Four Underrated Skills to Seek in Today’s Accounting & Finance Professionals

Knowing which skills to look for when interviewing accounting and finance professionals helps narrow down your candidate list. Targeting candidates with the knowledge, skills, and experience you are looking for helps add the right talent to your team.

Focusing on underrated skills in today’s accounting and finance professionals helps find the most effective candidates who can add value to your organization. The results include a stronger bottom line and increased business growth.

Seek these four underrated skills when interviewing today’s accounting and finance professionals.

1. Open-Mindedness

Accounting and finance professionals who are open-minded can effectively collaborate with colleagues and coworkers. These professionals consider new ways of approaching things to increase efficiency and productivity.

Open-minded people listen to others’ ideas, perspectives, and input. They use this insight to make more effective business decisions.

2. Emotional Intelligence

Accounting and finance professionals with emotional intelligence are in touch with their feelings and exhibit strong social skills. These professionals ask questions to gather information, look beyond the facts, and use a human-centered approach to make decisions based on the bigger picture.

People with high emotional intelligence typically perform well at work. These professionals are equipped to communicate effectively, handle difficult situations, and stay motivated to attain their goals. They also can facilitate difficult conversations and implement constructive feedback to improve their performance.

3. Story Telling

Accounting and finance professionals who use stories to discuss the numbers help relate the company’s financial performance to individual employees and teams. Explaining how an employee’s or team’s performance impacts the company’s numbers encourages the individual or team to improve their performance. The results may include increased revenue, decreased expenses, and a stronger bottom line.

4. Implementation of Feedback

Accounting and finance professionals who embrace constructive feedback prioritize learning and growth. They want to improve their performance to take on bigger challenges and opportunities. The more knowledge, skills, and experience these professionals gather, the more effectively they can secure promotions for career growth.

Are You Looking for Accounting and Finance Professionals?

Open-mindedness, emotional intelligence, story-telling, and feedback implementation are four underrated skills you should seek in employees. Hiring candidates with these skills helps add value to your team and organization.

If you need help adding qualified professionals to your team, contact Casey Accounting & Finance Resources. Reach out today.

The Best Accounting & Finance Podcasts to Listen to Right Now

Are you searching for ways to stay informed about the latest accounting and finance news, trends, and best practices? If so, choose among these accounting and finance podcasts.

Discover the best accounting and finance podcasts to listen to right now.

Count Me In

Count Me In is hosted by the Institute of Management Accountants (IMA). Learn the latest perspectives on the accounting and finance field from experts and thought leaders.

AICPA Town Hall Series

AICPA Town Hall Series is hosted by Susan Coffey, CEO of Public Accounting for AICPA, and Erik Asgeirsson, President and CEO of CPA.com. Discover the latest news and updates in the accounting profession from leading subject matter experts.

Grow My Accounting Practice

Grow My Accounting Practice is for accountants and bookkeepers who want to expand their businesses. Learn sales, marketing, hiring, management, pricing, and other business skills needed to scale your company.

The Abundant Accountant

The Abundant Accountant shares tips to build accounting skills, increase revenue, and expand firms. Topics include networking, pricing, finding ideal clients, increasing cash flow, and setting boundaries with clients.

Building the Premier Accounting Firm

Building the Premier Accounting Firm helps accounting professionals confidently offer quality services and get paid what they are worth. Learn tips and tricks to apply accounting principles to build a successful business.

Accounting Marketing Doesn’t Suck

Accounting Marketing Doesn’t Suck is hosted by Hugh Duffy. Learn from successful accountants, CPAs, and other professionals how to grow a profitable business.

Where Accountants Go

Where Accountants Go is for accountants in all industries. Learn as accounting guests share their stories about career development.

Accounting Technology Fireside Chat

Accounting Technology Fireside Chat hosts Nick and Trevor have been working with technology for accountants for over 10 years. Gain insight into where technology is going and how accountants can use technology to increase efficiency.

Accounting Matters

Accounting Matters is hosted by Sarah Cage Richter and Adam Olden from Embark. They start with a new topic and definition in each episode, then highlight and discuss the key areas from evaluation to reporting.

