Important things to know
Financial analytics is changing what organisations expect from finance professionals. Today, it is no longer enough to prepare reports and explain what happened last month. Businesses increasingly need people who can analyse data, identify trends, forecast performance and turn financial information into useful business insights. If you are looking to start a career in financial analytics, you do not need to master every tool available. Instead, focus on building a strong foundation across a few key areas.
1. Finance and Accounting Fundamentals
Before analysing financial data, you need to understand what the numbers mean.
You should be comfortable with the Income Statement, Balance Sheet and Cash Flow Statement, as well as concepts such as revenue, costs, profit margins, working capital, budgeting and forecasting.
More importantly, learn to look beyond the numbers.
For example, if revenue is £100,000 below budget, calculating the variance is only the beginning. A good analyst asks why. Was sales volume lower? Did prices change? Did a major customer leave?
2. Excel and Power BI
Excel remains one of the most important tools in finance. Analysts use it for budgeting, forecasting, financial modelling, reconciliations and management reporting.
You do not need to know every Excel function. Focus on practical skills such as XLOOKUP, SUMIFS, PivotTables, charts and Power Query. Power BI takes this further by helping you turn large datasets into interactive dashboards.
For example, instead of giving management thousands of transaction rows, you can create a dashboard showing revenue, profitability, costs, budget variances and performance trends. However, remember that the dashboard itself is not the objective. The real value comes from the insights and decisions it supports.
3. Financial Modelling and Forecasting
Financial analysts do not only analyse the past; they also help businesses think about the future.
Management may want to know:
- What will revenue look like next year?
- What happens if costs increase?
- How much cash will we have in six months?
- What happens if customer demand falls?
Financial modelling helps answer these questions by combining assumptions with historical data to forecast potential outcomes.
Learning to build base, best and worst-case scenarios will help you understand how businesses evaluate uncertainty and make better decisions.
4. Analytical Thinking and Business Understanding
Technical skills alone will not make you a strong financial analyst.
You need curiosity.
If revenue increases by 15%, do not automatically assume the business is performing well. Perhaps discounts increased significantly and profit margins declined.
A good analyst constantly asks: What happened? Why did it happen? Why does it matter? What should we do next?
You should also understand how the business makes money, who its customers are, its major costs and what factors affect its performance.
This is what transforms financial reporting into meaningful business analysis.
5. Communication and Data Storytelling
Your analysis is only valuable if people can understand it.
Financial analysts regularly work with colleagues in operations, marketing, HR, sales and senior management. Many will not have a finance background.
Courses and certifications can help you learn but employers also want to see what you can actually do.
Take a business dataset and analyse revenue, profitability, costs or product performance. Build an Excel model or Power BI dashboard and explain your findings.
Being able to say: “I analysed two years of retail data, identified declining margins despite revenue growth and built a dashboard showing the key cost drivers” is much more powerful than simply saying: "I completed a Power BI course."
Where should you start? If you are new to financial analytics, keep your learning journey simple: from Finance fundamentals to Excel, Power BI, financial modelling, SQL and practical projects. You can add tools such as Python later as your career develops. You do not need to learn everything before applying for your first financial analytics role.
Starting a career in financial analytics is not about collecting as many technical skills as possible.
The strongest analysts combine finance, data and business understanding. Tools such as Excel, Power BI and SQL help you work with data, but the real skill is being able to understand what the numbers are saying, explain why they matter and help the business make better decisions. That is ultimately what financial analytics is about.
