start in his file on Monday.

  4. The closing asks to see the file

    Instead of a generic request for an interview, the letter asks to talk through the current file and the close the owner wants. That is what the first week of the job would be, and it tells him she is already thinking about his books. The resume and certifications are named, and the thank-you is one sentence.

  5. Addressed to the owner by name

    At a small company the owner does the hiring, and the name is on the website or in the state contractor license lookup. "Dear Mr. Arredondo" and "Sincerely" are right for a letter about money. A letter to a bookkeeping firm with several partners can go to the partner named on the posting or to "Dear Hiring Team".

Templates for the bookkeeper cover letter

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Each one matches a resume template of the same name, so the letter and the resume go out in one look.

Mistakes that cost bookkeeper interviews

  1. Not saying which books, in which software, at what volume

    Experienced bookkeeper seeking a position tells an owner nothing. Give the number of files or the size of the company, the transactions and invoices a month, the employees on payroll and the software by name. Every bookkeeping posting names a platform, and the letter should name the same one in the first evidence paragraph.

  2. Sending the same letter to a firm and to a single company

    A firm with many clients reads for speed, organization across files and deadlines kept without reminders; a single company reads for depth in its business, its industry's quirks and discretion with the owner's finances. The sample is to a single company, so it leads with contractors and job costing and keeps the portfolio second.

  3. Skipping the deadline and penalty record

    Owners feel late filings in their bank account. If your sales tax, payroll tax and reconciliations have been on time, say for how long. It is the simplest reassurance a letter can give and the one most owners are reading for, and it fits in a single clause.

  4. Calling yourself an accountant

    If the work was bookkeeping, say bookkeeper or full-charge bookkeeper. An owner who later finds the title was inflated will wonder what else was, and the depth of the work, through the trial balance and the monthly close, makes the case on its own.

  5. Leaving the cleanup story out

    Many bookkeepers are hired because the last file is a mess. If you have caught up months of uncategorized transactions or rebuilt a chart of accounts, give the size of the mess and the time it took to fix. It is the most persuasive paragraph a bookkeeper can write, and it belongs in the letter rather than only on the resume.

  6. Naming clients

    Describe the portfolio by industry and size and keep the clients' names private, even in a letter to a prospective employer. Discretion is part of what the owner is hiring, and a letter that names other businesses' finances suggests theirs would be named next.

Questions about the bookkeeper cover letter

How long should a bookkeeper cover letter be?

Three or four paragraphs, 300 to 350 words; the sample above is about 320. Owners and firm partners read it quickly, so the first paragraph says the position, the kind of books you keep and why this employer, and the middle paragraphs carry the numbers.

Who do I address a bookkeeper cover letter to?

At a small company, the owner; at a firm, the partner or office manager named on the posting; at a larger company, the controller or the accounting manager. The name is usually on the website. If it is not, call and ask who the bookkeeper would report to. "Dear Hiring Team" is the fallback.

How do I write a bookkeeper cover letter with no experience?

Lead with your certificate or coursework, the software you used in it, and any money handling you have done anywhere: a club treasury, a family business, a part-time job entering bills. Say the first thing you would want to learn from the owner, and give your availability. Owners hire new bookkeepers when the software is there and the care shows.

Should I mention my QuickBooks or Xero certification?

Yes, in one sentence near the evidence, with the issuer and the year left to the resume. Postings name a platform, and a certification in it answers the question before it is asked. Do not make the certification the main claim; the volume and the on-time record matter more to an owner than a badge.

How do I explain a gap or freelancing between jobs?

Treat freelance bookkeeping as a job: the practice name, the dates, the number of clients and their industries. A real gap gets one clause with what you were doing and that you are ready for a full schedule. Anything more belongs in the interview, where an owner can ask what they want to know.

Is a cover letter different for a bookkeeping firm?

Same structure, different emphasis. A firm wants to know how many files you can keep closed on schedule, how you organize deadlines and whether you can take a client call without the partner stepping in. Lead with the portfolio numbers and the penalty record, and put the single-company depth second.

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