Commercial Finance Analyst
69% skill overlap
To add: Pricing and elasticity analysis, Business case and cost-benefit analysis, Building a commercial proposal
Your role
FP&A Analyst
Full profileYour role
Also known as Budget manager · Financial analyst · Banking analyst · Budget accountantand 8 more
Budget and analysis manager · Budget and planning manager · Budget and policy analyst · Budget and policy manager · Budget coordinator · Budget counselor · Budgeting manager · Capital markets analyst
- L3 salary
- Not published yet
- Upcoming dated changes
- 1 change ahead
What the role does
An FP&A (financial planning and analysis) analyst builds and runs a company's plans and forecasts. The role prepares the annual budget and rolling forecasts, builds three-statement and driver-based models, analyses actual results against plan, runs scenario and sensitivity analysis, and prepares reports and presentations for senior management. It supports decisions on investments, costs and pricing, and works closely with controllers, accounting, treasury and business leaders.
Read a day in the life
A day in the life
The day often starts with the latest actuals or a request from the finance director. Early in the month the analyst loads actual results into the planning model, compares them with forecast and budget, and explains the main differences by driver: volumes, prices, headcount, exchange rates. A summary goes into the monthly performance pack. Mid-month the forecast cycle starts. The analyst collects inputs from business units, challenges assumptions that look optimistic or inconsistent, and updates the model, checking that income statement, balance sheet and cash flow tie together. A typical afternoon task is a scenario: what happens to profit and cash if a large contract is delayed or interest rates rise by one percentage point. The analyst builds the sensitivity, checks it with a senior colleague, and turns it into two clear slides. In budget season the work includes target setting, multiple model versions and long review meetings with management.
Levels
- L1 Starting out
- L2 Independent
- L3 Senior or specialist
- L4 Leads a team or an area
- L5 Leads the function
Full level descriptions and job titles
The EFO level names are the common scale; job titles differ between employers.
| Level | What the work looks like | Typical years | Typical job titles |
|---|---|---|---|
| L1 Starting out | Updates models and reports from defined templates, loads actuals, prepares variance tables and learns planning tools, business drivers and modelling standards under supervision. | 0-2 | Banks: Analyst, Junior Analyst, Associate (asset servicing), Trainee, GraduateAsset servicers: Junior, Specialist (entry), Officer |
| L2 Independent | Owns forecasts and reporting for a business area or a model, explains variances to management, runs scenarios and trains new analysts on models and tools. | 2-5 | Banks: Analyst / Senior Analyst, AssociateAsset servicers: Specialist, Senior Specialist, Senior Officer |
| L3 Senior or specialist | Designs planning models and processes, leads complex scenario and investment analysis, handles difficult assumptions with business leaders and represents FP&A in system projects. | 5-9 | Banks: Senior Associate, AVP, Assistant ManagerAsset servicers: Senior Specialist, Expert, Team Lead (small team) |
| L4 Leads a team or an area | Leads an FP&A team, owns the budget and forecast cycle, model governance and management reporting, and is the escalation point for planning questions and deadlines. | 8-14 | Banks: VP, Manager, Senior ManagerAsset servicers: Team Lead, Manager, Head of Section |
| L5 Leads the function | Accountable for planning and analysis in a company or region, sets the planning framework and performance targets with the chief financial officer and advises the board on financial strategy. | 12+ | Banks: Director, Executive Director, Managing Director, Head of functionAsset servicers: Head of Department, Director |
Skills
Where the skill weights come from
Each role lists its skills with a tier and a weight. The weights of one role add up to 100 percent.
Source: the EFO role catalogue, built from the ESCO classification and reviewed by the editors.
The percentage is the skill's share of the role; the bars are drawn relative to the anchor skill, which is shown full.
