Master finance skills

Accounting and finance are the “life blood” of any organisation. For professionals to be successful in their jobs and be key influencers, they need to understand and apply the basics of finance and accounting, including financial reporting and analysis, budgeting, planning, and forecasting. Here are a few tips on how non-finance managers can get up to speed.

Take courses in finance and accounting
While getting grounded in the “debits” and “credits” would be helpful, spend more of your time in management accounting courses that will enhance your cross-functional expertise and decision-making prowess. Management accounting-type courses could include decision support (for example forecasting, business cases, mergers, and acquisitions), risk management, budgeting, and planning.
In addition to these primary financial and accounting skills, find courses that also emphasise cash flow since that is truly the lifeline ensuring a sustainable flow of goods and services through an organisation’s veins.

Learn from professionals
Network and learn from the finance professionals. While getting rooted in the foundations of any discipline is highly desirable, the truth is in the corporate world, there is an opportunity to learn experientially with coursework and through on-the-job training.
If you are working in a product management position responsible for leading a business case, listen and learn from the finance professional on the principles and analytics underlying the business case process.
You will grow in your understanding of the finance and accounting discipline. In this instance, the process becomes less of a negotiation and more of a disciplined, critical thinking exercise to deliver what is best for the organisation’s stakeholders.

Become the financial liaison.
In the absence of getting a degree or certification in finance and accounting (recommended, of course!), there are often positions in larger organisations in business operations that interface heavily with the finance or accounting group, such as the support person responsible for working with finance in developing financial results, business cases, and plans on behalf of a project manager.

Look for jobs
Seek out these jobs, even though this may temporarily move you away from customer-facing type jobs. It is important to remember that the best managers are those that demonstrate skill and acumen in cross-functional thinking, not just expertise within a single function.
The point, then, is that while it is important to stay true to your foundational knowledge and competency base, expanding beyond your roots and branching out is necessary for you and your organsation to flourish and create sustainable growth.
The complexity of today’s business environment coupled with high expectations of organisational stakeholders are demanding that finance and operations professionals work collaboratively to deliver the best results possible. Influence is infectious, but only if you are introspective and step out of your comfort zone. This cross-functional approach to driving business performance does add up.

Robert Bakayaga is the financial and fund accountant at dfcu Bank.