Executive Development Program In Financial Analytics

Financial Analytics Executive Program by XLRI Jamshedpur

Finance plays a critical part to improve the value of your company. These days many businesses are relying on analytics for the data and numbers. Firms require real-time data to assist executives in making critical business decisions. This is where financial analytics comes into play.

As per Oxford, “Analytics is the systematic computational analysis of data or statistics. It is used for the discovery, interpretation, and communication of meaningful patterns in data. It also entails applying data patterns towards effective decision-making.”

Financial analytics is a process that allows different perspectives on a company’s financial data. It also allows you an intuitive understanding to take strategic measures accordingly and improve your company’s performance.

In simpler terms, financial analytics provides insights into an organization’s financial performance to help increase their resources and capital by analyzing and interpreting the precise and factual data. Companies use financial analytics to improve their business strategies as well.

Now, let us get a better understanding of what financial analytics is, its types, why it is important in the corporate world, and the job opportunities after completion of the financial analytics course for executives in India.

What is financial analytics?

Financial analytics is a discipline that examines a company’s financial data from many perspectives. It assists you to acquire an in-depth understanding to take appropriate actions in order to improve your company’s performance.

Financial analytics affects every aspect of your company. It plays a crucial role when it comes to estimating a company’s profitability. It also helps you predict the financial circumstances of the company. Financial analytics aims to use accurate and verified data to strategize business plans and boost a company’s value.

The changing role of the corporate finance sector is also influencing financial procedures. Traditionally, financial professionals have manually forecasted future circumstances using previous data and patterns. However, now they are shifting their focus towards advanced data analytics, automation, and machine learning, etc.

These days, financial services and other data-intensive industries heavily rely on analytics. Financial service organizations, especially banks generate and keep more data than almost any other sector because the finance industry is entirely based on transactions.

While banks have utilized data to evaluate and measure risks, data analysts are now playing an important role as consultants, providing vital information to senior management on how to increase the profitability of the company. Nowadays, financial firms evaluate both structured and unstructured data, such as market and trade as well as data from news articles and social media posts.

Importance of Financial Analytics

Financial analytics is important for businesses in various manners. Most financial institutions are dependent on financial analytics for making informed decisions.

Listed below are some of the reasons why financial analytics course is important nowadays:

• Financial analytics assists businesses in discerning the risks they may face and how to improve and expand their functions more efficiently. It also helps to determine whether the funds are invested in the right place or not.
• Financial analytics is concerned with measuring the profitability of the business and managing concrete assets such as hard cash, available resources, etc.
• Financial analytics helps extract accurate data to refine the decision-making process of the businesses and solves the financial complexities of the organization.
• The need for financial analytics has arisen because of the advent of new technologies and business models.
• The main focus of data warehousing solutions is on data analytics for finance professionals. Datastores, data marts, and reporting applications are the essential analytical components. In the future, data warehousing will necessitate extensive analytical skills.

Types of Financial Analytics

In today’s data-driven world, analytics is essential for every organization for an efficient business process. Financial analytics helps you in understanding and making strategic decisions to increase business growth. Here are some of the most important financial analytics that every business should put into effect:

1. Predictive Sales Analytics
2. Client Profitability Analytics
3. Product Profitability Analytics
4. Cash Flow Analytics
5. Value-Driven Analytics
6. Shareholder Value Analytics

• Predictive Sales Analytics: Predictive sales analytics is the use of statistics, modeling and data mining techniques to help identify patterns and past trends to forecast future sales. It can help you in planning and managing the production of the firm.
   
• Customer Profitability Analytics: Customer Profitability Analysis is an accounting system to determine the profit generated by a customer. A lucrative client is someone who produces more revenue than the expense of acquiring and marketing. Companies determine the customer profitability analysis on a customer-to-customer basis or per customer-group basis.
   
• Product Profitability Analysis: The practice of associating a company’s comprehensive profit to the profit of an individual product is known as Product Profitability Analysis. The amount of money left after deducting the total cost from the whole of the revenue at the end of an accounting year is the profit of the company.
   
• Cash Flow Analytics: Cash Flow Analytics helps determine the amount of money available to operate day-to-day business activities and support a range of other assignments. Current liabilities (dues of the upcoming accounting period) are subtracted from the current assets (available notes and outstandings) to calculate the cash flow.
   
