How To Become A Finance Planning Analyst: What It Is and Career Path

What is a finance planning analyst and how to become one

Updated January 8, 2025

4 min read

Quoted expert

Nate Peach Ph.D.

A Finance Planning Analyst's main and base task is to analyze, assess, and understand the current financial position and assets of an individual, company, or organization by whom they were hired. This data is then used to predict what may come and understand how one could and should move forward to gain a better and more secure financial position. They then present this data in a clear and easy-to-understand format to the client and further discuss them. Throughout the process, the Analyst ensures that the information is secure and confidential, as well as consistently and continuously updated.

Due to the very nature of this job, the Analyst must remain vigilant, ever-expanding their understanding and knowledge of the financial and business world, as well as the analysis of both.

A Finance Planning Analyst need not have a Bachelor's degree in finance or a similar field, though some companies will ask for it, and many may prefer it. The key things to have for this job are previous finance, budgeting, analysis, and data comprehension.

What general advice would you give to a finance planning analyst?

Nate Peach Ph.D.

Associate Professor of Economics, George Fox University

Try to stay optimistic. You've invested your time, energy, and money on a precious degree. The pandemic has not changed the value of the skills you've acquired. What it has done is to make it challenging to find a job for the moment. Things are weird right now. Many companies are redesigning their hiring practices, which is bound to cause challenges for job seekers. The skills that you developed as an economist are precious to employers, be diligent in your job search, and you will be rewarded with a great career.

ScoreFinance Planning AnalystUS Average

Salary

6.0

Avg. Salary $77,027

Avg. Salary $59,228

Stability level

5.8

Growth rate 9%

Growth rate 0.3%

Diversity

5.5

Race

American Indian and Alaska Native 0.10%

Asian 14.09%

Black or African American 5.64%

Hispanic or Latino 7.67%

Unknown 4.50%

White 68.00%

Gender

female 38.29%

male 61.71%

Age - 38

Race

American Indian and Alaska Native 3.00%

Asian 7.00%

Black or African American 14.00%

Hispanic or Latino 19.00%

White 57.00%

Gender

female 47.00%

male 53.00%

Age - 38

Stress level

5.8

Stress level is manageable

7.1 - high

Complexity level

8.4

Complexity level is challenging

7 - challenging

Work life balance

4.3

Work life balance is poor

6.4 - fair

Key steps to become a finance planning analyst

Explore finance planning analyst education requirements

Most common finance planning analyst degrees

Bachelor's

75.1 %

Master's

20.4 %

Associate

3.1 %

Start to develop specific finance planning analyst skills

Skills	Percentages
Financial Analysis	8.86%
PowerPoint	7.86%
Financial Planning Analysis	6.78%
Financial Performance	6.23%
Financial Models	5.61%

Complete relevant finance planning analyst training and internships

Accountants spend an average of 6-12 months on post-employment, on-the-job training. New finance planning analysts learn the skills and techniques required for their job and employer during this time. The chart below shows how long it takes to gain competency as a finance planning analyst based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics data and data from real finance planning analyst resumes.

Research finance planning analyst duties and responsibilities

Lead an initiative to improve high and low level user communication regarding company forecasting and reporting software, IBM Cognos TM1.
Manage complex securities and investment portfolio reporting.
Develop, maintain financial models/applications (VBA Excel/Access) to automate and streamline business processes and perform financial analysis.
Facilitate month-end close process by delegating the preparation of journal entries and reconciliations.

Prepare your finance planning analyst resume

When your background is strong enough, you can start writing your finance planning analyst resume.

You can use Zippia's AI resume builder to make the resume writing process easier while also making sure that you include key information that hiring managers expect to see on a finance planning analyst resume. You'll find resume tips and examples of skills, responsibilities, and summaries, all provided by Zippi, your career sidekick.

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