RESUME EXAMPLE · OFFICE, FINANCE AND LEGAL
Administrative assistant resume: full example and tips to stand out
Hiring managers scan an administrative assistant resume for reliability: how much volume you handled (invoices a month, vendors, calls a day), which software you used and how independently you worked. “Handled various administrative tasks” says nothing; “issued 350 invoices a month in QuickBooks Online and reconciled the bank accounts every week” says a lot.
For entry-level admin roles, employers look for Excel skills beyond the basics, hands-on experience with a specific accounting or billing program, a professional phone and front-desk manner and well-organized paper and digital files. With more experience, they want proof that you improved processes: fewer errors, faster payments, documents anyone can find on the first try.
Below you’ll find a complete sample resume, summaries for different career stages and achievement bullets you can adapt. If your work leans toward bookkeeping, compare it with our accountant resume example; if you’re coming from another field, our guide to resume skills helps you translate what you already know how to do.
Administrative assistant resume example
Lauren Mitchell
Administrative Assistant | Billing, Accounts Receivable and Office Support
Columbus, OH · lauren@example.com
Professional summary
Administrative assistant with six years of experience at industrial supply and distribution companies. Handle full-cycle customer and vendor billing in QuickBooks Online, track collections, reconcile bank accounts weekly and build Excel reports with pivot tables for leadership. Answer the main line, manage executive calendars and keep a digital filing system any coworker can navigate. Looking for an office administrator or accounting assistant role where organization, on-time deadlines and practical process improvements matter.
Experience
Harlow Industrial Supply · Columbus, OH
- Manage monthly invoicing for about 350 customers and enter bills from 120 vendors in QuickBooks Online.
- Reduced receivables more than 60 days past due by 30% in one year with a collections calendar and courtesy reminders before each due date.
- Scanned packing slips and contracts into SharePoint with a standard folder structure and file naming, ending searches through paper files.
- Prepare weekly reconciliations for three bank accounts and a payables forecast for the general manager.
- Answer the main phone line and shared inbox, routing each request to sales, the warehouse or accounting with the details they need.
Northfield Distribution Group · Grove City, OH
- Entered an average of 60 sales orders a day in Sage 50 and matched packing slips to vendor invoices before posting them.
- Built an Excel template with pivot tables for the monthly sales-by-rep report, which had been put together by hand.
- Managed calendars, travel and reservations for two department managers.
- Organized paper files by the retention schedule set by the company’s outside accountant and prepared expired records for secure shredding.
Brightwater Family Dental · Columbus, OH
- Greeted patients, answered phones and scheduled appointments across three treatment rooms.
- Collected copays and payments, issued receipts and balanced the cash drawer at the end of each day.
- Updated patient records following the practice’s HIPAA privacy procedures.
Education
Mid-Ohio Community College
Skills
Languages
English · Native Spanish · Conversational
Certifications
- Microsoft Office Specialist: Excel Associate
- QuickBooks Certified User
Administrative assistant resume summary: 3 examples
Your summary is the first thing a recruiter reads. Pick the one closest to your situation and rework it until it sounds like you. You will find more formulas in our resume summary guide.
Recent graduate with an Associate of Applied Science in Office Administration and a three-month internship at a local CPA firm: entered client invoices, organized tax documents and covered the front desk phones. Comfortable in Excel (formulas, filters and basic pivot tables) and a fast, accurate typist. Seeking a first administrative assistant role with the chance to learn an accounting system and take on more responsibility over time.
Administrative assistant with eight years at professional services firms, responsible for billing, vendor accounts and collections follow-up. Prepare the monthly package for the outside accountant, reconcile bank accounts and keep vendor W-9s and certificates of insurance up to date. Helped move the company to a new accounting system and now train every new hire on department procedures.
Office manager with 12 years of experience, the last five supervising two administrative assistants at a 60-person distribution company. Oversee billing, cash management and vendor payments; serve as the main contact for the outside CPA firm, the bank and insurance carriers; and report to leadership with a monthly dashboard. Redesigned the vendor invoice approval process and reduced late payments.
How to describe your experience as an administrative assistant
Start each bullet with an action verb and, whenever you can, add the result. Use these lines as a starting point: swap in your own details and delete anything you have not done.
- Cut the monthly billing close from [number] to [number] days by automating the export of orders from the accounting system to Excel.
- Set up a log for incoming vendor invoices that prevented duplicate payments.
- Supported the move to a new accounting system by cleaning up [number] customer records and testing invoicing before go-live.
- Answered an average of [number] calls a day on a multi-line phone system, resolving questions about orders, hours and invoices on the spot.