• Value-Driven Analytics: Most businesses have set their goals and objectives that they want to accomplish. Value-Driven Analytics helps identify the company’s value drivers or key levers the company needs to work on to attain its objectives. These levers are evaluated using value-driven analytics to make sure if the organization can achieve the desired results.
   
• Shareholder Value Analytics: Shareholder Value Analytics is a strategy that helps generate economic value for shareholders through price performance and cash flow of a share. How analysts, investors, and the media interpret the profits and losses, can have an impact on the performance of a company in the stock market. The worth of a firm is determined by the returns on investments it provides to its shareholders.

Top 10 Skills Financial Analysts Need to Master

As the term implies, analytical skills are the most crucial skills for a financial analyst. Besides that, a financial analyst must possess other additional qualities that a company looks for. So, here are the 10 most important skills that a financial analyst should have.

1. Analytical Skills: Analytical skills are defined as the ability to think logically, collect a range of data and analyze it in various ways. An effective financial analyst possesses the capability to predict the financial circumstances of an organization.
    
2. Communication Skills: Communication skills are important for financial analysts since they have a direct impact on interpersonal skills. These skills are also essential because you get to represent your company in front of the client, so you must be able to communicate confidently.
    
3. Problem-Solving Skills: With the constant changes happening in the financial industry, financial analysts must keep pace with the changes and stay updated at all times. You should be capable of dealing with complex financial issues and make an informed decision on the spot.
    
4. Technical Skills: Financial analysts frequently need to use software applications for bookkeeping such as R, Python, SAS, SAP, SQL, QuickBooks, which is why prior knowledge of this software along with MS Excel and MS Powerpoint can be extremely useful in this field.
    
5. Leadership and Management Skills: An analyst will eventually be asked to head a team of analysts, which will necessitate the development of leadership skills. Even entry-level analysts must possess these skills because project management is needed at every stage and teamwork demands effective leadership skills.
    
6. Attention to Detail: Building advanced financial models is a very critical job, and any small error, such as typing a depreciation number incorrectly, might give you a completely different result. Any minor mistake in data collection or trend analysis can change the results and a change of even one percent can significantly change the valuations of the market.
    
7. Accounting Skills: Accounting principles, budgeting, cost analysis, reconciling bank statements, managing cash flows, a basic understanding of the mathematical formulas used in the calculations are all examples of general accounting skills.
    
8. Organizational Skills: Financial analysts may need to maintain track of financial data as well as current operations of the company, therefore this skill will be beneficial. It is a valuable skill to be able to manage an organization’s records and financial statements.
    
9. Critical-Thinking Skills: Problem-solving skills and critical thinking are related to each other. Financial analysts require good critical thinking skills to smartly invest the company’s funds and make sound decisions regarding the sale and purchase of the shares.
    
10. Research Skills: Research is the most significant aspect of an analyst’s job. The reason is that if you don’t utilize your research skills and extract adequate data, there will be no point in doing the analysis.

Executive Development Program in Financial Analytics

With technological advancement and new business models, financial analytics has become a necessity for businesses. It helps businesses to make informed decisions to increase the returns on their investments. It also helps in predicting the future financial situations of the firm so that the objectives are planned accordingly.

The Executive Development Program in Financial Analytics offers you hands-on experience in building advanced financial models and a deep understanding of the advanced statistical tools required to handle the financial complexities of the business in an organized manner. This course will provide you with the knowledge of machine learning, credit risk modeling, performing financial analysis using R and Python.

This financial analyst course online is designed for professionals who want to advance their careers in finance and analytics. It is also suitable for finance executives and analysts who want to learn more about it.

Benefits of Financial Analytics:

Businesses need to have factual data so that they can make informed decisions to solve the financial complexities. To extract correct and factual data most businesses use cloud computing applications like QuickBooks, Xero, and Zoho Analytics. These software applications are designed to minimize errors and keep the track of financial activities of the company.

Given below are the 5 reasons why financial analytics course is beneficial for your career upgradation:

1. Real-Time Data: Financial analytics software provides accurate and real-time data to help you make better decisions. This software helps you manage and visualize data in one place to save time.
    
