Office Manager CV Examples & Writing Guide
An office manager CV gets you an interview when the hiring manager can see the size of the office you ran (headcount, sites, budget), the software you run it on (Microsoft 365 or Google Workspace, Xero, a payroll system, Slack), and bullet points with money and time saved: supplier contracts renegotiated, supplies spend cut, onboarding time shortened, an office move delivered. One or two pages, plain format.
Office manager CV example (70-person professional services firm)
A CV for an office manager with 9 years in administration, the last 4 running an office of 70 people. The name and employers are made up. Every bullet point has a number a hiring manager can picture: a budget, a headcount, a supplier saving, a deadline met.
Renee Whitfield
Office Manager
Manchester · 07700 900136 · renee.whitfield@email.com · linkedin.com/in/reneewhitfield
Summary
Office manager with 9 years in administration, including 4 years running day-to-day operations for a 70-person architecture and engineering practice across 2 floors and a satellite office. Owns a £330,000 annual facilities and supplies budget, manages 14 supplier contracts, and supports HR and finance with onboarding, payroll changes in Sage Payroll and accounts payable in Xero. Cut recurring supplier spend 18% in two years and delivered a 70-desk office move over one weekend with no lost working day.
Experience
Office Manager · Architecture and engineering practice (70 staff, 2 offices), Manchester
Apr 2022–Present
- Run daily operations for a 61-person head office and a 9-person satellite office: reception, facilities, supplies, post, meeting rooms, IT supplier coordination and visitor management.
- Manage a £330,000 annual budget for building services, supplies, catering and equipment; manage 14 supplier contracts (cleaning, coffee, printing, courier, plants), renegotiated 6 and cut recurring spend 18%, about £37,000 a year.
- Planned and delivered the firm's move to a new 18,000 sq ft office over a single weekend, coordinating the removals firm, IT, furniture installers and 70 staff, with everyone working at their new desk by 8am on Monday.
- Onboard 20 to 25 new starters a year end to end (equipment, accounts, building pass, induction, contract and pension paperwork with HR) and cut day-one readiness problems from about 1 in 3 starters to under 1 in 10 with a checklist in Asana.
- Process about 120 supplier invoices a month in Xero for approval and payment, reconcile 3 company credit cards, and prepare the monthly expenses report for the finance director within 5 working days of month end.
- Line-manage 2 administrative assistants and a receptionist; plan cover so reception is staffed from 8am to 6pm, with no gaps in 4 years.
Office Coordinator · Mixed NHS and private dental practice (3 dentists, 4 hygienists, 2 sites), Stockport
Jun 2019–Mar 2022
- Ran the front office for a 2-site dental practice seeing about 90 patients a day: appointments in Dentally, NHS exemption checks, treatment plan estimates and patient recalls.
- Cut the did-not-attend rate from 12% to 7% by adding automated text reminders and a 48-hour confirmation call routine.
- Took payments and submitted about 350 NHS treatment claims (FP17s) a month; reduced patient balances overdue by more than 60 days from 22% to 9% of debtors.
- Ordered clinical and office supplies within a £7,000 monthly budget and set minimum stock levels that ended emergency next-day orders.
Administrative Assistant · Recruitment agency (25 staff), Manchester
Aug 2017–May 2019
- Supported 6 recruitment consultants with diaries, travel, candidate interview scheduling (about 60 interviews a week) and document preparation; managed the office supplies budget and reception.
Education
HND in Business
Further education college, Manchester, 2017
Certifications
- ILM Level 3 Certificate in Leadership and Management, 2023
- Microsoft Office Specialist (MOS): Excel Associate, 2022
- Emergency First Aid at Work, renewed 2025
- IOSH Managing Safely, 2024
Skills
What hiring managers look for first on an office manager CV
Office manager adverts are written by whoever the role reports to: a CEO at a start-up, a practice owner, an operations director, an HR lead. They all want the same four proofs, in this order.
