Accountant CV Example (UK)

Finance directors and practice partners read an Accountant CV for three things: your qualification and where you are with it (ACCA, ACA or CIMA, qualified or part-qualified), the systems you run, and whether the numbers you sign off survive the audit and the VAT inspection. Put the letters after your name, say which month end you own and name the software, because recruiters filter on all three before they read a bullet.

The Sample CV below is for an ACCA-qualified management accountant with seven years across a Stockport practice and a flooring manufacturer in Manchester. Its bullets pair the routine of the role (month end, VAT returns, management accounts, year-end packs) with what changed: a shorter close, fewer HMRC queries, a budget that the operations managers actually use.

Tailor it for each vacancy. An industry role wants month end, management accounts and a named ERP; a practice role wants a client portfolio, statutory accounts and corporation tax; a charity wants the SORP and restricted funds. The US counterpart of this page is the accountant resume example, written for American employers on Letter paper around GAAP and the CPA; a UK CV runs to two sides of A4 and leads with the professional body. The Chronological template suits a finance CV that recruiters and tracking systems read easily.

Updated . The person and employers in this Sample CV are fictional. Written for applicants in the UK; the page for applicants in the US is the accountant resume example.

Accountant sample CV

Drawn at A4 proportions, the paper a UK CV is printed on.

Rebecca Thwaite

Management Accountant, ACCA

Manchester, M4rebecca.thwaite@example.com07700 900227

Summary

ACCA-qualified management accountant with seven years in practice and industry, currently owning month end and the management accounts for a flooring manufacturer with three trading entities and £38 million turnover. Brought the close down from working day ten to working day six and cleared two years of HMRC VAT queries without a penalty. Known for a tidy ledger, clean audit files and explaining a variance to a production manager in plain English.

Experience

Management Accountant, Pennine Flooring Group

– Present

Manchester

  • Own month end for three trading entities and 240 balance sheet accounts; the management accounts pack now reaches the board on working day six, down from working day ten when I joined.
  • Prepare and file quarterly VAT returns under Making Tax Digital for a group with partial exemption, and settled a backlog of HMRC queries with no penalty or surcharge.
  • Rebuilt the annual budget and rolling forecast in Excel with Power Query links to Sage 200, and hold monthly variance reviews with four production managers who now own their cost lines.
  • Prepare the year-end pack, fixed asset register and stock provisions for the external audit; the last two audits closed with no adjustments to the draft accounts.
Accounts Senior, Haworth Bentley Chartered Accountants

–

Stockport

  • Prepared statutory accounts and corporation tax computations under FRS 102 for a portfolio of 45 owner-managed companies with turnover up to £12 million.
  • Ran VAT returns, payroll year end and Companies House filings for the portfolio, keeping every client ahead of its deadline.
  • Supervised two trainees through their first year, reviewing their working papers and coaching them for AAT Level 4.
Accounts Assistant, Haworth Bentley Chartered Accountants

–

Stockport

  • Processed purchase ledger, bank reconciliations and credit control for a mix of clients on Xero and Sage 50.
  • Took over the practice's bookkeeping queue and cleared a backlog of 60 overdue reconciliations in the first quarter.

Education

BA (Hons) Accounting and Finance, 2:1

Mersey Valley University, Liverpool

Placement year in the finance team of a logistics firm; dissertation on working capital in small businesses.

Skills

  • Month-end close and management accounts
  • VAT returns and Making Tax Digital
  • Statutory accounts under FRS 102
  • Corporation tax computations
  • Budgeting and rolling forecasts
  • Sage 200 and Xero
  • Excel (Power Query, pivot tables, lookups)
  • Year-end audit preparation
  • Fixed assets and stock provisions
  • Cash flow forecasting

Certifications

  • ACCA member, Association of Chartered Certified Accountants,
  • AAT Level 4 Diploma in Professional Accounting, Association of Accounting Technicians,

Start yours from this example

Opens this sample in the editor, in one of the templates below. Swap in your details, then tailor it to each vacancy in about two minutes.

