What UK Finance Job Adverts Actually Ask For: We Read 95 Adverts

We read 95 live UK finance job adverts on 13 October 2026 and recorded what each one asked for. The short version: just over half (55%) named a professional qualification, but only 28% clearly said one was essential. Excel was named in 46% of adverts, and "advanced" or "strong" Excel in 29%. The most common asks weren't technical at all: working with stakeholders and business partnering (67% of adverts), improving processes (66%) and communication (65%). Only 32% gave a minimum number of years' experience, and every public-sector advert stated a salary while fewer than a quarter of private-sector ones did.

The sample has a clear shape you need to know before using any of these numbers. Two-thirds of the adverts came from private employers' own careers pages, mostly London-based and senior. The rest came from public-sector boards in Scotland and Northern Ireland. Neither group is a random sample of UK finance jobs, so read the figures as "what this set of adverts asked for", not as national rates.

Key takeaways

• 55% of the 95 adverts named a professional qualification, but only 28% said one was essential; 12% listed it as desirable only.
• Only 32% gave a minimum number of years' experience, and a third of public-sector adverts accepted equivalent experience instead of a qualification.
• Excel was named in 46% of adverts and advanced Excel in 29%; 53% named a finance system or ERP.
• Stakeholder management or business partnering (67%), process improvement (66%) and communication (65%) were the most common asks.
• The sample is skewed: two-thirds private-sector (mostly London, mostly senior) and public-sector adverts from Scotland and Northern Ireland only.

Headline findings

All figures in this post come from our own dataset unless a link says otherwise. The method is below, and we'll repeat the count each quarter with the same rules.

Method

What we collected. UK finance job adverts that were live on 13 October 2026, one row per advert. We covered nine role families: finance assistant (including accounts payable, accounts receivable, credit control and billing), payroll, management accountant, financial or reporting accountant, FP&A and financial analyst (including finance business partners), audit and internal audit, finance manager (including financial controller and head of finance), treasury, and tax.

Where from. We only used boards whose robots.txt and terms allowed it, and we recorded each check before collecting anything:

• Public-sector boards: myjobscotland (Scottish councils and public bodies), NHS Scotland Jobs and HSC Jobs NI. myjobscotland's own disclaimer says its vacancy information is already in the public realm and that it is happy to provide data feeds in line with Open Government Licence principles. We listed every live vacancy on each board (1,996 on myjobscotland, 889 on NHS Scotland Jobs, 283 on HSC Jobs NI) and picked out finance roles by job title. We also checked the Northern Ireland Civil Service board (44 live vacancies), but none were finance roles that day.
• Employer careers boards: UK employers' own job boards hosted on Greenhouse, Lever, Ashby and Workday. Greenhouse's documentation says its job board data is publicly available, and the Lever and Ashby posting APIs are published for the same purpose. We tried the board names of about 350 UK employers, kept UK-based finance roles, and searched 11 large employers' Workday sites. We stopped the Workday searches when the sites began refusing connections, and didn't retry.

Boards we skipped. NHS Jobs, the biggest public-sector board, allows extracts for personal, non-commercial use only and asks for prior written agreement before any commercial use, so we left it out. Civil Service Jobs puts every page behind an "I'm not a robot" check, which we didn't try to get around. DWP's Find a job service terms ask users not to use its information for business or commercial purposes. We also skipped jobs.ac.uk and CharityJob (personal use only), LGJobs (no automated access) and the job boards of ACCA, ICAEW and The Guardian (blocked automated requests). We didn't use commercial job sites such as Reed or Indeed.

How we counted. We read each advert in full, including the job description and person specification where the board attached them (myjobscotland and NHS Scotland Jobs; HSC Jobs NI keeps them behind its application system, so we read only the advert for those three). We recorded facts against a fixed codebook: role family, sector, salary or pay band as stated, working pattern, each qualification named (with its level and whether it was essential or desirable), minimum years of experience, software named and skills asked for. A qualification counted as essential only if the advert put it in an essential column or used words like "required", "must" or "you will have". It counted as desirable if the advert said "desirable", "ideally", "preferred" or "an advantage". Anything else went down as "not labelled". Skills were counted when the advert asked for them or named them as a core duty. Tagging was done by AI coders working from the same codebook. We then checked the tags against keyword searches of the advert text and corrected the few mismatches.

Exclusions. We collected 109 adverts. Eight were removed as duplicates: the same job re-posted for several locations with near-identical text, a fixed-term version of an identical permanent advert, or the same job on two boards. Six were removed as not finance-function roles once read (a sales role, an actuarial modelling role, a project-finance origination role, a finance-systems role and two rota-planning roles with "payroll" in the title). That left 95 adverts from 59 employers.

Limitations.