2. Predict Future Sales: Analyzing past and present sales performance helps you derive insightful data to forecast future sales of the company. Financial tools provide you with the visualization components such as charts and widgets based on the data you have accumulated over the years.
    
3. Technical Advancement: These days, almost every firm is being impacted by technological advancements. Using cloud-based financial tools can help a company increase its productivity and save on production costs. These tools are easy to use and can be combined with the company’s applications.
    
4. Track Cash Flow: Financial analytics tools have various tracking and reporting systems to help you maintain the track of cash flow in a company. These tools also help you find outstanding accounts and calculate the forthcoming bill cycles.
    
5. Better Security Systems: Financial analytics tools are built with defense mechanisms to help protect your data from cyber-attacks. In some analytics tools, you can also use multi-factor authentication to log in as a user. 

Financial Analyst: Top 5 Roles and Responsibilities That You Must Know in 2022

Financial analysts play an important part in the day-to-day operations of a company. They research and analyze financial data to gain a better understanding of the business and the market, as well as to determine how an organization is doing in comparison to its competitors. Then they make calculated submissions based on the market condition and the company’s financial data such as selling stocks or making new investments.

Given below is the list of the 5 most important responsibilities a financial analyst need to take care of:

1. Gather and Organize Information: An analyst’s responsibility is to identify, collect and organize the financial statements and accounting data that can be useful for their business. 
    
2. Examine Financial Statements: A financial analyst can examine a lot from a company’s financial statements. They can assess the company’s value by analyzing these statements.
    
3. Investment Recommendation: After analyzing the financial statement, an analyst builds a market projection and predicts how the firm is going to perform in the near future. Market knowledge comes in handy when making investment recommendations to the company or investment bankers.
    
4. Risk Analysis: An analyst may also evaluate the risks of losses involved while making financial investments for the company to maximize the returns on investments.
    
5. Portfolio Management: To create a strong portfolio, an organization needs to have a correct balance between industries, services, products, and global regions. Financial analysts examine the market and company’s financial data in order to develop and track a successful investment strategy. This helps to contribute to the organization’s long-term viability.

Job Opportunities After the Course is Completed

After the completion of the financial analytics course, you can upgrade your career in the following areas:

• Investment banking, commercial banking, research, sales, and trading are all bank-related jobs where financial analysts can work.
• Portfolio management, private equity, research are just a few examples of careers available in the institutional world.
• Corporate development, investor relations, financial planning, and analysis are a few examples of jobs available in the corporate world.

How to become a successful financial analyst?

Financial Analysis is used to assess economic performance, establish financial strategy, develop long-term goals for the company, and invest in potential projects to achieve those goals.

A financial analyst will analyze an organization’s financial accounts like balance sheets, cash flow statements, and income statements to forecast future profits along with the potential risks of losses.

From 2020 to 2030, the employment of financial analysts is expected to expand at a rate of 6%, which is about the same as the average of all occupations.

Financial analysts’ demand rises when the economy is growing. Financial analysts are required to analyze investment opportunities for the new emerging companies or the firm that wants to expand its business. Furthermore, rising markets around the world are opening up new investment opportunities.

Today, there are a variety of financial analyst courses online from recognized and reputed institutes to upgrade your career in the rising field of finance. These courses are designed to boost your accounting and analytical skills and provide you with the knowledge of machine learning for stock market predictions.

Frequently Asked Questions on Financial Analytics:
 

Q: What is Financial Analytics?

Ans: Financial analysis is the process of analyzing a company’s financial statements, profitability, assets, and liabilities. Financial analytics is employed to make well-informed and strategic financial decisions. Managers leverage over different views that financial analytics has to offer on a business’s financial data. It helps in eliminating risk by predicting market trends. Financial analytics can also detect fraud and other financial errors as well.

Q: Why should I pursue a Financial Analytics course?

Ans: Financial analytics have been instrumental in making financial decisions much more informed, efficient and effective. Financial analytics helps analyze the performance, manage tangible and intangible assets and investments of a business. It is done to forecast the variations in the market to enhance profits and improve the operations of a firm. It has become central to modern-day businesses’ operations and financial functions.

