CFO’s suggestions: Find out auditing, young finance experienced

Editor’s notice: This short article is portion of the “Top Finance Skills” sequence, showcasing insights from finance leaders across industries on expertise finance gurus want to have to be competitive in the long term. To obtain weekly updates on this collection, indication up for our CGMA Benefit newsletter.

Glen Elias, CPA, CGMA, has noticed a lot of matters adjust in the accounting and finance occupation more than the 30 decades of his career. But for him, no matter how immediately technology developments or small business variations, finance gurus continue to need to have a strong grounding in base-amount accounting techniques and activities to be profitable.

Elias is the CFO of Precision Pipeline, a Wisconsin-dependent subsidiary of MasTec, a worldwide infrastructure engineering firm dependent in Florida. MasTec described $6.3 billion in income in 2020. Precision Pipeline builds important pipeline initiatives across the place, some working for hundreds of kilometres. Precision Pipeline is a challenge-primarily based organisation, and its head rely can alter dramatically, dependent on the variety of ongoing projects.

As CFO, Elias is responsible for the accounting function, IT, HR, and machines accounting for Precision Pipeline and has a employees of 35 that studies to him. About the final two a long time, Precision Pipeline has been introducing robotic method automation (RPA) and other digital accounting technologies to its finance perform.

FM magazine not too long ago spoke to Elias about what he sees as the most vital expertise that accountants and finance experts require to do well in today’s workforce, what he appears to be like for when hiring new talent, and how he is encouraging his crew to upskill to fulfill the demands of today’s finance section.

What is your career trajectory been?

Glen Elias: The 1st 5 years of my occupation was two to three many years in public accounting and then two years of interior audit. My target was to get a very good base of public accounting and inner audit. My considered was that I might usually be capable to leverage those things no subject what I did.

To this working day, that base degree of understanding and discovering has under no circumstances still left me. I constantly inform individuals with an fascination in accounting that “even if your intent is not to remain in community accounting, it truly is even now a incredibly excellent beginning position”.

Then I left and went into field. I labored a several years in quite a few industries, typically in economic reporting in the actual estate business for about a calendar year and then in the cable industry for about two several years. Then I designed the change to what I might simply call the “crafted setting”. Some people will connect with it the AEC sector or architecture engineering construction. Others will simply call it the “created business”. But it is really essentially designing and creating issues.

I bought into that field back in 1999 and never looked back. I put in the first element of my time in that marketplace in international accounting, economic reporting for providers that had functions abroad. But a lot more or considerably less considering that I’ve been accomplishing financial reporting, CFO-variety roles. In all probability about 12 of all those decades I have been a CFO in this business, possibly for a little personal corporation or for a division of a much larger general public corporation.

If you have been just commencing your finance vocation now, which abilities would you be focusing on? In other terms, what do you see as the most crucial skills for new accountants and finance experts to create?

Elias: I have two young children and 1 of them perhaps has an interest in accounting, and I tell him, “You know, if you might be severe, make it portion of your system to get a foundation-degree comprehending. Commit a handful of a long time in public accounting simply because I think it builds the finest base for any one that would like to be an accountant.” So that would be 1 detail.

The next detail I would say is to concentrate on technological know-how. As I glance again about my 30 a long time and the way we used to do things from a pretty handbook point of view to now, I are unable to believe of anything that we do in our business that will not have some technologies affect or use. And so, I would say to individuals, “Get an understanding of how to use technological innovation in the accounting field due to the fact that’s what we seem for.”

Presently, any situation that we use for, even a workers-stage accounts payable individual, if they come to us from a background exactly where they utilised technological innovation, that is additional important to us now than it would have intended 15 or 20 years back.

How do you see those people pretty useful, conventional accounting competencies as currently being vital correct now? Mainly because there is this notion of, “Oh, I’ll just discover Electrical power BI, and then I can do what ever I want.” How do people essential techniques engage in into your finance office?

Elias: My experience in doing work with men and women who have an auditing track record and these that will not is that the men and women coming out of community accounting query extra. They could obtain some thing significant faster than someone without the need of that track record. I’m speaking mainly for myself as perfectly, but if you were being to discuss to people about me, they would say, “Glen respectfully concerns almost everything.”

If you went into accounting without the need of the auditing instinct to question and analyse, it could set you at a downside when matched up against anyone with that encounter.