- Scale that matches theirs. Headcount, number of sites, budget size, staff you line-managed. A 40-person start-up wants someone who has done it alone; a 300-person office wants someone who has run a small team and large supplier contracts.
- Range. Facilities, suppliers, budget, onboarding, payroll support, events, executive support, IT coordination. The advert will list ten things; show you have done at least seven of them and name the rest as familiar.
- Software. Microsoft 365 or Google Workspace at an advanced level, plus the tools that run money and people: Xero, Sage or QuickBooks, a payroll system such as Sage Payroll, BrightPay or ADP, an HR system such as BreatheHR or HiBob, Asana or Monday, Slack, DocuSign. GP surgery and dental adverts add the clinical or practice system (EMIS Web, SystmOne, Dentally).
- Evidence of judgement. Money saved, a move or refurbishment delivered, a process that stopped a recurring problem, confidential HR or finance matters handled. Office managers are trusted with keys, cards and personnel files; the CV has to feel trustworthy.
“The best office manager CVs read like a small operations report: how many people, how much budget, which suppliers, what got cheaper or faster. The weak ones list "ordered supplies" and "answered phones" and leave out that the person also ran a 60-desk move and handles payroll changes for the whole company.”
Office manager CV bullet points: job description turned into results
The office manager job description is a list of areas: facilities, supplies, suppliers, scheduling, onboarding, bookkeeping support, events. For each one, ask what changed because you did it, and put the number in. Eight rewrites from typical office manager work:
| Job description language | CV bullet point (scale and result) |
|---|---|
| Managed office supplies and stock. | Set minimum stock levels and a single monthly order for supplies across 2 offices, cutting supplies spend from £3,100 to £2,250 a month and ending rush orders. |
| Liaised with suppliers and service providers. | Managed 14 supplier contracts (cleaning, coffee, courier, printing, plants, air conditioning maintenance); retendered 6 at renewal and saved about £37,000 a year. |
| Assisted with onboarding new employees. | Onboarded 20 to 25 new starters a year (equipment, accounts, building pass, induction, contract and pension forms); a 22-step checklist cut day-one problems from 1 in 3 starters to under 1 in 10. |
| Handled accounts payable and expenses. | Coded and routed about 120 invoices a month in Xero and reconciled 3 company credit cards; monthly expenses report to the finance director within 5 working days, every month for 3 years. |
| Managed the office relocation. | Planned an 18,000 sq ft office move for 70 staff: supplier selection, floor plan with heads of department, IT cutover and move-weekend logistics; zero lost working days and 4% under the £68,000 budget. |
| Supervised administrative staff. | Line-managed 2 administrative assistants and a receptionist, wrote the reception cover rota and ran quarterly one-to-ones; zero reception gaps in 4 years and both assistants promoted. |
| Planned company events. | Organised 6 company events a year for 70 to 120 people (Christmas party, quarterly all-staff meetings, client open evening) within a £48,000 annual budget, with attendance above 90%. |
| Maintained office health and safety. | Kept the health and safety law poster, fire drills, fire risk assessment actions and first-aid supplies up to date across 2 offices; passed the landlord's annual health and safety inspection with no findings in 2024 and 2025. |
Office manager CV skills: software, hard skills and soft skills
Recruiters search this section for tool names. Group it so the tools are easy to find, then add the operational skills, then two or three soft skills tied to how an office runs.
Microsoft 365 (Excel: pivot tables and VLOOKUP, Outlook, Teams, SharePoint) · Google Workspace · Xero or QuickBooks Online · Sage Payroll, BrightPay or ADP · BreatheHR or HiBob · Asana, Monday or Trello · Slack · DocuSign · Zoom · SAP Concur or Expensify · Envoy visitor management
Supplier management and contract renewal · Budget tracking and accounts payable · Facilities and building liaison · Supply purchasing and stock control · Space planning and office moves · Onboarding and leavers · Payroll and pension support · Diary and travel management · Event planning · Records and file management · Health and safety compliance (risk assessments, fire drills) · First aid and fire marshal duties
Discretion with HR and finance records · Prioritising 20 requests at once without dropping the urgent one · Supplier negotiation · Calm with a broken boiler and a client visit on the same morning · Clear written announcements to staff
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Office manager personal statement examples (and when to use a career objective)
Three sentences: job title and years, the size and type of office, and one or two results with numbers. Use a career objective only when you are moving up from assistant or coordinator with no manager title yet, and make it about what you have already run, not what you hope to learn.
