Office Manager CV Example (UK)

An Office Manager CV in the UK is read by a partner, a practice owner or a managing director who wants the office to run without them noticing it. They look for the size of the office you ran, the suppliers and budget you controlled, the health and safety and HR duties you carried, and the systems you kept: Xero or Sage, the HR software, the door entry and the fire log. A strong Office Manager CV reads as a list of things that now work.

The Sample CV below is for an Office Manager with seven years at an architects' practice and a chartered surveyors' firm in the East Midlands, carrying the finance admin, the facilities and the people admin for offices of 30 to 45 staff. Each bullet names the area, what changed and the effect on cost, time or the team.

Tailor it to the setting in the advert. A professional practice wants invoicing, fee tracking and client visits; a GP surgery or dental practice wants rotas, CQC and patient systems; a growing company wants a generalist who also runs onboarding and payroll inputs. The US counterpart of this page is the office manager resume example, written for American employers on Letter paper. The Civic template keeps the page plain for a firm that prints.

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 office manager resume example.

Office Manager sample CV

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

Lorraine Pattinson

Office Manager, Professional Services, IOSH Managing Safely

Nottingham, NG2lorraine.pattinson@example.com07700 900806

Summary

Office Manager with seven years running the offices of an architects' practice and a chartered surveyors' firm, responsible for facilities, suppliers, health and safety, HR administration and a £420,000 operating budget. Renegotiated the practice's cleaning, IT support and stationery contracts and brought the office budget in under plan for three years running. The person staff come to when the printer, the boiler or the holiday system stops working, and the one who had already called someone.

Experience

Office Manager, Trentside Architects LLP

– Present

Nottingham

  • Run the office for 45 staff across two floors, including facilities, suppliers, health and safety, reception and a £420,000 operating budget reported monthly to the partners.
  • Renegotiated the cleaning, IT support and stationery contracts and moved print to a managed service, saving about £38,000 a year against the previous contracts.
  • Built the onboarding process covering right-to-work checks, equipment, logins and a first-week plan, so every new starter is set up before their first morning and the practice passed its ISO 9001 audit with no findings on HR records.
  • Act as fire warden and first aider, keep the risk assessments and the fire log, and ran the office move to a second floor over one weekend with no lost working day.
Office and Finance Administrator, Sherwood Chartered Surveyors

–

Mansfield

  • Ran the office for a 30-person surveying practice, from reception and suppliers to client visits and the diary for six partners.
  • Kept the purchase and sales ledgers in Xero, chased aged debt monthly and cut invoices over 60 days from 22 to 6 in the first year.
  • Prepared payroll inputs, holiday records and sickness returns for the external accountant each month without a correction in three years.

Education

Level 3 Diploma in Business Administration

Trent Valley College, Nottingham

Completed alongside a Level 2 AAT Foundation Certificate in Bookkeeping.

A levels: Business Studies, English Language, Psychology

Clifton Grove Sixth Form College, Nottingham

Skills

  • Office and facilities management
  • Supplier and contract negotiation
  • Budget management and reporting
  • Health and safety, risk assessments
  • Onboarding and right-to-work checks
  • HR administration (holiday, sickness, contracts)
  • Xero purchase and sales ledger
  • Payroll inputs
  • Microsoft 365 and SharePoint
  • GDPR and records management

Certifications

  • IOSH Managing Safely, Institution of Occupational Safety and Health,
  • First Aid at Work (Level 3), St John Ambulance,
  • AAT Foundation Certificate in Bookkeeping (Level 2), 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

A UK Office Manager CV carries duties an American office manager's resume would not, because UK employment law and health and safety law put them on the office. The Office Manager is usually the fire warden, the first aider and the keeper of the risk assessments; runs right-to-work checks and holds contracts and holiday records under UK employment rules; and keeps the ledgers in Xero or Sage for an external accountant. Qualifications are read as A levels, a Level 3 Diploma, NVQs and AAT, and the page is two sides of A4 with no photo and no date of birth.

For a office manager in the UK

  1. Health and safety on the CV

    List IOSH Managing Safely, First Aid at Work and fire warden training with the year. State that you keep the risk assessments and the fire log; an employer looking for an Office Manager is usually looking for someone to take that responsibility off a director.

  2. Right-to-work and HR records

    Right-to-work checks, contracts of employment, holiday and sickness records and GDPR for staff data are typically the Office Manager's. Say which of them you ran, and under which HR system.

  3. Xero, Sage and the external accountant

    Most UK small firms keep books in Xero, Sage or QuickBooks and send payroll inputs to an accountant. Name the system, the ledgers you kept and whether you chased debtors or raised invoices.

  4. Qualifications the UK way

    A levels, a Level 3 Diploma in Business Administration, an NVQ or an AAT certificate are what UK employers expect to see; a degree is welcome but not assumed. List them with the awarding college and the year, most recent first.

