Finance and accounting resume keywords

We counted the skills in 941 open finance and accounting job postings from 235 employers, including Crusoe, CoreWeave and Anthropic. The ones employers ask for most are accounting (71% of postings), audit (45%) and reconciliation (38%). 61% of the postings mention AI, though often in the company's description rather than as a skill the job needs.

Top skills and tools in finance and accounting postings

#	Keyword	Share of postings
1	accounting	71%
2	audit	45%
3	reconciliation	38%
4	compliance	37%
5	automation	32%
6	FP&A	30%
7	forecasting	26%
8	tax	25%
9	process improvement	23%
10	sales	22%
11	financial reporting	21%
12	GAAP	19%
13	month-end close	17%
14	SOX	17%
15	payments	16%
16	financial modeling	16%
17	billing	15%
18	Excel	14%
19	budgeting	13%
20	treasury	13%
21	payroll	12%
22	CPA	11%
23	revenue recognition	11%
24	manufacturing	10%
25	analytics	10%
26	NetSuite	10%
27	go-to-market	10%
28	contract negotiation	9%
29	general ledger	9%
30	financial planning	9%

Share of the 941 postings whose description names the skill (plurals and common spellings, such as “JS” and “JavaScript”, count as one).

Soft skills employers mention

reporting · 27%leadership · 14%cross-functional · 7%ownership · 7%documentation · 6%analytical skills · 5%communication · 5%

Show these through results in your bullets (“led a team of six”) rather than listing them as adjectives.

How to use these keywords on your finance and accounting resume

Start with the posting, not this list. These are averages across 941 jobs; the one you're applying for has its own priorities. Use this page to spot common gaps, then match the specific posting.
Name skills the way employers do. If you use “accounting”, “audit” and “reconciliation”, write those exact words. Applicant tracking systems and recruiters search for them, and a close synonym can be missed.
Put each skill in a bullet that shows a result. Naming compliance inside a bullet about what you achieved with it, with a number where you can, is stronger than listing it alone in a skills section.
Add only what's true. If you've worked with “compliance”, “automation” and “FP&A” but your resume doesn't say so, add it. If you haven't, leave it out: interviews expose padded resumes quickly.

More about finance and accounting jobs

Resume keywords for other jobs

How these numbers are calculated

Every figure comes from open finance and accounting job postings on MANY Hired, imported from employers' own career pages. For each posting we pick out the skills, tools, certifications and qualifications its description names, then count how many postings ask for each one. A job counts as finance and accounting by its title. Updated November 8, 2026.