Examination of Financial Statements | financial statements revenue analysis

Examination of Financial Statements | financial statements revenue analysis

Job Description of a Financial Analyst

Who doesn’t need financial management and advice on investments? Of course, everyone does! And to work on this, we have financial analysts in our organization. But, is this the only duty performed by them? Certainly not! There are many other responsibilities that are included in the job description for financial analyst. Some of them are mentioned below.

The core job of any financial analyst is to conduct a general financial analysis of the finance reports obtained from various departments such as, sales, marketing, purchase, production, communication, etc.
Other jobs of financial analysts include, preparing reports pertaining to their research, study and suggestions over investments.
Making use of spreadsheets and different statistical softwares in order to analyze the facts of their report.
In many organizations, determining, planning and foreseeing the marketing activities, also forms an important part of the job description of a financial analyst.
Developing new and effective techniques for financial planning and thus rendering better service to the clients.
Reading financial statements of the organization and also taking into consideration, the sales, expenses and production cost, in order to advise for investments and forecast future earnings of the organization.
Keeping tabs of the latest trends and techniques in the field of financial analysis.
Coordinating with the higher management officials of their own as well as other departments, in order to report the progress and changes if any.
Assessing other company’s performance, in order to determine and advice for the best company to invest in.
In many organizations, handling audits and work for client information support services, also forms a vital part of the financial analyst job description.
Hard core analysis, fact verification, study and research are all a parts of the junior financial analyst job description, whereas, planning and decision making on financial analysis is the core part of the senior financial analyst job description.

Financial Analyst Educational Requirements and Career Outlook

Generally, candidates possessing a bachelor’s degree in business administration, finance and accounting, statistics, etc are preferred by organizations and also people with this degree are able to work at the junior analyst position. However, people with a masters’ degree in any of these areas are eligible to acquire higher positions in the organization, such as, senior financial analyst and other higher management positions in the finance department. Besides formal training and education, superior analytical abilities, result oriented nature and team working capabilities, excellent written as well as oral communication skill and detailed approach towards everything are the essential pre-requisites for financial analyst jobs.