As a result, it has evolved to become a field that is of utmost importance for companies around the world, and professionals in financial analytics are in high demand. Well-trained financial analysts are drawing a handsome salary in the market today.

If you choose to pursue the Executive Development Program in Financial Analytics by XLRI, you are going to learn cutting-edge techniques and methodologies in financial analytics.
 

Q: How R and Python are beneficial in financial analytics?

Ans: R and Python, are best suited for running operations in financial analytics. You may find ample articles on Google that explain the differences between the two tools. However, rather than delving into detail about the differences between the two, we would want to emphasize that both of them are important and play a crucial role in their respective applications.

The Executive Development Program in Financial Analytics by XLRI will begin by exposing you to both R and Python. Learning R and Python is an added advantage as you choose which programming language best suits your team and businesses and you can proceed with either or both of them.
 

Q: Is prior experience in programming necessary for this course?

Ans: Prior experience in programming is not mandatory for the course, although it will be beneficial if you have some basic knowledge.

Here are the eligibility criteria for Executive Development Program in Financial Analytics by XLRI:

 • For Indian Participants – Graduates (10+2+3) or Diploma Holders (only 10+2+3) from a recognized university (UGC/AICTE/DEC/AIU/State Government) in any discipline

 • For International Participants – Graduation or equivalent degree from any recognized University or Institution in their respective country

• Proficiency in English, spoken and written, is mandatory

• Working professionals with a minimum of 2 years of work experience

 • Statistics/Mathematics as a subject up to Class XII

Q: Can people from non-financial backgrounds apply for this course?

Ans: Yes, you are welcome to enroll in this course even if you have no prior experience in finance or allied fields. However, you are required to have work experience of at least 2 years.

Q: How is it beneficial to learn Financial Analytics?

Ans: For professionals who are looking for a boost in their respective careers, pursuing this course will help them achieve their professional goals and objectives. With the world going digital rapidly, financial analytics has become central to the functions of most businesses. Hence, rightly trained professionals in financial analytics are high in demand across the spectrum. Learning financial analytics, specifically pursuing our Executive Development Program in Financial Analytics by XLRI is highly beneficial for the ones who are looking for a quantum leap in their careers. So, if you are a finance professional, executive, or analyst, this course will help you integrate different profiles with financial analytics — resulting in a rich and unique learning experience.

Q: What is the scope of Financial Analytics?

Ans: Today, financial analytics is offering flourishing opportunities across industries. As a financial analyst, you are expected to play an essential role in the functions of a business. Professionals in financial analytics are high in demand and if you are rightly trained in the field, you are going to draw handsome paychecks. An experienced financial analyst draws an average of INR 15 LPA. Below is the list of job profiles in the field that are highly desired in the market today:

• Financial Modelling Consultant • Business Analyst • Financial Associate • Risk Analyst • Financial Accounting Manager • Strategy Manager • Financial Reporting Analyst • Global Financial Analyst • Financial Planning Analyst • Project Operations Analyst • Capability Development Officer

Q: Will I become proficient in Financial Analytics after completing the course?

Ans: With a 95 percent of completion rate, 92 percent of satisfaction score, and 78 percent of referability rate, we can confidently say that our Executive Development Program in Financial Analytics course by XLRI has been a continuous success. Hence, after diligently completing this course, you will become proficient in financial analytics. The course is designed in such a way (blended learning, rich curriculum, advanced pedagogy, live and interactive sessions, etc.), that as soon as you finish the program, you will be able to run the processes independently and will prove to be an important asset of your team.

Q: What other thing will I learn in this course along with R and Python?

Ans: The course offers a rich learning experience to the students. Along with R and Python, you will learn Nature of Data in Finance and Sources of Financial Data, Cleaning and Preprocessing Data, Exploratory Data Analysis, Machine Learning, Building Models Using Accounting Data, Business Valuation Analytics, News Analytics, Time Series Analysis and Forecasting, Portfolio Analytics, Building Trading Algorithms, Building Stock Prices Forecasting Models using Machine Learning, and Credit Risk Modeling amongst many other things.

As most of our courses, the Executive Development Program in Financial Analytics course by XLRI is live and interactive and offers blended learning. You are going to learn a lot more than you had expected before joining the course.