Top Office Administrator Resume Skills for 2026
Want a stronger office administrator resume in 2026? Lead with the skills hiring teams scan for: scheduling, recordkeeping, Excel, and QuickBooks.
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An office administrator is the backbone of any office environment, responsible for ensuring smooth operations and efficient administrative support. They manage various tasks, including office management, administrative support, and bookkeeping, which require a unique set of skills to keep the workplace running effectively. Office administrators often serve as the first point of contact, handling phone communications and managing correspondence, making strong communication skills essential.
Listing the right resume skills is crucial for aspiring office administrators, as it highlights their ability to manage office tasks and support the organization’s goals. Employers look for candidates who can demonstrate proficiency in relevant software like Microsoft Office, possess strong organizational abilities, and exhibit leadership qualities to guide teams and processes. By carefully selecting and showcasing the right office administrator skills on your resume, you can stand out as a highly qualified candidate for the role.
How we got the data
The data in this report was pulled from Jobscan’s database of more than 10 million job descriptions and 17 million resumes.
We analyzed the job descriptions to find the skills that employers want the most. Then we analyzed the resumes to see which skills appeared most frequently.
Armed with this knowledge, job seekers can easily tailor their resumes and cover letters to highlight the most relevant resume skills for each job they apply to.
top 10 office administrator Hard Skills
- Office management – 79%
- Administrative support – 67%
- Microsoft – 55%
- Phone – 38%
- Bookkeeping – 38%
- Management – 37%
- Computer – 37%
- Accounts – 36%
- Invoicing – 35%
- Budget – 33%
top 10 office administrator Soft Skills
- Communication – 60%
- Organized – 46%
- Leadership – 36%
- Prioritize – 32%
- Handling confidential information – 32%
- Motivated – 25%
- Work independently – 9%
- Multitask – 6%
- Flexibility – 4%
- Committed – 4%
top 10 office administrator Skills on Resumes with High Match Rate
- Office management
- Administrative support
- Microsoft
- Communication
- Organized
- Filing
- Scheduling
- Time management
- Leadership
- Data entry
Top 10 office administrator skills
Tips for using office administrator skills on a resume
Create a bulleted resume skills section
Use a simple, clean format that highlights your skills and experiences. Focus on readability by using bullet points and short phrases to present your skills. Properly organize your resume into education, experience, and skills sections.
“Adding a skills section to your resume is a great way to draw the recruiter’s attention to your most relevant strengths and competencies.”
– Ashley Watkins, NCRW, NCOPE, Job Search Coach
For example, office administrator resume bullet points might look like this:
- Efficiently managed office operations, resulting in a 20% increase in productivity.
- Provided administrative support to a team of 15, ensuring seamless workflow and communication.
- Utilized Microsoft Office Suite to streamline reporting processes, reducing errors by 30%.
- Handled all phone communications, maintaining a professional and courteous manner.
- Processed bookkeeping and invoicing tasks, achieving 100% accuracy in financial records.
Hitting all the top job requirements with your skills list will help you rank highly for a keyword search within an applicant tracking system. But don’t stop there. Add context for every skill elsewhere in your work experience.
If a recruiter is excited by your customer service skills, for example, the first thing they’ll do is skim your work experience to figure out when, how, and how much you used that skill.
Highlight skills and achievements in your work experience section
As you list your responsibilities, it’s also important to highlight your specific achievements wherever you can.
“For soft skills, it’s often more effective to demonstrate them in the context of your past work experience. Instead of merely stating “excellent team player”, you are better off saying “collaborated with a cross-functional team of 6 on a new product launch that boosted sales by 30% in one year”. Examples of specific accomplishments or business outcomes speak louder than buzzwords.”
– Ana Lokotkova, Career Coach and Advisor
Instead of saying,
“Did office tasks every day.”
You could say,
“Executed daily office management tasks, enhancing office efficiency by 15%.”
This demonstrates your level of expertise with the skills you listed. It gives the recruiter more reason to be interested in you as a result.
Break resume skills sections into categories
If you’re applying for a role requiring a broad skillset, categorize your skills.
“If you opt to include a designated skills section on your resume, include up to 10 of your core competencies. Excessive skills lists are overwhelming and sometimes confusing to the reader.”
– Kelli Hrivnak, Marketing and Tech Recruiter
- Office Management: Calendar Coordination, Organized
- Administrative Support: Scheduling, Travel Arrangements
- Technical: Microsoft, Phone
- Financial: Bookkeeping, Invoicing
- Communication: Written Communication, Verbal Communication
Quantify your accomplishments
Use numbers to quantify your accomplishments wherever possible. This helps potential employers understand your abilities and the impact you can have on their organization.
