The changing face of finance careers

The world of finance and accounting is in the midst of a huge opportunity in the technological revolution. It’s important for finance professionals to take action now to ensure they have the necessary skills, experience and aptitude themselves, and within their teams, to ensure they embrace this change.

The future finance team will see a significant integration of AI and automation technologies. These advancements will streamline routine tasks such as data entry, transaction processing, and analysis, allowing finance professionals to focus on more strategic and value adding activities. Tools for real-time financial analytics and automated reporting are becoming standardised, and we have already seen a significant rise in clients seeking to improve their own systems and processes so they can adopt this technology.

Future finance teams will be expected to have advanced data analytics skills. The ability to analyse large datasets and derive actionable insights will be crucial. This will involve proficiency in data visualisation tools, statistical analysis, and familiarity with machine learning techniques. The number of Financial Planning and Analysis (FP&A) roles in the market has been steadily increasing over the last two years, but we believe this is only the tip of the iceberg. Acquiring these skills is absolutely crucial to future proof your finance career going forward. 

As automation handles more of the transactional and compliance tasks, finance professionals are transitioning into roles that emphasise data handling and manipulation, financial analysis, strategic decision-making, business partnering, and financial planning. This is impacting on all areas of the finance team and the roles available, from transactional roles right through to CFO. Automation enables organisations to streamline their teams, losing traditional transaction processing roles which involved manual intervention. The use of powerful business intelligence tools allows insightful dashboards and live results to be available real time, greatly reducing the time previously needed for such analysis. 

As we move to an environment of greater automation, and also factoring in differing working models, the communication skills of finance personnel become critical. As we utilise tools to automate processes and undertake analysis, the finance team has greater availability to deliver value through communicating the output of the analysis; determining the correct response as a result and ensuring the buy in from the wider business to deliver that solution. It is also critical in an environment of hybrid working that team collaboration is facilitated through in-person communication wherever possible. 

The adoption of hybrid working models will continue to grow. Finance teams will operate with a mix of in-office and remote work, leveraging cloud-based accounting and financial management systems. This will require robust cybersecurity measures to protect sensitive financial data.

We are also seeing an increased focus on ESG reporting, requiring finance teams to track and report on sustainability metrics. This will involve integrating ESG factors into financial analysis and investment decision-making processes. Indeed, we are already seeing a number of sustainability roles which are largely being fulfilled by qualified accountants with a keen interest in this area. Who better than an accountant to ensure targets are being measured and governance is maintained on the actions being implemented?

The finance team of the future will be more technologically adept, strategic, and focused on delivering value through insights and collaboration across the organisation. At Hutcheon Mearns we are excited by the opportunity and challenge that lies ahead for finance and accounting careers. The value of finance professionals will only increase as new technologies are implemented, and better information is produced through a collaborative effort with technology to inform better decision making.

Get in touch with Jane Grant and the recruitment team at Hutcheon Mearns to discuss your career options going forward.

This blog is one of a series of articles from our commercial partners. The views expressed are those of the author and not necessarily those of ICAS.