Use this example

How a UK CV differs

An Accountant CV in the UK leads with the professional body, not a state licence. ACCA, ACA (through ICAEW, ICAS or Chartered Accountants Ireland) and CIMA are the qualifications a recruiter looks for, and part-qualified is a stage in its own right that you state with the papers passed. The accounting language is UK GAAP and FRS 102 rather than US GAAP, the tax authority is HMRC, the register is Companies House and the sales tax is VAT. The CV runs to two sides of A4 with no photo, and practice firms often ask for it alongside an online application form rather than a cover letter alone. Write the whole thing in British English, with the pound sign where the American page would use dollars.

For a accountant in the UK

  1. Qualification and letters first

    Write the body and your status after your name: Rebecca Thwaite ACCA, or ACCA part-qualified (nine papers passed). An American CPA is a state licence; a UK qualification is membership of a professional body, so give the body and the year you were admitted.

  2. Grades and A levels for early-career roles

    Practice training contracts and graduate finance schemes still ask for your degree classification and your A level grades. Keep them on the CV until you are fully qualified, then let the qualification carry it.

  3. HMRC, VAT and Companies House

    Name the UK filings you handle: VAT returns under Making Tax Digital, corporation tax computations, PAYE year end and Companies House confirmation statements. They are what a UK finance manager recognises, and the American tax vocabulary means nothing here.

  4. Practice or industry, said clearly

    UK accounting splits into practice (a firm with clients) and industry (one employer's finance team). Say which side each role was on, and for practice give the portfolio size and the kind of clients.

  5. Referees on request, and study support

    Two referees are usually asked for at offer stage, so a line saying referees available on request is enough. If you are still studying, say so plainly; many employers advertise study support and want to know what you need.

Every CV in the UK

A4 paper
Set the page to A4, 210 by 297 millimetres. A Letter-sized PDF prints with odd margins on A4 and reads as imported from the US.
Two pages is normal
Most UK CVs run to two pages. One page suits a first job; three is rare and only for senior roles with a lot to show.
No photo, no date of birth
UK employers do not expect a photo, a date of birth, marital status or nationality on a CV, and most prefer not to see them.
Dates as DD/MM/YYYY
Day first where a full date appears, and month and year for each role: "Mar 2022 – Present". Never the US month-first order.
British English
Organise, programme, centre, licence, specialise. A CV in American spelling reads as written for somewhere else.
Town and postcode area, not a street address
A line such as "Manchester, M4" is enough. A full postal address, and the US-style "City, ST 12345" line, are not expected.

More on applying in the UK, with every CV example for it, on the UK page.

Templates for the accountant CV

All templates

Every template exports on A4. The previews are drawn on Letter; the editor sets the page size when you export.

How the CV changes with experience

The same accountant CV, written at three levels: a profile and three bullets for each.

Entry level

Zero to two years, or a first post in the title

Part-qualified ACCA trainee with two years in an accounts assistant role and six papers passed, confident with purchase ledger, bank reconciliations and VAT returns on Xero. Looking for a post with study support towards full qualification.

  • Process around 400 purchase invoices a month and reconcile four bank accounts weekly.
  • Prepared the quarterly VAT return for review and corrected a recurring reverse-charge error before it was filed.
  • Built a credit control tracker that brought average debtor days down over six months.

Mid level

Three to seven years, owns a process or a workload

ACCA-qualified financial accountant with five years in industry, owning statutory reporting and the audit for a group of four companies.

  • Prepare consolidated statutory accounts under FRS 102 for four entities and lead the audit each spring.
  • Cut the audit fieldwork from four weeks to two by delivering a complete request list before the auditors arrived.
  • Review the VAT and corporation tax returns prepared by two assistants.

Senior

Eight years or more, leads people, budgets or programmes

Financial controller (ACA) with eleven years in practice and industry, running a finance team of six and reporting to the board of a £90 million business.

  • Lead a team of six through month end, statutory accounts, tax and treasury for three entities.
  • Moved the group from Sage 50 to NetSuite in nine months, running parallel closes for two periods with no restatement.
  • Present the monthly board pack and own the relationship with the auditors, the bank and HMRC.

