Finance
The ingredients for building the ideal modern finance and accounting team – Accountancy Age
New research reveals a clear recipe for constructing a high-impact finance unit in today’s rapidly evolving business climate.
Global talent leader Robert Half uncovered valuable insights into the most sought-after roles, technical capabilities and soft skills that comprise effective modern finance teams.
While day-to-day responsibilities vary greatly across finance teams, all members require robust data fluency and communication skills to drive strategic impact.
Leading analysts, controllers and CFOs need to derive actionable, forward-looking intelligence from financial models, enterprise data stores, and business performance metrics. This requires synthesizing vast volumes of historical trends, current snapshots and long-range projections into meaningful conclusions.
Sharp analytical abilities are crucial to surface key takeaways and get beyond rear-view accounting mirrors. Building probabilistic models that forecast multiple performance scenarios provides vital readiness to pivot strategies based on market fluctuations.
Equally important is distilling these often complex financial insights into compelling communication that prompts action across the organization. Conveying the “so what” with clarity and vision is essential to influence executive leadership and departmental initiatives.
Achieving this strategic advisory role rests on the capabilities to translate numbers into narratives that contextualize performance issues, opportunities and recommended responses for diverse audiences. Tailoring messaging and visualizations accordingly ensures maximum resonance.
This collaboration with operations, sales, product groups and other commercial units also enables embedding financial analysis into real-world decision sequences rather than isolated calculations. Understanding interdependencies in driver-based models and resource allocations is key.
In Demand: Adaptability and Commercial Acumen
While technical expertise is crucial, soft skills enable finance talent to apply financial insights toward real-world impact.
Adaptability and creative problem-solving allow teams to rapidly adjust strategic recommendations in response to market fluctuations. Rather than static reporting of historical trends, finance leaders provide actionable guidance to pivot tactics when conditions shift.
Building probabilistic models that sensitizes performance forecasts to multiple scenarios is vital. This stress testing and contingency planning equips executives to make decisive moves amid uncertainty.
Equally important is continually optimizing resource planning models as new opportunities emerge and priorities change. Mapping financial, technology and human capital needs to evolving corporate objectives keeps allocation aligned with growth.
Underlying this nimbleness is keen comprehension of cash flow nuances, long-range projections, and market trends that shape strategies. A tight grasp of cost/revenue lead measures informs rollout sequencing and investment payback horizons.
Likewise, understanding value chain interdependencies and customer conversion funnels enables enhancing processes for maximum financial return. Identifying creative solutions to bottlenecks unlocks latent potential.
Ultimately, finance groups who think critically about market landscape, operational dynamics and corporate lifecycles can evaluate risks and spot strategic openings with clarity.
Pairing commercial acumen with financial analysis influences both executive decisions and cross-departmental initiatives by providing fact-based cases to enter new markets, fund promising pilots, or optimize underperforming areas.
Emerging Needs: Specialized Modelling, Auditing & Planning
While mastery of core finance skills forms a strong foundation, targeted specializations help talent fill pressing needs.
The research revealed organizations continue facing the greatest talent shortages in high-demand areas like:
- Financial Modeling: Building models to analyze performance, forecast scenarios and optimize resource allocation.
- Internal Auditing: Assessing financial health, ensuring compliance, and providing recommendations to strengthen internal controls.
- Tax Strategy: Guiding effective tax planning initiatives to sustain bottom line results.
- Payroll Management: Leading payroll processing, compliance and vendor management.
- Data Analytics: Deriving actionable business intelligence from data to drive innovation.
- Business Intelligence: Tracking KPIs and identifying trends to detect risks and growth opportunities.
- Digital Transformation: Using technology to enhance finance and accounting productivity.
By developing specific competencies in these areas, finance professionals become force multipliers for organisational success.
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Talking about finances can be stressful, but it’s even more stressful if you’re not sure what advice is good and what advice might put you in a worse position than you started in.
Recently, a Reddit user who goes by market_vision1 asked, “What is the worst financial advice people still repeat?” I took out a little pen and paper while I was reading through these, like, “Lemme write that down. And that. Oh! And that, too!” I’m curious what you think, though. Are all of these things we should avoid financially?
1. “One of the more damaging ideas out there is ‘Oh, you’re young, don’t worry about money, just go have fun and worry about it when you are older.’ Of course, the number one regret I hear from clients nearing retirement is that they wish they had just started saving when they were younger.”
—u/hems86
2. “The ‘tax bracket’ myth should be illegal. My uncle turned down a $10K raise because he thought he’d ‘lose money.’ He literally paid $10,000 to avoid $2,200 in taxes. That’s not a tax strategy. That’s a $7,800 donation to the Dumba— Fund, and he’s the chair.”
—u/Serious_Cress5040
Related: “31 Things Only Super Wealthy People Can Buy That You Probably Don’t Even Know Exist”
3. “People living outside of their means and not realizing it. They say things like, ‘You deserve X, don’t settle for less.’ Most of the people I see who are broke are not 100% victims of the system. The majority of people waste their money on dumb stuff that they can’t afford. They’ll tell me they’ve cut out all unnecessary spending, but when I look at their actual expenses, I see otherwise. Spending $800 a month on DoorDash, financing a new car with a $900 monthly payment, going on international vacations, spending 70% of their income on rent in a fancier apartment when there are options for cheaper living.”
—u/hems86
4. “I’m a financial planner, and some of the worst advice I’ve ever heard is ‘Don’t pay off your credit cards in full. Carrying a balance on your credit card builds your credit; paying it off every month hurts your score.’ People say this to me all the time when I ask why they carry a balance on their card with 25% interest when they have more than enough to pay it off.”