“Recruiters and hiring managers are looking for relevancy of how and when you applied those skills, so provide examples of this in your experience section. Bonus tip: Don’t just insert the skill like a task–include results.”
– Kelli Hrivnak, Marketing and Tech Recruiter
Instead of saying,
“Helped with bookkeeping.”
You could say,
“Managed bookkeeping tasks, leading to a 25% improvement in financial reporting accuracy.”
Tailor your resume to the job description
Read the description carefully and emphasize the relevant skills and experiences. Highlight the skills that the employer seeks and provide examples of how you’ve used those skills in your previous roles. Doing so can demonstrate that you’re a strong fit for the position and increase your chances of being invited to an interview.
“The ‘one-size-fits-all’ approach doesn’t work when it comes to your resume. For every job application, tailor your skill set to match the job description. Most companies use Applicant Tracking Systems (ATS) that filter candidates based on keywords and skills listed in the job description. So, research the role you’re applying for and distill the skills required.”
– Ana Lokotkova, Career Coach and Advisor
In order to do this, “you must first understand what skills are most important for the target role,” says Ashley Watkins.
Sample job description for office administrator:
We are seeking an experienced office administrator to manage our office operations, provide administrative support to our team, and ensure efficient day-to-day processes. The ideal candidate will be proficient in Microsoft Office, possess strong communication skills, and have experience with bookkeeping and invoicing.
Resume bullet points tailored to the job description:
- Streamlined office operations, leading to a 20% reduction in overhead costs.
- Provided comprehensive administrative support to a team of 20, enhancing productivity by 25%.
- Leveraged Microsoft Office tools to improve reporting accuracy by 30%.
- Coordinated phone communications, ensuring efficient information flow and customer satisfaction.
- Managed bookkeeping and invoicing, achieving a 100% accuracy rate.
“Focus on the sought-after and in demand skills. A great way to figure out what is currently in demand is by researching current job openings from your preferred companies and reading through the posting. Pay close attention to the preferred requirements section and build your skills section based on this list.”
– Chelsea Jay, Career & Leadership Development Coach – Seasoned and Growing
Bonus Tip: Use action verbs
Start each bullet point with an action verb. An action verb expresses an action, such as “create,” “build,” “manage,” “lead,” or “implement.”
Action verbs grab the reader’s attention and paint a vivid picture of what you accomplished at work.
Action verbs make your resume more interesting to read. They also show the kind of can-do attitude that employers are looking for.
FAQs
Office administrators run the operational backbone of a workplace, so the role blends coordination and oversight. Core skills include office operations management, vendor and supplier coordination, budgeting and expense tracking, scheduling, and records management. Strong software fluency is expected: Microsoft Office (especially Excel), Google Workspace, and often accounting or HR tools like QuickBooks or BambooHR. Add facilities coordination, onboarding support, and policy compliance to show the full scope of the role.
This role requires both organization and people management. Highlight leadership and the ability to coordinate across departments, since administrators often oversee support staff and processes. Strong organization, prioritization, and attention to detail keep operations smooth, while clear communication and diplomacy help you liaise between staff, vendors, and leadership. Add problem-solving and discretion for handling sensitive matters. Show these with examples, like streamlining an office process or managing a relocation or vendor transition.
Distinguish yourself from entry-level assistant roles by emphasizing ownership and scope. Use bullets that show you managed budgets, oversaw vendor contracts, supervised staff, or improved processes rather than only performing tasks. Quantify the operation: headcount supported, office size, budget managed, or savings achieved. Pair operational skills (procurement, facilities, compliance) with the systems you ran them on, signaling that you administer functions rather than simply assist with them.
Mirror the posting’s exact language so the parser matches you. High-value keywords often include office management, budget management, vendor management, procurement, scheduling, records management, payroll, onboarding, and named software like Excel, QuickBooks, or SharePoint. Include both the function and any system that supports it (for example, HR administration and BambooHR). Distribute these across your summary, skills section, and experience so they appear in meaningful context rather than as a keyword dump.
The role is expanding as offices adopt more software and hybrid arrangements. Administrators increasingly manage cloud-based tools, automate workflows, and coordinate technology across in-office and remote staff, so platform fluency matters more than ever. Many also take on broader operations, HR support, and light project management. Skills in process improvement, data tracking, and managing collaboration tools like Microsoft 365 or Google Workspace position you as an operations partner rather than purely an administrative one.
Pair your skills with a cover letter
Show these skills in context. See our Office Administrator cover letter examples for cover letters you can tailor to your own experience.