Skills to put on the accountant CV

Hard skills

Month-end close and management accounts
Industry vacancies ask who owns the close and how fast it runs; state the entities, the account count and the working day you deliver the pack.
VAT and Making Tax Digital
Every UK business files VAT returns, and an accountant who handles partial exemption, reverse charge and HMRC queries without a penalty is worth interviewing.
FRS 102 and statutory accounts
Practice roles and financial accountant posts live on UK GAAP, so name the standard and the kind of companies you prepared accounts for.
A named system: Sage, Xero, SAP or NetSuite
Recruiters shortlist on the software in the advert, so write the system and the version you have used rather than accounting software.
Excel with Power Query and pivot tables
Budgets, forecasts and reconciliations are still built in Excel, and finance managers often ask you to show them in the second interview.
Audit and year-end preparation
An audit that closes with no adjustments saves fees and weeks of distraction, which makes it one of the strongest results an accountant can show.
Corporation tax and personal tax basics
Practice vacancies and smaller finance teams expect you to prepare the computations and spot the reliefs.

Soft skills

Attention to detail
Show it with results such as audits with no adjustments and returns filed without correction, not as an adjective in the profile.
Plain English with non-finance managers
An accountant who can explain a variance to a production manager gets invited into the decisions and promoted sooner.
Deadline discipline
Month end, VAT quarters and Companies House deadlines are fixed, and a record of never missing one is the proof a finance manager wants.

Mistakes that cost accountant interviews

  1. Letters missing from the headline

    A recruiter searches the CV for ACCA, ACA or CIMA before reading anything else. Put the body and your status in the headline and the profile as well as in a qualifications section, with the year you qualified or the papers still to sit.

  2. Duties without scale or result

    Prepared management accounts describes every accountant in the country. Add the entities, the turnover, the working day you deliver the pack and what improved, such as a faster close or an audit with no adjustments.

  3. No named system

    Finance adverts name Sage, Xero, SAP, NetSuite or Dynamics. A CV that says accounting software gives the shortlisting screen nothing to match; list the systems exactly as the advert spells them.

  4. Mixing up practice and industry evidence

    A practice CV sent to an industry vacancy reads like a list of clients, and an industry CV sent to a firm reads like one long month end. Reorder the bullets for the side you are applying to and rewrite the profile.

  5. American terms and spelling

    GAAP without the UK in front of it, sales tax instead of VAT, a CPA licence and -ize spellings all tell a finance manager the CV was written for somewhere else. Use UK GAAP, FRS 102, HMRC and British spelling throughout.

Questions about the accountant CV

Should an Accountant CV be one page or two?

Two sides of A4 for most qualified accountants. A graduate or an AAT trainee often fits one side; a financial controller with several employers may need the second side in full, but a third is rarely read.

Where do I put ACCA or CIMA on a CV?

After your name in the headline, in the first sentence of the profile, and again in a qualifications section with the body and the year. If you are part-qualified, give the papers passed and the ones you are sitting next.

How do I write a part-qualified accountant CV?

Lead with the papers passed and the exemptions you hold, then the parts of the ledger you own: purchase ledger, bank reconciliations, VAT returns, accruals and prepayments. Say what study support you are looking for, since most adverts mention it.

Do I list my A levels and degree classification?

Until you are fully qualified, yes: training contracts and graduate schemes screen on them. Once you hold ACCA, ACA or CIMA, the degree alone is enough and the A levels can go.

Do I need different CVs for practice and industry?

Yes. A practice vacancy wants your client portfolio, statutory accounts, tax computations and deadlines met; an industry vacancy wants month end, management accounts, budgeting and a named ERP. Keep one master CV and reorder it for each side.

How do I tailor an Accountant CV to a vacancy quickly?

Read the advert for the system, the standard and the three tasks it repeats, then move your matching bullets to the top of each role and rewrite the profile. Paste the advert into Resume Master and it tailors the CV against it in about two minutes; the first three AI credits need no card.

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