The following are all aspects of a financial analyst’s duties:

• Perform financial forecasting, reporting, and operational metrics tracking
• Analyze financial data and create financial models for decision support
• Report on financial performance and prepare for regular leadership reviews
• Analyze past results, perform variance analysis, identify trends, and make recommendations for improvements
• Work closely with the accounting team to ensure accurate financial reporting
• Evaluate financial performance by comparing and analyzing actual results with plans and forecasts
• Guide the cost analysis process by establishing and enforcing policies and procedures
• Provide analysis of trends and forecasts and recommend actions for optimization
• Recommend actions by analyzing and interpreting data and making comparative analyses; study proposed changes in methods and materials
• Identify and drive process improvements, including the creation of standard and ad-hoc reports, tools, and Excel dashboards
• Increase productivity by developing automated reporting/forecasting tools
• Perform market research, data mining, business intelligence, and valuation comps
• Maintain a strong financial analysis foundation by creating forecasts and models
• Proficiency with Microsoft Excel is mentioned in virtually any financial analyst job description; familiarity with data query/data management tools is extremely helpful (Access, SQL, Business Objects)