Critical
- Financial planning and forecastingWeight 13.3%Relevant to you
- Variance analysis (price, volume, mix)Weight 8.9%Relevant to you
- Advanced Microsoft ExcelWeight 8.9%Relevant to you
- Three-statement financial modellingWeight 8.9%Relevant to you
- Scenario and sensitivity analysisWeight 8.9%Relevant to you
Important and supporting skills 17
Important
- Management reporting and commentaryWeight 4.4%Relevant to you
- Building and managing a budgetWeight 4.4%Relevant to you
- Profitability analysis (margins, contribution)Weight 4.4%Relevant to you
- Financial statement analysis and ratiosWeight 4.4%Relevant to you
- Communicating data to non-technical audiencesWeight 4.4%Relevant to you
- Visualisation tools (Power BI, Tableau)Weight 4.4%Relevant to you
- Commercial acumen and business senseWeight 4.4%Relevant to you
- Professional written communicationWeight 4.4%Relevant to you
Supporting
- Defining and using KPIsWeight 2.2%Relevant to you
- Planning systems (Anaplan)Weight 2.2%Relevant to you
- Company valuation (DCF, multiples)Weight 2.2%Relevant to you
- Querying data with SQLWeight 2.2%Relevant to you
- Stakeholder managementWeight 2.2%Relevant to you
- Working to tight deadlinesWeight 2.2%Relevant to you
Useful
- SAP enterprise systemsWeight 0.7%Relevant to you
- Forecasting methods and time seriesWeight 0.7%Relevant to you
- Prioritising with incomplete informationWeight 0.7%Relevant to you
Processes
The work the role takes part in.
What each process covers
- Corporate finance and dealsMain
- Planning, budgeting and controllingMain
Where the role concentrates
How AI is changing the role
Data collection, forecast baselines and standard variance commentary are increasingly produced by planning software with machine learning forecasting and generative AI.
Read the full assessment
Data collection, forecast baselines and standard variance commentary are increasingly produced by planning software with machine learning forecasting and generative AI. The World Economic Forum Future of Jobs Report 2025 ranks analytical thinking first among core skills and expects AI and big data skills to grow fastest. Value moves to choosing the right drivers, challenging business assumptions, building scenarios that inform real decisions and telling a clear story to management. CIMA highlights business partnering and digital skills for finance professionals, which favours analysts who combine modelling with judgement.
Dated changes for this role
Salary snapshot
Salary figures are not published yet
The L3 salary range for this role, with its sources, will appear here when the salaries section opens.
Certifications
- ACCA Qualification
- CIMA CGMA
- CFA Program Level I
- ACA Chartered Accountant
Concepts to know
- Business case
- Month-end close (period-end close)
- Variance analysis
- Accrual accounting
- Benefits realisation
- Budget
- Business intelligence (BI)
- Cash forecasting
All 24 concepts
- Cost allocation
- Cost-income ratio
- End-user computing (EUC)
- Forecast (rolling forecast)
- FTP (funds transfer pricing)
- Gender pay gap
- ICAAP (Internal Capital Adequacy Assessment Process)
- Key performance indicator (KPI)
- Management accounts (management reporting)
- NII sensitivity
- Pay Transparency Directive
- Python for finance
- RAROC (risk-adjusted return on capital)
- Risk appetite (risk appetite framework)
- Risk-weighted assets (RWA)
- SQL (Structured Query Language)
Neighbouring roles
Roles that need many of the same skills, by weighted skill overlap, with the skills you would need to add.
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Valuation Analyst
36% skill overlap
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Investment Banking Analyst (M&A)
36% skill overlap
To add: Financial markets knowledge, Building a slide narrative, Microsoft PowerPoint
Your role
Do this job? Suggest a correction
Sources
Forecast (rolling forecast)A forecast is the latest estimate of results for the rest of the period, updated as actuals come in. A rolling forecast always looks a fixed number of months ahead, for example 12 or 18, and is often driven by volumes, prices and headcount assumptions.
Generative AIGenerative AI is a family of AI models that produce new content (text, code, images, audio) in response to a prompt, by learning patterns from very large datasets. In finance it is used for drafting, summarising documents, coding help and customer service assistants.