  5. Practice Manager is a different advert

    GP surgeries, dental practices and solicitors advertise for a Practice Manager, which adds rotas, CQC or SRA compliance and patient or client systems. If that is the target, use the title and name the regulator in the headline.

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 office manager 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 office manager 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

Office Coordinator with two years of reception, supplies and diary experience in a 20-person accountancy firm, ready to run an office independently.

  • Handled reception, post, couriers and stationery orders for a 20-person office.
  • Kept the meeting room calendar and set up client meetings, including catering and visitor passes.
  • Set up desks, laptops and logins for new starters with the IT supplier.

Mid level

Three to seven years, owns a process or a workload

Office Manager with five years running a single office for a law firm, covering facilities, suppliers, onboarding and the partners' monthly cost reporting.

  • Run the office for 40 staff, including facilities, suppliers and the serviced-office contract.
  • Manage the office budget and the monthly cost report to the partners.
  • Introduced a ticket system for office and IT requests so nothing is lost in email.

Senior

Eight years or more, leads people, budgets or programmes

Head of Office Operations with twelve years running multi-site offices for a consultancy, leading a team of four and owning leases, security and supplier contracts across three cities.

  • Manage offices in Manchester, Leeds and Birmingham for 280 staff with a team of four coordinators.
  • Led the fit-out and move into a new head office on time and within a £1.2 million budget.
  • Own leases, security, insurance and supplier contracts across all sites.

Skills to put on the office manager CV

Hard skills

Budget and supplier management
Office costs are measurable, and a saving on cleaning, IT support or print is the clearest result an Office Manager can show.
Health and safety
UK employers are legally responsible for risk assessments, fire safety and first aid, and most hand the day-to-day of it to the Office Manager.
HR administration
Right-to-work checks, contracts, holiday and sickness records are often the Office Manager's, and getting them right protects the firm at a tribunal.
Bookkeeping basics in Xero or Sage
Many small firms expect the Office Manager to run the purchase ledger, chase debtors and prepare payroll inputs for the accountant.
Facilities and moves
A working building is the baseline, and a move, a fit-out or a lease renewal is a major achievement to describe in detail.
Onboarding
A new starter who is set up on day one reflects on the whole firm, and the process is almost always owned by the Office Manager.
Microsoft 365 and the firm's sector system
SharePoint, a practice management system or a patient records system appears in the advert, and naming yours shortens the handover.

Soft skills

Calm problem solving
Something breaks every day in an office, and the person who has already rung the engineer is the one who gets kept.
Approachability
Staff bring every kind of request to the Office Manager, and they only do that if they are not made to feel a nuisance.
Discretion
You will see salaries, sickness records and partner disputes, and the firm needs to know they stay with you.

Mistakes that cost office manager interviews

  1. No scope

    Office Manager can mean a three-person studio or a floor of a hundred. Give the number of staff, the number of sites, the budget you reported and the suppliers you held, so the reader can place you.

  2. Only listing tasks

    Ordered stationery and managed the meeting rooms does not show what you changed. Say what works now that did not: lower contract costs, starters ready on day one, fewer requests left open.

  3. Leaving out finance and HR duties

    If you ran the purchase ledger, prepared payroll inputs or kept the holiday records, say so. They widen the roles you qualify for and are often the reason a small firm hires an Office Manager rather than a receptionist.

  4. Forgetting health and safety

    Fire warden, first aider, risk assessments and the accident book are statutory duties, and an employer looking to hand them over will search your CV for them. List the training with the year.

  5. No big project

    An office move, a fit-out, a new phone system or an ISO audit passed is the strongest story an Office Manager has. Give it a bullet with the timescale and the result.

Questions about the office manager CV

What should an Office Manager CV include?

The size of the office and the budget, suppliers and contracts you managed, facilities and health and safety duties, HR administration, the finance system you kept and any savings or projects you delivered, plus your IOSH, first aid and business administration qualifications.

How do I show achievements as an Office Manager?

Use savings against previous contracts, starters set up on day one, debtor days reduced, audits passed with no findings and moves completed without lost working days. Put a figure or a timescale on each one.

Do I need a degree to be an Office Manager in the UK?

No. Most adverts ask for experience, a Level 3 business administration qualification or equivalent, and IOSH or first aid training. A degree helps for larger offices and head office roles, but results matter more.

How do I move from receptionist or administrator to Office Manager?

Show what you already own beyond the front desk: supplier orders, onboarding, diary management, the fire log, the purchase ledger. Write those as results, add IOSH Managing Safely or a first aid certificate, and apply for Office Coordinator and Office Manager posts in small firms.

How long should an Office Manager CV be?

Two sides of A4. A coordinator with two or three years fits one side; a head of office operations across several sites may need both sides, but no more.

How do I tailor an Office Manager CV to a specific firm?

Read the advert for the duties it leads with, finance, facilities, HR or compliance, and move the matching bullets to the top of your current role. Paste the advert into Resume Master and it reorders the CV against it in about two minutes.

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