Why CFOs Will Downgrade Excel Skills in 2020

Here’s a not-so-bold prediction: There’s a decent chance that CFOs couldn’t care less about your Excel proficiency in the near future. Why? Today, accounting managers and CFOs are looking to hire candidates with a growth focus and ability to adapt to changing technologies. This is bad news for job candidates who emphasize their strong Excel skills in job applications.

According to Adaptive Insights, a business agility magazine, Excel has been downgraded to the least of five important skill-sets for new hires, and that trend is expected to continue in 2020. Similarly, as per the Benchmarking the Accounting & Finance Function report, usage of MS Excel is declining as a primary budgeting and planning tool. On the contrary, 58% of US companies are using cloud-based solutions for their accounting and finance functions.

So what led to Excel’s sudden slide?

To begin with, CFOs are now playing a larger role in driving change; they are no longer viewed as traditional bean counter. Hence, they need modern finance professionals who bring additional strategic and analytical skills. Today, CFOs are betting big on process automation and investing in talent that brings complementary skills to better manage data and gain real-time insights. As CFOs embrace automation, they look to focus on a candidate’s adaptability to change in not only accounting technology but also people skills like creativity and communication.

Moreover, given the remarkable pace of change in technology, Excel, despite its numerous upgrades including a cloud-based web app, lacks many useful features. For instance, Excel has shortcomings in scalability, real-time collaboration, and the ability to customize and combine diverse datasets and graphs. Today, high-performance financial teams leverage advanced analytics and data science. They value the ability to take qualitative and quantitative data from both historical and real-time sources.

Time is an irreplaceable resource and CFOs are always under pressure to research new growth opportunities and oversee the financial health of their organizations. Therefore, CFOs are now considering outsourcing as an option and choosing companies like Analytix on a project basis to source financing, improve processes, and drive growth in their organization. As a trusted accounting outsourcing partner, Analytix offers services ranging from bookkeeping to CFO-level expertise to help you manage a major initiative or business function revamp and focus on growing your business. Our industry intelligence, flexible and client-centric services, and technology-driven processes help our clients significantly increase their efficiency and save time and money.

Next Steps

• Visit Analytix to learn how we can provide a broader blend of solutions.
• Reach us at sales@analytix.com or call us at 781.503.9002.
• Read more about the latest industry trends on our blog.
• Follow us on LinkedIn and Twitter for additional opportunities to engage.

Analytix Editorial Team