Do You Need to Add to Your Accounting and Finance Team?

Partner with Casey Accounting & Finance Resources to add accounting and finance professionals to your team. Learn more today.

Tips to Advance Your Accounting and Finance Career

Every company needs accounting and finance professionals. This provides virtually endless opportunities to advance your accounting and finance career.

Whether you are just starting out or have many years of experience, learning from other professionals in your field is an effective way to advance your accounting and finance career. These suggestions may help.

Choose among these six tips to advance your accounting and finance career.

Find a Mentor

A professional in your field who has more knowledge and experience than you likely faced issues similar to yours. As a result, this professional can share their knowledge and provide insight to help overcome the issues that you might face. You can ask for advice and feedback to continue moving forward in your accounting and finance career.

Network

Build relationships with recruiters, hiring managers, company leaders, HR employees, and other professionals in your field. You can ask these individuals for ideas, advice, and guidance on your accounting and finance career path. They may share job openings with you, serve as employee referrals, or meet with you about opportunities that fit your skills, goals, and interests.

Learn New Technologies

Staying current on the use of technology helps advance your accounting and finance career. This includes enhancing your proficiency with Excel, using business intelligence tools such as Cognos or Crystal Reports, and understanding accounting systems such as SAP, Microsoft Dynamics, or Oracle.

Gain Experience in Different Fields

Invest time learning different areas of the industry to develop your accounting and finance career. This may include bookkeeping, preparing financial statements, financial reporting, internal auditing, compliance, or taxation.  Changing your job duties every 2-3 years lets you gain the knowledge, skills, and experience needed to stay competitive.

Become a Certified Public Accountant

Earning accreditation as a certified public accountant (CPA) shows you have high-level industry knowledge, skills, and ethics. This certification demonstrates your commitment to the field and ability to take on higher levels of authority.

CPAs are in great demand because they enforce higher standards for the accounting industry. These professionals perform highly specialized job functions that provide significant value for employers. This provides the potential for high salaries and growth for your accounting and finance career.

Focus on Specialization

Develop your skills in a specific area to advance your accounting and finance career. These areas may involve regulatory compliance, anti-money laundering (AML), Know Your Customer, Financial Industry Regulatory Authority, Comprehensive Capital Analysis and Review, or the rules related to capital adequacy and consumer protection under the Dodd-Frank Act. High-level knowledge and experience in any of these areas are valuable to employers.

Find a New Accounting and Finance Job

Finding a mentor and networking help you gain valuable guidance to advance your accounting and finance career. Learning new technologies and gaining experience in different fields help you stay competitive in the job market. Becoming a CPA or focusing on a specialization let you provide additional value for an employer.

Work with Casey Accounting & Finance Resources to find your next role. Learn about our job opportunities today.

Challenges in Recruiting for Accounting & Finance Positions and How to Conquer Them

As The Great Resignation goes on, many employees are leaving their jobs for other opportunities. Therefore, the challenges in recruiting for accounting and finance positions continue to increase.

Many accounting and finance professionals are expected to accomplish more with fewer resources. This increases stress levels, especially during busy seasons. The inability to maintain work-life balance often leads to burnout.

As more accounting and finance professionals leave the industry or retire, fewer professionals are entering the field. This increases the challenges in recruiting for accounting and finance positions.

Because accounting and finance professionals are needed to drive business, company leaders must find ways to increase employee attraction and retention. These tips can help.

Learn the challenges in recruiting for accounting and finance positions and how to conquer them.

Loss of Talent

Many experienced accounting and finance professionals are leaving the industry. Job-related mental health concerns, such as anxiety and depression, are among the top reasons why.

Lack of work-life balance, especially during busy seasons, also contributes to the decision to leave. Constant exposure to work-related stress can lead to burnout.

Seasoned professionals are the hardest professionals to replace. This is especially true for mid-career professionals.

Increased Automation

Fortunately, you can support your accounting and finance team by implementing robotic process automation (RPA). This software emulates human actions and mimics how humans interact with technologies.

