Industry accountants

Industry accountants are qualified financial professionals operating within commercial businesses rather than traditional accountancy firms, often undertaking varied roles that range from preparing budgets and forecasts to analysing datasets from various internal systems. 

Relevant competencies

Because organisations depend heavily on the spreadsheets these professionals create and maintain, robust design and adherence to best practice are core competencies. Furthermore, as corporate decisions are frequently driven directly by spreadsheet outputs, mastering spreadsheet review and error-protection is essential. Finally, while maximising user efficiency is highly beneficial given the frequency of daily use, the diverse nature of these corporate roles means most other advanced functionalities are also viewed as complementary competencies that enhance overall capability.

The competency framework

ICAEW's Spreadsheet Competency Framework is colour coded to illustrate the relevance of each competency.

• Core competencies form the essential Excel knowledge required for this job role.
• Beneficial competencies are additional skills individuals may choose to develop to strengthen their capability.
• Less relevant competencies remain useful Excel skills but are not as directly applicable to the role and therefore may be given lower priority.

Below is an interactive summary of the core competencies, as well as those beneficial to develop further capabilities, for this job role. Click through each section, in the left-hand column, to explore the framework. 

More support

We have built a unique Microsoft Power BI dashboard allowing users to explore the Spreadsheet Competency Framework and all of the Excel content from icaew.com, and the ION archive, in one place.

Explore the framework in more detail and filter it by section, role, level and relevance to learn how it can apply to you or your organisation.

• Access the dashboard.