Office manager with 9 years in administration, 4 running operations for a 70-person architecture practice across 2 offices. Owns a £330,000 facilities budget and 14 supplier contracts, supports payroll in Sage Payroll and accounts payable in Xero. Cut supplier spend 18% and delivered a 70-desk office move with no lost working day.
Office administrator with 5 years as the only administrative staff member at a 22-person heating and plumbing contractor: scheduling 6 engineers, invoicing £1.4 million a year in Xero, payroll in BrightPay, and engineers' Gas Safe registrations and insurance certificates. Reduced invoice-to-payment time from 41 to 26 days.
Practice manager with 6 years running a 4-GP surgery with 8,500 registered patients: reception team of 5, appointments and recalls in EMIS Web, staff rotas and CQC compliance. Cut did-not-attend appointments from 7% to 4% and average phone waits from 9 minutes to 3.
Office manager for a 60-person software start-up that grew from 25 in 2 years: onboarding 40 new starters, running the office move, managing HiBob for HR and benefits admin, and coordinating 8 company events a year within budget. First operations hire; built every office process from scratch.
Career objective: office manager role at a growing company of 30 to 80 people. Administrative assistant with 4 years supporting a 40-person accountancy firm, already responsible for the £5,000 monthly supplies and supplier budget, setup for 12 new starters a year and the reception rota. Advanced Excel, Xero and Microsoft 365.
GP and dental practice manager CVs: what to add
Many office managers in the UK work in GP surgeries and dental practices, where the job is usually called practice manager and needs its own bullet points. GP partners and practice owners hire for income, patient flow and compliance, not for coffee suppliers.
- Practice size: GPs or dentists, staff, sites, registered patients or patients per day. "4-GP practice, 8,500 registered patients, 2 sites" is the scale line.
- Income numbers: for GP practices, QOF achievement and enhanced services income; for dental practices, NHS contract delivery (UDAs) and private income. These are the numbers partners and owners watch.
- Front-desk performance: did-not-attend rate, phone answer times, appointment availability, patient reviews and Friends and Family Test results.
- Systems: clinical and practice systems (EMIS Web, SystmOne or Vision in GP surgeries; Dentally or Software of Excellence in dental practices), online consultation and patient messaging tools.
- Compliance: CQC registration and inspections, UK GDPR and the Data Security and Protection Toolkit, infection prevention and control, staff DBS checks, and in dental practices decontamination and radiation protection records.
- Optional qualifications: AMSPAR or ILM qualifications in practice or healthcare management. None is required by law, but they show commitment to the role and help when you move up from a reception or administrator post.
Qualifications and education for an office manager
No licence is required to be an office manager in the UK. Most adverts ask for good GCSEs or A-levels (or equivalent) and 3 to 5 years of administrative experience; some ask for an HND or a degree. Qualifications are optional, but a few are recognised and worth one line each.
- ILM Level 3 or Level 5 Certificate in Leadership and Management: widely recognised for first-time and middle managers.
- Microsoft Office Specialist (MOS) certificates, especially Excel: inexpensive, quick, and answers the "how good is your Excel" question.
- Xero Advisor or QuickBooks ProAdvisor certification (free) if you handle bookkeeping; AAT if you do more of it.
- Emergency First Aid at Work or First Aid at Work, and fire marshal training: often expected of the person who runs the office.
- IOSH Managing Safely, or the NEBOSH General Certificate for larger or facilities-heavy offices.