With finance embracing technologies and matters like RPA, what are the key techniques and activities that you happen to be looking for in expertise in 2021?

Elias: With a couple of exceptions — it’s possible on some much more junior-amount positions — but for midlevel and senior positions, we nonetheless look for some experience in public accounting for all the factors I previously famous. We are general public, so we found that owning somebody with that knowledge tends to make them that substantially more precious from working day a single. That’s a major thing we still glimpse for.

On the technological innovation entrance, we look for folks with expertise with RPA or bots, even if it is just for a calendar year. There are two explanations for that. A single, if they have it in their track record, it really is less complicated for them to embrace it far more absolutely below. The other explanation is that we identified individuals with prior RPA or bot practical experience are inclined to be on the lookout much more for methods to use it than someone devoid of that publicity.

Talking of technology, how are you encouraging expertise-setting up and upskilling within your current workforce? How are you making sure your staff has the expertise to offer with new systems as you introduce them, and how are you coping with any pushback that may well entail?

Elias: With a really methodical, nicely-prepared method. Converse upfront so that folks know how it will be rolled out.

What we did to make confident it succeeded, and I consider this was intelligent, was introduce it in a pretty palatable, nonthreatening way: “Hey, this is coming. This is new. We want you to open up your head and study and not jump to, ‘What does this imply for my position?'” That was in all probability two several years in the past.

All through the pursuing 12 months we had some instruction, some gentle interaction with numerous of our corporate teams. They [company leaders] would show how one particular of the other provider strains was employing it so that we could see the benefit in it. Then they experienced us talk to men and women in the other company strains who experienced applied it.

That definitely served simply because it was no longer another person at company telling us that we had to put into practice these issues that would help you save time and preserve operate. It was, “Hey, I’m speaking to a peer, who possibly felt the same way that I did if I feel a tiny apprehensive about it.” And some of these people turned the largest proponents of it.

Then at the close of the 2nd calendar year we mentioned, “We have an understanding of RPA. We comprehend what bots are. Now let us brainstorm about how we can use it much more.” That method was extremely, incredibly open up. We basically went in a place and started off throwing items on the board.

We started listing procedures that we thought were being superior candidates to automate. And then went by way of a process of narrowing it down to the top three to five things.

The other fantastic matter was that it was finished in a collective way. We wished people today to occur alongside with us, and there was a ton extra get-in as a consequence.

Which is the technological aspect, but you might be also chatting about comfortable skills these kinds of as collaboration and communication. How do you see the evolution of soft abilities for a finance specialist? And which smooth skills do you see as most significant moving ahead?

Elias: It’s a little something that we fret about a ton for the reason that, with all the speak about automation, at times the conversation about gentle abilities will get either entirely still left off or deprioritised.

These are not heading to be stunning due to the fact, once again, they’re possibly the kinds you hear a large amount, but teamwork, for a person. People could possibly say teamwork is much less critical for the reason that of issues like RPA and you can it’s possible silo the perform a small little bit. But in our working experience, it is been just the opposite. We’re really large on when we do well, the workforce will get the credit history.

We market teamwork probably even a very little little bit more now that technological innovation is a even bigger component of what we do and now that COVID has been in this article so very long. So, doing work in a team is being selfless. We have a tendency to appear for and consider to advertise folks with that way of thinking. That is a further detail we market in our team. When we close the books, it’s to shut the publications for all of us, not just for me.

Conversation is in all probability the biggest. It is the matter that I be concerned about the most soon after receiving previous the get worried of staying able to function and do the job remotely. E-mail and text messages can be an ineffective way to connect underneath selected situation. Individuals really don’t always say the right issue via text, or occasionally it really is misread.

The significant point now is, “Hey, I continue to want to see you, right? If you are not in the business office, can you put your video clip on?” We check out to hold our online video on for the reason that of that human interaction. No issue how a lot of robots we make and apply, they are not human.

Quick hearth concerns

What is actually the number one ability that a finance skilled must have?

Elias: Auditing.

Which are a lot more crucial for a finance experienced in 2021, delicate abilities or tech expertise?

Elias: Tech techniques.

What is the most essential action that finance experts can just take to advance their occupations?

Elias: Studying.

— Drew Adamek ([email protected]) is an FM journal senior editor.