If you hold the license, it appears twice: appended to your name in the header ("Daniel Okafor, CPA") and in a dedicated certifications section with state and year. Recruiters searching an ATS for "CPA" will match either spot, but the header placement is what a human sees in the first half-second of a skim — and for senior, audit, and controller-track roles it's often the difference between a read and a pass.

In progress still counts, but only if you're precise about it. "CPA candidate — 3 of 4 sections passed, REG scheduled Nov 2026" tells a recruiter exactly where you are; a bare "CPA in progress" reads as anywhere from studying to stalled. Same for CMA. Never put unearned letters after your name — firms verify licenses, and an inflated credential ends the process immediately.

After the credential filter, accounting screens match on systems — and the matching is literal. Name your ERP and tools exactly: QuickBooks, NetSuite, SAP, Oracle, Sage Intacct, Bill.com, Expensify. "Various accounting systems" matches nothing. List them in a skills group AND name them inside experience bullets where you used them, because a bullet like "led the QuickBooks-to-NetSuite migration" proves depth a skills list can't.

Excel deserves specificity too. Every accountant claims Excel; "Excel (pivot tables, XLOOKUP, macros)" separates you from the version of that claim that means basic data entry. If a posting names an ERP you've only touched, list it honestly as exposure — accounting interviews probe system depth quickly, and overclaiming SAP is a fast way to fail a technical screen.

Accountants often under-quantify because the work doesn't produce sales numbers — but accounting has its own metrics, and hiring managers know them. Close-cycle days ("cut close from 9 to 5 business days"), audit outcomes ("zero adjusting entries two years running"), scope ("GL for 4 entities, $180M combined revenue", "2,400 active vendors"), and recovered dollars ("found $210K/year in duplicate payments") all convert routine responsibilities into evidence of competence.

One structural note if you're crossing between public and corporate accounting: translate your experience into the target's language. Public-side resumes should quantify engagement count, client revenue range, and budget-to-actual performance; corporate-side resumes should quantify close cycles, entity count, and process improvements. An audit associate applying to a senior accountant seat wins by showing the corporate reader what audit rigor does for their close — not by listing engagement acronyms the reader never used.