- HR-related: CIPD Level 3 or Level 5 if you run onboarding, payroll and HR admin for a company with no HR department. Say so if you are studying for one.
- Education: list the qualification, school or college and year. A degree is common in larger offices but rarely a hard requirement; do not leave the section off if your highest qualifications are GCSEs or A-levels.
Format, length and ATS keywords for an office manager CV
- Two pages is normal in the UK for an office manager with several years' experience; one page is enough if you are moving up from an assistant role.
- Order: header, personal statement, experience, skills grouped by software and operations, qualifications, education. Skills can move above experience if the advert is heavy on tools.
- Single column, no photo, no date of birth, no icons, no skill bars. Mid-size employers use Workable, BambooHR, Greenhouse or Indeed; all parse plain PDFs well.
- Mirror the job advert once each where true: "office management", "supplier management", "facilities", "accounts payable", "onboarding", "payroll", "diary management", "event planning", "health and safety", and the exact software names.
- Titles vary: office administrator, office coordinator, administration manager, business manager (in schools), practice manager (in GP surgeries and dental practices). Use your real title in the job entry and the advert's title in your personal statement if the work matches.
- UK adverts often fold facilities and HR admin into the office manager role, and many ask for a cover letter. Use it to answer the advert's top three requirements, each with a number from your CV.
Run the finished CV and the job advert through the cvplex ATS checker. It lists the software and duty keywords you are missing and flags bullet points with no number.
Frequently asked questions
How do I write a CV for an office manager?
Open with a three-sentence personal statement giving your years, the size of the office (headcount, sites, budget) and one or two results. Write each job with the scale in the employer line and bullet points that put numbers on suppliers, budget, onboarding, moves and events. Group skills by software and operations, list any qualifications (ILM, MOS, IOSH), and keep it to two pages at most.
What are good office manager CV bullet points?
Bullet points that name the area, the scale and the result: "Managed 14 supplier contracts and cut recurring spend 18% (£37,000 a year)", "Onboarded 22 new starters a year with a checklist that cut day-one problems to under 1 in 10", "Delivered a 70-desk office move over one weekend with no lost working day". Each bullet point should have at least one number.
What skills should I put on an office manager CV?
Software first: Microsoft 365 or Google Workspace (say what you do in Excel), Xero or QuickBooks, a payroll system such as Sage Payroll or BrightPay, an HR system, project tools like Asana, Slack, DocuSign. Then operations: supplier management, budgeting and accounts payable, facilities, onboarding, scheduling, events, records, health and safety basics. Add two or three soft skills as behaviours, such as discretion with confidential records.
What should an office manager personal statement say?
Job title and years, the size and type of office you run, the systems you run it on, and one or two measurable results. For example: "Office manager with 9 years, 4 running a 70-person firm across 2 offices; £330,000 budget, 14 suppliers, Sage Payroll and Xero; cut supplier spend 18%."
Should I use a career objective on an office manager CV?
Only if you are moving up from administrative assistant or coordinator and have no manager title yet. Write it as what you already run (budget, onboarding, reception rota) plus the size of office you are aiming for. Everyone else should use a personal statement.
How is a GP or dental practice manager CV different?
It has to show practice size (GPs or dentists, registered patients, patients a day), income numbers (QOF achievement, NHS dental contract delivery, private income), front-desk figures (did-not-attend rate, phone answer times), the clinical and practice systems you know, and CQC, data protection and infection control work. Optional qualifications such as AMSPAR or ILM help.
How long should an office manager CV be?
Two pages at most, and one if you are moving up from an assistant role. Hiring managers for this role skim for scale, software and results, so put those on the first page and use the second for earlier roles, qualifications and large projects.
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How this page was made: a first draft was written with AI assistance from cvplex's example library, then edited and fact-checked by the cvplex Careers Team. Examples are fictional composites; numbers are illustrative. Report an error via the editorial policy page.