One of seven role studies in the ATS Resume Keyword Study — 3,518 job postings from 81 companies, counted term by term.
Every number below carries its margin of error, because a sample this size earns one.
In-house accounting teams at 49 companies · collected 2026-08-29 · not public accounting, not government · Updated September 28, 2026 · By ZoeVera
The 10 systems we counted, grouped into tiers the sample can actually tell apart. Within a tier, the order is not meaningful.
Tier 1
NetSuite
45 postings · 36.6% ±8.5
Excel
41 postings · 33.3% ±8.3
Tier 2
SQL
24 postings · 19.5% ±7
Oracle
17 postings · 13.8% ±6.1
Tier 3
SAP
11 postings · 8.9% ±5
Workday
11 postings · 8.9% ±5
Looker / Tableau
4 postings · 3.3% ±3.2
Tier 4
Blackline
2 postings · 1.6% ±2.2
Coupa
2 postings · 1.6% ±2.2
QuickBooks
1 postings · 0.8% ±1.6
NetSuite is the ERP to name. It appears in 36.6% of these postings against 13.8% for Oracle and 8.9% for SAP, and that gap is wider than the margin of error. These are mostly growth-stage technology companies, which is NetSuite's market; a manufacturer or a multinational would likely reverse the order.
QuickBooks appears in 1 of 123 postings. Generic accounting resume advice still leads with it. If it is your main system, name it, but do not expect it to be the word an in-house team at this kind of company searches on.
Read the Excel row as a ceiling. It is matched without regard to case, so a requirement such as “excel in a fast-paced environment” counts alongside the spreadsheet. The true share for the software is at or below 33.3%.
CPA
83 postings · 67.5% ±8.3
Big 4 experience
57 postings · 46.3% ±8.8
public accounting
48 postings · 39% ±8.6
CMA
0 postings · 0% ±0
The CPA is close to table stakes at 67.5%, and 46.3% name Big 4 experience explicitly — not as a nice-to-have buried in the body, but as a stated qualification. If you have either, it belongs at the top of the resume rather than in a credentials footer.
The CMA is named in 0 of 123 postings. If you hold one it is still a real credential, but in this segment it is not the one being screened for, and it should not be the qualification your resume leads with.
Process vocabulary outranks every system. Audit appears in 85.4% of postings and reconciliation in 74%. A resume that lists software but never names the close, the reconciliation or the audit is missing the terms most of these postings lead with.
59.3% ask for process improvement or automation. That is more than SOX (39%), month-end close (36.6%) or internal controls (41.5%). It is the easiest gap on this list to close if you have actually done it: name the manual step you removed.
Share of the 123 postings mentioning each term.
01audit
85.4% ±6.2
02reconciliation
74% ±7.8
03CPA
67.5% ±8.3
04GAAP
64.2% ±8.5
05process improvement / automation
59.3% ±8.7
06Big 4 experience
46.3% ±8.8
07journal entries
46.3% ±8.8
08cross-functional
43.9% ±8.8
09internal controls
41.5% ±8.7
10SOX / Sarbanes-Oxley
39% ±8.6
11public accounting
39% ±8.6
12NetSuite
36.6% ±8.5
13month-end close
36.6% ±8.5
14Excel
33.3% ±8.3
15financial statements
32.5% ±8.3
| Term | Postings | Share | ±95% CI |
|---|---|---|---|
| CPA | 83 | 67.5% | ±8.3 |
| Big 4 experience | 57 | 46.3% | ±8.8 |
| public accounting | 48 | 39% | ±8.6 |
| CMA | 0 | 0% | ±0 |
| Term | Postings | Share | ±95% CI |
|---|---|---|---|
| GAAP | 79 | 64.2% | ±8.5 |
| internal controls | 51 | 41.5% | ±8.7 |
| SOX / Sarbanes-Oxley | 48 | 39% | ±8.6 |
| revenue recognition | 26 | 21.1% | ±7.2 |
| ASC 606 | 24 | 19.5% | ±7 |
| IFRS | 18 | 14.6% | ±6.2 |
| Term | Postings | Share | ±95% CI |
|---|---|---|---|
| audit | 105 | 85.4% | ±6.2 |