RPA can help with essential accounting and finance functions:

  • Analytical procedures
  • Financial statement preparation
  • Dual-purpose audit tests
  • Forecasting
  • Investment decisions
  • Cost allocation
  • Expense reimbursement
  • Accounts payable
  • Accounts receivable
  • Reconciliation
  • Tax reporting
  • Cloud-based applications

Providing access to the necessary tools, systems, and support helps accounting and finance professionals complete their work. This helps maintain work-life balance and positive mental health while reaching company goals.

Work with an Accounting and Finance Staffing Agency

You can conquer the challenges in recruiting for accounting and finance positions by partnering with a staffing agency that specializes in the industry. The agency has a vast network of experienced professionals with the skills and qualifications needed to help you achieve your company’s goals.

You can choose from temporary, temp-to-hire, and direct-hire workers to blend with your full-time employees. Taking advantage of this flexibility helps save money while filling your staffing needs.

Partner with Casey Accounting & Finance Resources

The loss of talent in the accounting and finance industry requires increasing use of automation to support your workforce. Working with an accounting and finance staffing agency can help you find the qualified professionals you need to reach your business goals.

Reach out to Casey Accounting & Finance Resources for help filling your recruiting needs. Get started today.

The Association for Finance Professionals “Best of 2022” Research Reports & Guides

Wondering which topics treasury and finance professionals were most interested in throughout 2022? We have the research, guides, articles, training, podcasts, and conversations that were most actively sought from the Association for Finance Professionals (AFP).

Best of 2022 Lists for Treasury

Top Deep-Dive Research and Guides

Top Articles

Top Training

Top Podcast Episodes

Top Conversations on AFP Collaborate

Best of 2022 Lists for Financial Planning & Analysis

Top Deep-Dive Research and Guides

Top Articles

Top Training

Top Podcast Episodes

Top Conversations on AFP Collaborate

Looking to Expand Your Accounting & Finance Team?

Partner with Casey Accounting & Finance Resources to add qualified members to your team. Learn more today.

Are You Offering Enough PTO to Your Finance Employees?

As the manager of a finance team, how much paid time off (PTO), you offer your employees matters. Providing a fair amount of PTO with opportunities for more helps you attract and retain the best talent. It shows you prioritize work-life balance and want your employees to have as much flexibility as possible.

Determination of how much PTO to offer can be difficult. The following suggestions can help.

Use these tips to determine whether you are offering enough PTO to your finance employees.

Defining PTO  

PTO consists of a block of time that employees can draw from throughout the year. Rather than creating categories and assigning a number of days for each, such as 7 paid holidays, 6 vacation days, 5 personal days, and 4 sick days, all of the days can be used however the employee sees fit.

For instance, most companies offer 30 days of PTO that each employee can divide up as needed. So, one of your employees might decide to take 12 days of paid sick leave, 12 days of paid personal leave, and 6 days of paid vacation. Another employee could decide on 5 days of paid sick leave, 12 days of paid personal leave, and 13 days of paid vacation.

Determining the Amount of PTO

Certain variables should be considered to decide which amount of PTO is right for your employees. For instance, you may want to offer different amounts of PTO to different types of employees. You also need to determine whether your employees should be required to use all of their PTO each year, be able to roll it over to the next year or get paid extra for the unused days.

You may want to start your new hires with less PTO and award more PTO based on the number of years your employees remain with your company. You also might want to let your employees roll over their unused days as a reward for good attendance.

Deciding How Much PTO Is Right for Your Employees

The amount of PTO you provide your finance employees depends on your business needs. It may be best to start each new hire with 30 days of PTO and provide opportunities to increase over time. This might be linked to job performance, years of loyalty, or other criteria.

Ensure your standards for awarding PTO are fair, clear, and included in the employee handbook. This helps your employees understand how much PTO they start out with and how they can earn more.

You can change your program over time to remain aligned with changing employee needs. This helps your finance team attract and retain top talent.

Want Help with Hiring?

The amount of PTO you provide your finance employees impacts how long they remain with your organization. Starting your new hires off with a fair amount of PTO and opportunities to increase helps attract and retain the best talent. This can help lower your recruitment costs.

When the time comes to hire additional employees, turn to Casey Accounting & Finance Resources for help. Find out more today.