Skills
Financial Analyst Skills & Tools
The technical skills, people skills and tools employers look for in financial analysts, and how to build and show them.
What skills do financial analysts need?
Financial Analysts need technical skills such as financial modeling, excel, and accounting fundamentals, plus people skills like analytical thinking and communication. They also use tools such as Excel and Google Sheets and ERP systems such as SAP or Oracle.
Technical (hard) skills
- Financial modeling
- Excel
- Accounting fundamentals
- Forecasting and budgeting
- Valuation
- Data visualization
People (soft) skills
- Analytical thinking
- Communication
- Attention to detail
- Business judgment
Tools, equipment and technology
- Excel and Google Sheets
- ERP systems such as SAP or Oracle
- BI tools such as Power BI or Tableau
- Bloomberg or FactSet
- PowerPoint
- SQL
Skills in action: common tasks
These step-by-step guides show how financial analysts put their skills to work:
- How to build a simple revenue forecast
- How to perform a budget variance analysis
- How to calculate NPV for a project
How to show these skills on a resume
- Lead your skills section with the technical skills from the job posting, for example, “Financial modeling” and “Excel.”
- Prove soft skills with results: instead of listing “analytical thinking,” describe a situation where you used it.
- List credentials such as Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) near the top, with the issuing organization and date.
- Use the employer’s vocabulary. Our financial analyst glossary covers the terms hiring managers expect.
How to build these skills
Formal training, supervised practice and certification are the most direct routes. Our Financial Analyst training introduces each of these skills with plain-language lessons, procedures and a final knowledge check: a strong foundation before hands-on training or your first day.