If you are making a resume or CV for an accounts payable analyst job, then you will need to highlight important skills to show to the recruiter/employer that you will be successful on the job.
There are certain skills you should have that can make you to be effective in your work as an accounts payable analyst.
This post provides a comprehensive list of accounts payable analyst skills that you can highlight in your resume or CV to make it more compelling to the recruiter/employer and to increase your chances of being hired for the accounts payable analyst position that you are seeking.
But first, let’s get to know who an accounts payable analyst is:
Who is an Accounts Payable Analyst?
An accounts payable analyst is someone who is hired in an organization to oversee all accounts payable administration.
This could include the processing of invoices, purchase orders, and entering invoices into the accounting system.
You can see a detailed accounts payable analyst job description here.
Now, let’s get in to the important accounts payable analyst skills you can put in your resume or CV:
According to Zippia, accounts payable analysts should have a set of both technical and soft skills to be effective on their job.
The technical skills include ability to perform reconciliations, data entry, and managing purchase orders, while the soft skills they should have include attention to details, analytical, and excellent customer service skills.
We have compiled a set of important skills that you should have as an accounts payable analyst and highlight in your resume or CV to make it more impactful on the recruiter/employer:
Top 15 Accounts Payable Analyst Skills for Resume
- Analytical Skill
This is an important skill to have and to highlight in your resume.
As an accounts payable analyst, you are expected to carry out analysis of financial data and come up with good recommendations for your organization.
So, you need a great analytical skill to be effective in this position, and you should show this in your resume too for it to quickly get the attention of the recruiter/employer.
2. Collaborative Skill
Collaborating with people in the organization is one of the means you can employ to get your job underway on daily basis.
There is no doubt that by reason of how sensitive your job is, you will need the cooperation of the people in the business to succeed in it.
So, first is that you have to build a working and a formidable relationship with people in the organization for you to gain their support and cooperation, as well as their valuable advice.
Without doing so, you may find it difficult gaining any meaningful information from them.
One of the set of people you should be able to collaborate well with in your role as an accounts payable analyst should be the accounting department.
In some organizations, your job description is seen as an extension of the accounting department.
But either way, maintain a working relationship with those in the accounting department.
And don’t forget to add this skill to your resume or CV when making one.
3. Business Acumen
Another skill to have and to put in your accounts payable analyst resume is possession of business acumen.
Another set of people you should be able to collaborate well with as an account payable analyst should be the customers or clients of your organization.
Remember that the customers/clients are the major pillars of the organization, without them you have no reason to be found in that organization.
Relating with the customers or clients of your organization will definitely demand that you understand business and know how an average business person thinks.
This will help you get into their thought line and follow them up businesswise.
Most importantly, is for you to understand how business works both in the workplace and in the marketplace.
If you have sufficient business acumen, then you can relate well with the customers and also understand the trends and the future of the markets.
4. Coaching Skills
Coaching is one of the things you should be able to do in the organization.
This is because of people working with you who might be new entrants in the job.
You need to intimate them with what is expected of them in the job and not assume they already know.
This is not a one-time activity. You are to coach new entrants and also some junior staff under your supervision until they can comfortably work by themselves with little or no help whatever.
So, you can see that this will definitely take some time and effort from you.
This means also that you have to be patient with the people you are coaching because different people learn at different rate.
One might be fast while the other might not be so fast, however, in whichever case you need to be patient.
Stating that you have coaching skills in your resume will definitely boost its impact on the recruiter/employer.
5. Advisory Skills
Possession of advisory skills is important for the job of an accounts payable analyst and should be highlighted in your resume.
The essence of being an accounts payable analyst for your organization is for you to draw conclusions based on your observation and go further to make recommendations or advise to the organization on what to do to improve its financial affairs.
This is important to every organization, and for this reason you could be seen as one of the major advisers in the organization.
The accounts payable analyst is believed to know what should be done in regards to the financial affairs of the organization.
So whenever decisions are to be made, you should be at hand to give your suggestions or advice through persuasive presentations while you are able to defend your reasons and the logic behind your suggestions.
This is important, you don’t present an idea you cannot defend.
6. Reporting Skills
Having a good reporting skill is important to an account payable analyst and should be included in your resume.
Possessing some reporting skills help account payable analysts to effectively tender the results of their research or analysis.
It is through your report that you make the results of your analysis or research known to the other executives in the organization.
This is sure a good way to render your findings logically.
It is not enough to know what you want to report (though that is important too) but also how to put it down in the simplest form for someone else to understand.
So, you should have some report writing skills, which is a knowledge you acquire by yourself.
When you put down your report, make it as simple as possible.
If possible, you can employ the use of graphs, diagrams, and some other tools to help drive home your message easily.
Lastly, avoid the use of ambiguous words or expressions.
7. IT Proficiency
During report writing, employing of diagrams can only look clean and accurate if you use some computer software tools that can help you do that.
Software tools like Corel Draw, Corel Paint, Microsoft Access, and Microsoft Word can help you achieve this purpose.
So that brings us to this point of proficiency in information technology for an accounts payable analyst.
If you don’t know how to use the necessary software tools in your industry, then how do you intend to bring forth a good and readable report?