• Private-sector skew. 64 of the 95 adverts (67%) came from private employers' own boards. Of those, 50 were in London and 51 were senior or head-of roles. Many came from fintech and tech-led companies, because those firms tend to use the job-board platforms we could read.
• Public-sector coverage is Scotland and Northern Ireland only. The 31 public and third-sector adverts are Scottish councils, NHS Scotland boards, Scottish charities and Northern Ireland health trusts. NHS England and Wales, Civil Service and English council adverts aren't included, for the terms reasons above. Salary bands quoted are those boards' own scales.
• Small groups. Some role families have fewer than ten adverts (audit has four). Treat role-family percentages as examples, not rates.
• One day. Adverts live on a single day reflect that week's hiring, not a year.
• What adverts say isn't everything employers want. A requirement missing from an advert may still come up at interview.

Who the 95 adverts were for

The split matters for the findings. Almost all the finance assistant and management accountant adverts are public-sector. Almost all the FP&A, treasury and tax adverts are private-sector. So when the two sectors differ below, part of the difference is the mix of jobs.

Qualifications: named often, required less often

Just over half the adverts (52 of 95) named a professional qualification. Only 27 (28%) clearly made one essential, and 24 (25%) required someone fully qualified. Another 11 (12%) listed a qualification as desirable only. The remaining 14 (15%) named one without saying either way, which was mostly private-sector adverts with a plain "what you'll bring" list.

Qualifications track seniority more than anything else. Nearly every finance manager and controller advert named one, and 10 of 17 made it essential. Among finance assistants it was 3 of 16, and only one made it essential. FP&A adverts sat in the middle: fewer than half named a qualification. They leaned on modelling, forecasting and business partnering instead (see skills below).

Which bodies. ACCA and ACA were each named in 25 adverts, and CIMA in 20. When an advert named a specific chartered body, it usually named more than one: 25 of the 34 adverts that named ACCA, ACA, CIMA, ICAS, CIPFA or Chartered Accountants Ireland listed two or more, typically as "ACA, ACCA, CIMA or equivalent". Six public-sector adverts asked for "CCAB" membership. That's a shorthand rather than a qualification: CCAB itself says a "CCAB Qualified" qualification doesn't exist. AAT appeared in 4 adverts, CIPP (payroll) in 3, CTA (tax) in 3 and the ACT treasury qualification in 3. CIPFA wasn't named in any advert in this sample. That's probably because NHS England and English council adverts aren't included.

Experience instead of a qualification. 13 adverts (14%) explicitly accepted equivalent experience in place of a qualification. In the public sector that was 10 of 31 (32%), and in the private sector 3 of 64 (5%). Part-qualified or studying candidates were explicitly welcomed in only 4 adverts, three of them management accountant roles.

Degrees. Ten adverts (11%) made a degree essential. 81 (85%) didn't mention one at all.

Experience: years are rarely stated

Only 30 adverts (32%) gave a minimum number of years. Where they did, the median minimum was 4.5 years, ranging from 0 to 9. FP&A adverts were the most likely to give a number (11 of 18, median 5 years). Treasury was next (5 of 9, median 5). Finance assistant adverts almost never did (1 of 16), and none of the 7 management accountant adverts did.

Sector experience came up more often: 60 adverts (63%) mentioned experience in a named sector, such as "public sector", "NHS", "fintech" or "regulated financial services". But only 14 (15%) made it essential. Most treated it as a bonus.

Salary: what the adverts stated

Every one of the 31 public and third-sector adverts gave a salary or pay band. Only 15 of the 64 private-sector adverts (23%) did. Most private adverts said nothing about pay or said "competitive".

Groups with fewer than five adverts are examples, not typical pay. Some public-sector examples as advertised: NHS Scotland Band 3 finance and accounts roles at £28,011 to £31,409, a Band 5 management accountant at £34,544 to £43,039, and Band 7 financial management accountants in Northern Ireland at £47,810 to £54,710. The highest public-sector salary was a Band 8D deputy director of finance at £107,810 to £112,426.

Working pattern: hybrid is the default, when it's stated

57 adverts (60%) said the job was hybrid, 6 said remote and 5 said office-based. The other 27 (28%) didn't say. Public-sector adverts were much more likely to leave it out (14 of 31) than private ones (13 of 64). 12 adverts were fixed-term, including maternity cover.

Software: Excel, a finance system, and SQL in some private roles

As a chart, the share of all 95 adverts naming each item:

Excel showed up most in finance assistant adverts (11 of 16) and financial accountant adverts (7 of 10, all asking for advanced Excel). It came up in only 4 of 17 finance manager adverts, which focused on controls and people instead. Public-sector adverts tended to name the organisation's own system, such as eFinancials or Business Objects at NHS Scotland boards, or ask for "computerised financial systems" in general. Private adverts named NetSuite most often. SQL, Python and BI tools appeared only in private-sector adverts, mostly for FP&A, treasury and financial reporting.