| reconciliation | 91 | 74% | ±7.8 |
| process improvement / automation | 73 | 59.3% | ±8.7 |
| journal entries | 57 | 46.3% | ±8.8 |
| cross-functional | 54 | 43.9% | ±8.8 |
| month-end close | 45 | 36.6% | ±8.5 |
| financial statements | 40 | 32.5% | ±8.3 |
| accruals | 23 | 18.7% | ±6.9 |
| variance analysis | 14 | 11.4% | ±5.6 |
| forecasting | 12 | 9.8% | ±5.3 |
| Term | Postings | Share | ±95% CI |
|---|---|---|---|
| NetSuite | 45 | 36.6% | ±8.5 |
| Excel | 41 | 33.3% | ±8.3 |
| SQL | 24 | 19.5% | ±7 |
| Oracle | 17 | 13.8% | ±6.1 |
| SAP | 11 | 8.9% | ±5 |
| Workday | 11 | 8.9% | ±5 |
| Looker / Tableau | 4 | 3.3% | ±3.2 |
| Blackline | 2 | 1.6% | ±2.2 |
| Coupa | 2 | 1.6% | ±2.2 |
| QuickBooks | 1 | 0.8% | ±1.6 |
Why the sample is this size. The pool limits it, not the method. Several hundred additional company boards were probed for this study and added only a few dozen accounting postings: public technology-company boards do not carry much of the profession.
This is a narrower sample than it may look. These are in-house accounting teams at 49 mostly technology companies hiring through modern applicant tracking systems. That is a real and reasonably broad slice, but it is not the accounting profession: public accounting firms, government, manufacturing, healthcare finance and small-business bookkeeping are all absent. Read this as “what accounting roles at tech companies ask for,” because that is what it measures.
And it is small. 123 postings gives margins of error up to ±8.8 points, shown against every figure. The tiers above exist because of that. Terms outside our 30-term list are uncounted, so absence here is not evidence of absence.
adyen · affirm · anaplan · anthropic · asana · billtrust · bitgo · blend · braze · brex · carta · checkr · cloudflare · coinbase · cultureamp · databricks · datadog · doximity · figma · fivetran · flexport · gemini · gusto · gympass · hellofresh · impact · justworks · lattice · launchdarkly · melio · mongodb · newrelic · oscar · pinterest · postman · pushpay · ridgeline · ripple · robinhood · sagesure · samsara · setpoint · smartsheet · stripe · taskrabbit · tripadvisor · twilio · vercel · zocdoc
The table as it stands: 123 postings from 49 companies, 30 terms, method v1.0.
Every withdrawn row and corrected figure across the studies is listed in the corrections log. The analysis script that built this table and the collector it reads from are published as plain text.
Quote any figure on this page. If you do, link back to it so readers can see the sample and its limits rather than the number alone.
General citation
ZoeVera, “What 123 Accounting Job Postings Actually Ask For” (method v1.0, data collected 2026-08-29). https://www.zoevera.com/resume/accountant-job-posting-keywords
APA style
ZoeVera. (2026-08-29). What 123 Accounting Job Postings Actually Ask For. https://www.zoevera.com/resume/accountant-job-posting-keywords
MLA style
ZoeVera. “What 123 Accounting Job Postings Actually Ask For.” ZoeVera, 2026-08-29, www.zoevera.com/resume/accountant-job-posting-keywords.
Chicago style
ZoeVera. “What 123 Accounting Job Postings Actually Ask For.” ZoeVera, 2026-08-29. https://www.zoevera.com/resume/accountant-job-posting-keywords.
Paste your resume and the accounting role you want. The checker lists the systems, standards and process terms that posting uses and your resume does not.
Check My Resume →Or read the audit vocabulary of security postings: SOC 2, ISO 27001, NIST
The rest of the research
This role is one corpus of seven. The study hub holds the method, every role's figures, the limits of each sample, and the full dataset as a CSV.