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VP of Finance skills: what to learn first, and what can wait

Nobody hires a VP of Finance for knowing debits from credits. They hire you because you can tell the CEO on a Tuesday whether payroll clears next quarter, and prove it with a model they can follow. Here's which skills to build now and which ones only matter once you're in the seat.

17 open jobs

Step one

Gets you the interview

A weekly rolling cash forecastSearch partners ask about cash before anything else. Be ready to describe how you built receipts and disbursements by week, tied it back to the bank, and caught a squeeze before the CEO did.

Three-statement modeling in ExcelIncome statement, balance sheet and cash flow linked so a change in hiring or payment terms flows through all three. If your balance sheet doesn't balance when someone moves a driver, you won't get past the model review.

Owning a close on an ERPNetSuite, Sage Intacct or Microsoft Dynamics, plus a close checklist that finishes on a predictable day. Screeners want someone who has run the close, not just reviewed the flux analysis at the end.

Revenue recognition for your modelSubscription, usage-based, project billing or wholesale each have their own traps. Knowing how deferred revenue and contract modifications work for the business model you're applying into makes your résumé read as ready.

Step two

Gets you the offer

Building the annual operating planFinal rounds often ask how you'd run next year's budget. Walk through top-down targets, department owners submitting headcount in Adaptive Planning or Pigment, and the week you'd spend cutting it back to what the board will approve.

A board finance deckBring a sanitized version or rebuild one from memory. Board members on the panel look for a one-page summary, plan versus actual with a plain reason for each gap, and bad news on the first slide rather than the last.

Unit economics for the businessGross margin by product, customer acquisition cost and payback, contribution margin per location or per order. Pick the few that actually run this company and explain how you'd report them each month.

Audit and controlsYou'll own the relationship with the outside auditors and the list of findings. Describe a segregation-of-duties fix, an approval workflow in Bill or Coupa, and how you kept an audit from dragging past its deadline.

Step three

Gets you promoted

Debt, banking and treasuryNegotiating a revolver, reading covenant definitions line by line and keeping the bank relationship warm are CFO skills you can learn from the VP chair. Sit in on every lender call you're allowed into.

Equity raises and diligenceRunning the data room, answering investor questions on the model and cleaning up the cap table in Carta is where VPs get noticed. It's also where sloppy history in the books comes back to bite.

Pricing and deal deskReviewing discount requests, setting approval limits with the head of sales and modeling what a new pricing tier does to margin. It pulls you into how the company makes money, which is what CEOs want from a CFO.

Building a finance teamHiring a controller and an FP&A lead, deciding what to outsource to a payroll or tax firm, and writing the job scopes. Your next title depends on whether finance runs without you in every meeting.

Certificates worth your time

Certificate	Best for	Effort	Worth it?
Certified Public Accountant (CPA)	VPs who came up through accounting, or anyone aiming at a CFO seat at a company heading toward an audit-heavy future	Many months of study for the exam, plus education and experience rules set by each state	The credential CEOs and audit committees trust most in this chair. You can get the job without it, especially from an FP&A background, but it closes the question about technical accounting before anyone asks.
Certified Management Accountant (CMA)	FP&A leaders who want a recognised credential in budgeting, costing and planning without the public accounting route	Several months of evening study for the exam, plus an experience requirement	Worth it if you lack a CPA and want something on paper that matches the planning side of the job. It carries less weight than a CPA with auditors and boards.

Exam rules, fees and CPA licensing requirements change and vary by state, so check your state board of accountancy or the IMA before you commit.

Put it on your resume like this

Weak

Responsible for finance and accounting, including budgeting, forecasting and reporting to leadership.

Strong

Led a 9-person finance team at a $120M ARR software company, cut the monthly close from 15 to 6 business days on NetSuite, and built a 13-week cash forecast that guided a $25M credit facility.

Questions people ask

What VP of Finance skill should I build first?

Cash forecasting. It's the question every CEO and board member asks, and it's the one you can't bluff. Build a weekly forecast for your current company, even if nobody asked for it, and compare it to the bank each Friday.

Do I need a CPA to become a VP of Finance?

No. Plenty of VPs come from FP&A or investment banking without one. If you don't have it, hire a strong controller and be ready to explain how you'd handle technical accounting questions from the auditors.

Which planning tool should I learn?

Excel first, always, because every model review happens there. After that, learn whichever planning tool the companies you're targeting run, usually Adaptive Planning, Anaplan or Pigment. The logic carries over between them faster than people expect.

How do I show board experience if I've never presented to one?

Talk about the pieces you built. If you wrote the deck, prepared the CFO for questions or sat in the room taking notes, say so plainly. Offering to present a sample deck in the interview is a strong move.

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