“CAN YOU COMPETE IN THE DIGITAL ERA OF FINANCE AND ACCOUNTING?”
You must have heard about the hype of the importance of Digital skills for ACCA professionals; it has been the talk of the town for quite some time. As the financial sector of old times was not used to such big changes and enhancements, and there was no concept of digitalization. But in today’s complex and highly adaptable financial world, digitalization has contributed so much and made the financial tasks easier, quicker, and more accurate.
Digitalization in financial tasks has been adopted on a global scale, and since then, accounting and financial tasks can be done way quicker and accurately.
However, this enhancement has proved to be quite beneficial overall for the financial sector. But it added to the list of skills ACCA professionals are expected to be proficient in. In today’s blog, we will discuss the top Digital skills for ACCA professionals in India that will increase their worth in the job market and make their work profile stronger as well as competitive.
KEY DIGITAL SKILLS FOR ACCA PROFESSIONALS IN INDIA:
Some of the top digital skills that you should equip yourself with to survive in the complex financial sector of India are as follows:
1: ACCOUNTING SOFTWARE:
One of the most essential Digital skills for ACCA professionals in India is to be proficient in accounting software such as QuickBooks, TallyPrime, Zoho Books, Oracle, SAP, Microsoft Dynamics, etc. This software helps ACCA professionals in automating tasks like bookkeeping, tax compliance, invoicing, etc.
2: EXCEL AND ADVANCED SPREADSHEET SKILLS:
Skills to use Excel and advanced spreadsheets efficiently for financial tasks like budgeting, forecasting, audit trails, and variance analysis are quite important. Therefore, aspirants are encouraged to polish their skills through digital platforms like Power Query, PivotTables, etc., which are very effective and essential for financial modeling and dashboards.
3: CLOUD ACCOUNTING KNOWLEDGE:
To have good cloud accounting knowledge, professionals should be proficient in Xero, Zoho, FreshBooks, etc. The benefits of having these skills are that professionals can have real-time data access, better data security, and remote collaboration features. Utilizing these digital skills for an ACCA career can add more value to your professional profile.
4: DATA ANALYTICS AND VISUALIZATION:
Skills like KPI tracking, data-driven decision-making, and trend analysis are essential for ACCA professionals as these skills improve financial reporting and insight generation. However, Professionals can also achieve the desired outcome through digitalization; by using platforms like Power BI, Tableau, Excel Power Pivot, etc.
5: DIGITAL AUDIT TOOLS:
Digital skills for ACCA professionals in auditing roles include proficiency in tools such as IDEA, ACI analytics, and Excel-based audit macros.
6: ERP AND AUTOMATION SYSTEMS:
ACCA professionals should be able to understand the ERP modules in finance, inventory, and payroll.
7: CYBERSECURITY BASICS:
Digitalization in financial sectors can also become a threat to the security of the data. One mistake can result in a data breach of confidential data. Therefore, awareness of risks in financial systems and knowledge of internal controls, as well as fraud prevention, are very important to survive in the digitalized financial world.
BENEFITS OF DIGITAL SKILLS FOR ACCA PROFESSIONALS:
Learning these digital skills as an ACCA professional can be very beneficial for your career, especially since some of the advantages these skills offer are as follows:
- Increases productivity, transparency, and accuracy of the task.
- Enhances your academic and professional profile.
- Opens the door to enhanced career opportunities.
CONCLUSION:
ACCA tech skills are very important in the modern financial world as digitalization in this sector has been adopted not only in India but internationally as well. To stay competent in the finance and accounting sector, professionals in India are required to adapt certain skills; the key digital skills for ACCA professionals are proficiency in accounting software, digital audit tools, ERP and automation, data analytics & visualization, cloud accounting knowledge, Excel & advanced spreadsheet skills, etc.
Therefore, if you are an aspirant of ACCA, do not overlook the importance of these digital skills and focus on them to stay relevant and stand out amongst other candidates in the job market.
FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS (FAQs)
Q1: How can ACCA aspirants in India learn ACCA tech skills?
Ans: Aspirants can learn ACCA tech skills by following these means:
- ACCA’s digital curriculum
- Online Certifications of the skills
- Internships and Projects
- Joining Tech-focused Communities.
- Workshops and Training.
Q2: Are there any free platforms to learn digital accounting/ financial skills?
Ans: Yes, there are some great options to learn digital accounting skills through free platforms such as ACCA-X, Microsoft Learn, Google Digital Garage, etc.
Q3: Do ACCA exams focus on examining an aspirant’s digital skills?
Ans: Yes, some of the ACCA exams, such as SBL, SBR, AA, and EPSM modules, focus on data analysis, audit technologies, as well as digital judgment.