—u/hems86
5. “It’s not so much advice as it is a financial choice. I know people who are taking out 96-month loans on cars they never should’ve considered in the first place, just because they can make the car note when it’s stretched over eight years. They never considered the interest on the loan plus the rate cars depreciate and are befuddled when they can’t afford to trade it in.”
Finance
I’m a 25-year-old grad student on a budget. I’ve struggled to accept financial help from my Boomer and Gen X friends.
In August, I quit my steady job as a New York City public high school teacher to start a full-time graduate program in Manhattan. I worried about the choice not only because I loved my work with the kids, but also because I had traded a consistent paycheck and affordable health insurance for tens of thousands of dollars in tuition.
When I was teaching, I prepared for the cost by scrimping to save every cent I could. But my account balance still wouldn’t fully cover two years of school and living expenses.
Throughout my savings journey, I learned a lot of lessons, especially from my older friends.
I jumped into major money-saving mode
As a result, I redoubled my frugal efforts. I made a rule that I wouldn’t eat out or order takeout unless it was someone’s birthday. I asked to meet people in parks rather than restaurants and suggested $5 happy-hour spots from a meticulously crafted list on my phone.
On rare occasions when I dined out, I looked at the prices before deciding what to order and pored over the bill with a calculator.
It worked. While it was still difficult to watch my savings dwindle — buoyed occasionally by small deposits from part-time jobs — I kept my costs (relatively) low for a 20-something in the city. Most friends understood my restrictions or were in similar situations.
I worried when my older friends routinely paid for me
But this approach didn’t work as well with my five older friends from my intergenerational writer’s group. We’d been meeting weekly on Zoom for several years when we started visiting each other in our home states across the country. As women in their 40s and 60s in dual-income households with established careers, they understandably gravitated toward nicer places where the cheapest cocktail cost $20. My dive bars with weirdly stained walls weren’t going to cut it.
When I visited two of these friends in Chicago, I anticipated that we’d go to swanky spots and saved up for weeks, cutting out anything nonessential from my grocery list — chocolate-covered pretzels, bananas, frozen fried rice.
But when I offered to chip in for our multi-course dinners or luxury spa day, they brushed me off.
I was grateful for their generosity, yet overcome with guilt. They had contributed so much to our time together. I didn’t want to be a freeloader, the friend who couldn’t hold up her end of the deal. How could I pay them back and show my appreciation?
At the end of the trip, my friend Andrea, 46, and I ate lunch in a diner in the Gold Coast. I made one last offer to Zelle her. In response, she said something that stuck with me.
“When I was in my 20s, people helped me,” she told me with an easy smile. “When you’re 40, just pay it forward by buying a younger woman dinner.”
Her wisdom helped me slowly release my anxiety
I mulled over her words on the plane home. I was surprised that her view of the situation differed so much from mine, and relieved she didn’t see me as taking advantage of her. Yet it was still hard to fully let go of the weight in my chest — the feeling of being indebted to someone’s kindness, of accepting a gift while knowing you can’t reciprocate.
Months later, my 64-year-old friend from my writer’s group visited from Florida. We went out for coffee, and I thought to myself, Okay, now this I can afford. But when I offered to cover or at least split it, she waved me off, saying, “My treat.”
I thought of Andrea’s words and told myself, She’s being nice. Don’t worry about it.
“Thank you,” I said, and meant it.
A while later, when another friend visited from Washington, she paid most of our checks at the bars and restaurants we visited. Though I felt a twinge of the usual panic at first, by our second day together, I was able to let it go. As we wandered through the Upper West Side, the tightness in my chest lifted, leaving only gratitude that she was here.
I do plan on paying it forward
Andrea was right, I realized. Helping each other was what friends did, and they clearly weren’t bothered by it. Sure, I wasn’t paying for lavish things or hosting people, but I shouldn’t let my own hangups affect our time together, which always produces some of my favorite memories.
Eventually, I’ll be able to do what they’ve done for me for another woman, who can then help someone else.
Instead of worrying, now I let my friends’ kindness bring us together and smile, knowing that every time I pay for a 20-something woman in the future, I’ll think of them.
EL PASO, Texas (KTSM) — The City of Las Cruces’ finance director has received a national honor recognizing “exceptional contributions to public finance and local government service,” the City said.
Finance Director Lesley Doyle was selected by the Government Finance Officers Association (GFOA) to receive the organization’s “Recognition for Outstanding Public Service.”
The award recognizes Doyle’s leadership during a critical financial period for the City.
She stepped into the role of finance director as the City’s FY25 audit identified a projected beginning balance shortfall of more than $10 million in a community of nearly 120,000 residents, the City said.
Doyle led a coordinated effort to communicate the financial situation clearly to City departments, executive leadership, and the City Council, while working with the budget team to close the gap without reducing essential services.
Josie Trevino, assistant finance director, credited Doyle with building a culture of trust and collaboration between the Finance Department and other City departments from the beginning of her tenure.
Doyle came to municipal government after a career in public education, transitioning from a school district into City finance leadership.
“In her first year, she met the challenge with confidence, emphasizing open communication, transparency, and proactive problem-solving. Her leadership has helped strengthen relationships across the organization while fostering a positive and supportive workplace culture within the Finance Department,” the City of Las Cruces said.
“The balance of technical skill and genuine care for people is what makes Lesley’s leadership unique,” Trevino said.
The GFOA has published Doyle’s recognition on its website, and her story will also be highlighted during the upcoming GFOA newsletter and highlighted at the annual GFOA conference.
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