A few weeks ago, I participated in a Q&A session with students from my business school about jobs in Finance. One of the most asked questions was about the qualities needed to be a good FP&A professional.

In this article, I share my view on the key skills to have when you want to work in Finance and how they bring value to your organization:

Accounting knowledge

Knowing how to read financial statements and how the business activity is translated in the general ledger of a company, should be mandatory for every individual wanting to have a career in finance. This is also true for people wanting to go in the direction of FP&A. For example, one needs to understand how the capitalization of assets like WIP or a change in a provision can have a direct impact on the P&L.

Business acumen

FP&A is involved with many different departments and through different types of operations. Being able to understand these transactions and their financial treatment is what is expected from you by your business partners. For example, you need to be able to evaluate how delays of deliveries to a client can affect your revenues (this is the case if you have a liquidated damages clause in your terms and conditions with your client).

Analytical skills

The amount of data and information is constantly increasing. As an FP&A professional, this translates into a need for you to be better at understanding the big picture and identify what this information means for your organization. The better you can digest it and the faster you can communicate actionable knowledge to your peers and partners the more valuable you are for your company.

Business partnering

In a company, FP&A is a support function. What does it mean for you? You should see yourself as a service provider and you should see your business partners from other departments as your (internal) clients. Ask for feedback and put yourself in your business partner’s shoes to optimize the way you provide the best service you can. There is a reason why the job title FP&A Business Partner is trending currently.

IT and Data literacy

Transformation is everywhere and digitalization plays a significant role to achieve this transformation, especially in FP&A. Today mastering Excel and knowing how to use an ERP is a minimum… but being able to program RPA (robotic process automation) software or create an automated report from a Business Intelligence tool (I recommend PowerBI from Microsoft if you don't know where to start) will give you much more opportunities and will help you to secure a position in innovative finance teams.

Public speaking

Warren Buffet once said, "If you can’t communicate and talk to other people and get across your ideas, you’re giving up your potential." In many situations, an FP&A professional may not articulate well the story behind the figures, no matter how fancy a spreadsheet looks. The way you look, stand, act and speak is responsible for more than 90% of how your audience perceives your message. Your content counts for less than 10%! This the reason why I strongly advise you to take a course on public speaking.

I recommend building these skills actively through continuous professional development (CPD). Learn on the job, listen to your peers, seek role models and mentors. LinkedIn is also a great place to find advanced FP&A Professionals sharing content on their experience and insights from which you can learn.

In summary, being a good finance professional means using your business acumen combined with your accounting knowledge to bring value to your business partners. IT and Data literacy will help you gather information with speed which you can translate to actions if you know how to transport your messages with good communication and public speaking skills.

Let me know in the comments which qualities you think are the most important for finance professionals.