- Reviewed phone, insurance and utility contracts and cut overhead by $[amount] a year.
- Kept a contract and renewal tracker with shared-calendar reminders, avoiding unwanted auto-renewals.
- Trained [number] new hires on the billing process and the accounting software.
- Sent the outside accountant a complete monthly package (invoices, bank statements and open items) by the 5th of every month.
- Centralized office supply purchasing, comparing at least three quotes for every order.
- Set up [number] new vendors, collecting W-9s and certificates of insurance before the first payment.
- Built a weekly accounts receivable aging report for management in Excel, with pivot tables and alerts by days outstanding.
Skills for an administrative assistant resume
Hard skills
- Customer and vendor billing
- Accounts receivable and collections
- Accounts payable support
- Bank reconciliations
- QuickBooks, Sage, NetSuite or SAP Business One
- Excel: pivot tables, XLOOKUP, SUMIFS
- Microsoft 365: Word, Outlook, Teams, SharePoint
- Paper and digital records management
- Multi-line phone systems
- Order and data entry
- Calendar and travel management
- 10-key and touch typing
- Basic bookkeeping
Soft skills
- Organization and prioritization
- Attention to detail
- Discretion with confidential information
- Clear phone and email communication
- Working independently
- Meeting tight deadlines
- Patience with difficult callers
Only list skills you can back up with an example from your experience. More ideas in our guide to resume skills.
Common keywords in administrative assistant job postings
These terms show up often in job postings for this role. If they truly describe you, use them with the same wording as the posting so both the recruiter and the applicant tracking system (ATS) can find them.
Tips for your administrative assistant resume
Quantify the volume you handle
In administrative work, the size of your workload signals your level. Say how many invoices you issued, how many vendors you managed or how many calls you took a day, even if the figure is approximate, as long as it’s honest. That’s how a hiring manager tells someone who ran a company’s billing apart from someone who pitched in now and then.
Name the software, not just “accounting system”
Write QuickBooks Online, Sage 50, NetSuite, SAP Business One or whatever you’ve used. Many postings ask for a specific program, and applicant tracking systems search for that exact name. If you used an in-house system, describe what it did (“in-house order entry and billing system”). More details in our guide to the ATS-friendly resume.
Break down your Excel skills on an administrative assistant resume
“Advanced Excel” shows up on almost every admin resume, and many employers and staffing agencies check it with a skills test. Be specific instead: pivot tables, XLOOKUP, SUMIFS, conditional formatting, data validation. If you can’t write macros, leave them out. Our guide to resume skills shows how to describe skill levels without overstating them.
Match your title to each job posting
Administrative assistant, office assistant, administrative coordinator, accounting clerk and receptionist are close roles with different keywords. Change your headline and the order of your achievements to fit each posting. Mi Resumen’s AI assistant tailors your resume to a job posting you paste and keeps real matches apart from requirements you can’t show, so you decide what to change.
No experience? Internships and school jobs count
List an internship, a work-study job or a campus office job like any other position, with the employer, dates and specific tasks: entering invoices, filing, covering the front desk. Add any job where you handled cash, kept records or answered phones. Our guide to a resume with no experience walks you through the full structure.
Frequently asked questions
What should I put on an administrative assistant resume with no experience?
Your education (high school diploma, an associate degree or a certificate in office administration or business), any internship with specific tasks and the software you know. Add customer-facing jobs, volunteer roles where you kept records, or summer jobs where you handled cash. A three-line resume summary that says what role you want helps a lot here.
What’s the difference between an administrative assistant and an office assistant?
Titles vary by employer, but office assistants and clerks usually handle support tasks (data entry, filing, phones), while administrative assistants own whole processes with more independence (billing, collections, vendor contacts). Use the title that reflects what you really did, and if your official title undersold your work, let your bullets show the difference.
Does this resume work for government administrative jobs?
For private employers and staffing agencies, yes. Government jobs follow their own rules: federal postings on USAJOBS and many state and local civil service jobs spell out exactly what your resume must include and how long it can be, and some positions require a civil service exam. Read the announcement and follow it to the letter.
Should I list my typing speed?
If the posting mentions it or the job involves a lot of data entry, yes. Give a number only if you’ve measured it on a recent test, and use the standard unit: words per minute (WPM) for typing, keystrokes per hour (KPH) for 10-key. If you haven’t measured it, “touch typing” is enough.
Do I need a cover letter for an administrative assistant job?
It isn’t always required, but small businesses and professional offices often read it, because it shows how you write, which is central to the job. Keep it short and connect your experience to the posting. Our guide on how to write a cover letter has a structure and examples.