It is near impossible to effectively do your job as an accounts payable analyst without having some IT proficiency.
The more software tools you know how to use, the more efficient you will be in your accounts payable analyst role.
You don’t overstress yourself when using these tools because they are automated that they can plot your graph once you enter the figures you want.
This is an important skill to have as an accounts payable analyst, so make sure to add it to your resume also.
8. Time Management
When doing your job, don’t look at the clock rather do what the clock is doing.
That is, get busy and work towards beating the timeframe you have to do that job in your hands. Time means a lot in today’s world particularly the business world.
Don’t find yourself always battling with activities that will not contribute anything meaningful to your job.
It could reduce your chances of meeting up with the deadlines you have in your job and you know this could have a knock-on effect in your job.
So, three things you should deal with if you want to manage your time in this job are: laziness, procrastination, and distraction.
When you are lazy you do little or no work.
When you procrastinate, you do no work and when you are distracted, you become slow in your job.
9. Auditing Skills
Having auditing skills does not automatically make you an auditor but should help you function effectively in your capacity as an accounts payable analyst seamlessly if the need arises.
Your job description is a lot similar to that of an auditor, meaning that you shouldn’t struggle to do something relating to auditing.
One similarity you share with an auditor is the tendency to analyze the current state of the financial affairs of the organization, especially the cash outflow of the organization.
You analyze it and from your analysis can make your judgment, as well as suggest what should be done.
So, you can see that you can easily fit into the role of an auditor. With just a little more exposure and skill acquisition you will be able to take on the job of an auditor.
That is versatility in play and it is a plus for your resume.
10. Coordination
Coordination is one skill you will need as an accounts payable analyst, which you should also include in your resume or CV.
You do not expect yourself to do everything without due consideration of timeframe and what you will need to carry out those jobs effectively.
That is where you will need coordination.
When you have a wide range of activities to handle, it is advisable to look at the nature of each job and organize them according to their timeframe and importance.
This is in regard to the day to day activities that occur in the department or organization you work for.
But remember that the first thing to organize is yourself. If you are disorganized within yourself, it is definitely going to show up in your output.
11. Information Management
Some information is classified, i.e. not for the consumption of everybody in the organization.
So, you should understand the nature of the information you have, what you need to do, and who you should make it available to.
Remember that classified information is very sensitive.
Apart from that, some information serves some specific purposes.
That is why I will advise that you understand the nature of information you have at your disposal and work with them accordingly.
So, manage the information and be discrete about it.
Also, information management entails keeping proper record of every data you are working with for future events, like auditing processes (both internal and external auditing exercise).
Information is important to your job always.
12. Problem Solving Skills
Solving of problems remains the main reason for your employment as an accounts payable analyst.
So, when you want to get hired for the role of an accounts payable analyst in any organization, what you are simply saying is that you should be given a chance to solve a particular problem in the organization.
That is the fact about problem solving.
However, not everyone is able to live up to expectations as you know and that is one of the major reasons why people lose their job.
This is because, your employer sees it that you are not able to proffer solution to some lingering problems for which you were employed.
So, before you can count yourself as a valuable asset to your organization, you should know that you have something you can add to the organization.
You should come with something different from what someone else can offer to the organization, something unique and something special indeed.
13. Team Work
You also need to have team work skills to be effective in your work as an accounts payable analyst.
Just like a group of players in a football team needs the best out of everyone, so also do you need the best out of the people you work with.
This is because one’s success is not purely down to their individual brilliance.
But to get the best out of people, you have to make them believe that you are a team player.
The team is not there to serve your interest only, you also need to look out for the interest of other members of the team else you will be seen as a selfish individual.
Most importantly, as one of the leaders of the team, you have to show the junior staff what team work is all about and the benefits they stand to gain when they work as a team and not the other way round.
You have to give your team the best ideas and do your best to help the team achieve its aims.
Make sure to also include this skill in your resume or CV
14. Efficiency in the Job
To have an impressive career as an accounts payable analyst, you must be efficient in what you do.
How you do your job is down to your decision and not necessarily about what is obtainable in the organization.
So, what is more important is to get the job done in the most efficient way.
You should be able to do your job and give your employer no reason to desire replacing you in this job.
That is down to your efficiency and not just what happens by a mere wish.
Whatever you do in the organization should represent your best and nothing short of your best should see the breaking of the day.
High quality output and accuracy in your job are the ways to ensure that your efficiency is on the positive side.
15. Versatility
Jobs are usually highly demanding and as such everybody has to sit and meet these demands or else become irrelevant in the business world.
This is because most employers today want to find a way to trim down the workforce.
So, if you want to stay put in your job, you should be able to do beyond what your job description portrays.
You should be able to work in a different capacity or something similar to your job capacity.
You can’t afford to be stuck with just this role for a long time.
Versatility is a good skill that can make a very big difference in your job as an accounts payable analyst.
If you are versatile, then you will be more effective in perform your job and be successful in your career.
You can put yourself in a position where you are potentially not droppable for any reason.
Conclusion
This post has provided detailed and important skills you need to have as an accounts payable analyst to be successful in your career. If you are writing a resume or CV for an accounts payable analyst role, then you can add these skills to it to make it more effective in getting you an interview or the job.