Skills: what the adverts asked for most

The two sectors described the work differently. Private adverts leaned on business partnering, process improvement and commercial awareness. Public-sector adverts leaned on communication, deadlines, accuracy and teamwork. Part of that is the role mix: more finance assistant roles on the public side, more FP&A and controller roles on the private side.

Within each role family, the top asks were what you'd expect, and they're useful as a checklist:

• Finance assistant (16 adverts): communication, reconciliations, accuracy, deadlines and teamwork, each in 12 or more.
• Payroll (9): payroll legislation (8), communication (8), accuracy and process improvement (7 each).
• Management accountant (7): communication, budgeting and forecasting, analysis and presenting figures.
• Financial or reporting accountant (10): month-end reporting (9), controls (9), process improvement (9), accounting standards such as IFRS or FRS 102 (8).
• FP&A and business partnering (18): budgeting and forecasting (all 18), business partnering (17), financial modelling (17), data analysis (14).
• Finance manager and controller (17): business partnering (16), process improvement (15), controls, audit liaison and accounting standards (14 each).
• Treasury (9): cash and liquidity management (all 9), stakeholder work (8).

What this means for your CV

These are practical points drawn from the patterns above. They aren't rules every employer follows.

1. Write your qualification in full, with your progress. Adverts that named a body usually named several and added "or equivalent". So write the actual body and where you are: "ACCA: 9 of 13 exams passed", not "part-qualified accountant". If an advert says "CCAB", list your body by name, because CCAB isn't a qualification in its own right. Our ACCA vs CIMA vs ACA comparison covers how the routes differ.
2. Don't rule yourself out on "desirable" qualifications or unstated years. Only 28% of adverts made a qualification essential, only 32% gave a minimum number of years, and a third of public-sector adverts accepted equivalent experience. Read the person specification line by line, and apply if you can evidence the essential criteria.
3. Show stakeholder work with a named audience. Business partnering was the single most common ask. "Excellent communication skills" doesn't evidence it. A line like "monthly budget reviews with [number] non-finance budget holders" does. Our guide to tailoring a finance CV to a job description shows how to map each requirement to a line of evidence.
4. Give every process-improvement claim a before and after. Two-thirds of adverts asked for process improvement. That's a CV line with a measurable change, such as days cut from the close or manual steps removed. Only use numbers you can check. Our finance CV achievements examples give templates.
5. Name your systems, and qualify your Excel. Half the adverts named a finance system and 29% asked for more than basic Excel. Write the system you actually use (NetSuite, eFinancials, SAP) and what you did in Excel, such as "built the monthly accruals model". A skills list that just says "Excel" tells the reader nothing.
6. Match the advert's emphasis to its sector. For public-sector roles, put accuracy, deadlines and explaining figures to budget holders near the top. For private FP&A and controller roles, lead with forecasting, modelling, partnering and commercial decisions you supported.

What we'll do next quarter

We'll repeat the collection on the same boards with the same method and codebook, add any boards whose terms allow it (including NHS Jobs, if NHSBSA agrees to it in writing), and report what changed. If you're applying now, take one advert you're interested in, split it into its essential and desirable requirements, and check each against a specific line on your CV. Or paste it into the Coffee & Excel workspace and tailor a CV built only from experience you've confirmed.

Frequently asked questions

Do most UK finance job adverts require ACCA, ACA or CIMA?

Not in our sample. 55% of 95 adverts named a professional qualification, but only 28% clearly made one essential. Finance manager and controller adverts were the most likely to require one (10 of 17); finance assistant adverts rarely did (1 of 16).

How many years of experience do finance job adverts ask for?

Most don't say. Only 30 of 95 adverts (32%) gave a minimum number of years. Where they did, the median minimum was 4.5 years; FP&A and treasury adverts were the most likely to state a figure.

Which software do UK finance job adverts mention most?

A finance system or ERP (53% of adverts, often unnamed) and Excel (46%), with 29% asking for advanced or strong Excel. NetSuite and SQL each appeared in 11%, all in private-sector adverts; Power BI in 5%.

What does 'CCAB qualified' mean in a job advert?

It's shorthand for holding a qualification from one of the CCAB member bodies, such as ACCA, ICAEW (ACA), CIPFA, ICAS or Chartered Accountants Ireland. CCAB says a 'CCAB Qualified' qualification doesn't exist, so on your CV name your actual body.

How representative is this study of all UK finance jobs?

It isn't a random sample. Two-thirds of the adverts came from private employers' own careers boards, mostly in London and mostly senior. Public-sector adverts came from Scottish and Northern Ireland boards only, because NHS Jobs, Civil Service Jobs and DWP Find a job didn't permit our use.