FP&A: Skills & Attributes Needed to Succeed

Think beyond the obvious if you want to be successful in FP&A

Photo by Lukas Blazek on Unsplash

If you Google “FP&A,” you’ll get a bunch of hits on planning software. Eventually, you will come across YouTube videos by spreadsheet jockeys who will impress you with their comprehensive knowledge of Excel and its countless formulas. Someone new to finance could be forgiven for thinking that FP&A was all about technical skills, but nothing could be further from the truth.

In my last post, I talked about why FP&A matters. Today, I want to discuss the top four skills or attributes needed to succeed in FP&A. Trust me when I say you’ll need far more than spreadsheet and software skills to have a productive career in FP&A. While these skills or attributes are broad, they are critical for finance professionals in FP&A to position themselves to impact their organizations. Let’s review them one by one.