COMMERCIAL FINANCE ANALYST COVER LETTER TEMPLATE

Published: August 1, 2024 - The Commercial Finance Analyst is responsible for the efficient execution of all financial processes, this role includes weekly reporting on sales and margin by category, identifying variances to budget and prior years, and managing balance sheet reconciliations. In addition to preparing annual budgets and rolling forecasts, the Commercial Finance Analyst develops key business partnerships to enhance performance insights and support KPI challenges. Continuous improvement initiatives are pursued through advancements in Power BI reporting, system automation, and process optimization, alongside analytical support for enhancing long-term and short-term financial strategies.

An Introduction to Professional Skills and Functions for Commercial Finance Analyst with a Cover Letter

1. Details for Commercial Finance Analyst Cover Letter

  • Assist in reporting and analysis of commercial performance and profitability.
  • Provide accurate and timely information for month, quarter and year-end close.
  • Provide financial and business-related analyses to assess the impact of various corporate projects and transactions.
  • Prepare details of work plan and schedule, complete detailed analysis, identify options, and prepare reports for management.
  • Providing financial and analytical support to cross-functional teams to support tactical and strategic business decisions.
  • Support and assist in Forecasting processes
  • Support and validate Customer rebates scheme.
  • Support development and implementation of standard reports in Cognos
  • Participate in the initiatives related to internal controls, ethics and values, OGSM, and culture change.
  • Support to the Commercial Finance Manager's Financial analysis around NPD, business cases, Investment analysis due diligence
  • Ensure business cases are adequately documented, have received the right expert input and sign-off is in accordance with the DOA
  • Facilitate Post Implementation Performance Monitoring in Areas
  • Key contact for the sales team supporting the target setting and calculating actuals of the Sales Incentive Plan and ad-hoc sales rewards


Skills: Financial Reporting and Analysis, Business Performance Analysis, Cross-Functional Financial Support, Forecasting and Budgeting, Report Development and Standardization, Internal Controls and Compliance, Sales Incentive and Performance Monitoring, Project Management and Documentation

2. Roles for Commercial Finance Analyst Cover Letter

  • Analyses and forecasts complex financial, economic and other quantitative data to provide accurate and timely information and recommendations to senior management for medium and long term strategic and operational decisions.
  • Provide in-depth analysis – quantitatively and qualitatively to the business and decision-makers.
  • Proactively prepare and develop financial plans/budgets, simulations and models based on business objectives, plans and alternatives/options 
  • Actively monitors and generates reports on the business performance.
  • Acts as a business partner of the sales and marketing team by providing relevant information and key financial insights.
  • Review and analyze numbers from operations and support groups and works closely with business operations and with accounting during month-end closing.
  • Generate management and Electrolux group reports.
  • Provide profitability analysis for the commercial team
  • Create simulations, and models for different scenarios, schemes and promotions.
  • Managing customer's contract, contracted sales target, and incentive programs.
  • Maintain rebate scheme, management of rebate, promotions review of actual vs accrual/forecast.
  • Monitor standard operation procedure on pricing, discounts, rebates and promotions.
  • Controlling of selling price, maintain master data on chart of accounts, pricing, discounts, product hierarchy.
  • Work in parallel with accounting on financial close.
  • Subject matter expert on financial tools and systems.
  • Provide commercial support and oversight to achieve objectives


Skills: Financial Analysis & Forecasting, Budgeting & Financial Planning, Performance Monitoring & Reporting, Business Partnership & Financial Insights, Operational & Accounting Coordination, Profitability Analysis & Commercial Support, Pricing & Promotions Management, Financial Tools & Systems Proficiency

3. Responsibilities for Commercial Finance Analyst Cover Letter

  • Ensure timely and effective delivery of all financial processes, reporting & analysis including;
  • Weekly reporting and analysis of sales and margin by category, including variances to budget & prior year.
  • Prepare, post journals and Balance sheet reconciliations
  • Annual Budget & Rolling Forecast preparation
  • Developing strong business partnering relationships with the commercial and finance team to further enhance insight and challenge/support the business on KPIs
  • Support with adhoc analysis to support the wider commercial finance team
  • Continuously drive process and system improvements for all Reports
  • Support as required with auditor queries as part of the year-end audit
  • Driving the area of Power BI reporting, automation and standardisation
  • Analyze the Long Term/Short Term pipelines on adequacy to meet Target and present recommendations to improve the overall pipeline with trade-specific analysis and contract type (Long Term/Short Term) analysis
  • Support customer profitability performance


Skills: Financial Reporting and Analysis, Journal Preparation and Balance Sheet Reconciliation, Budgeting and Forecasting, Business Partnering, Process Improvement, Ad Hoc Analysis, Power BI and Automation, Pipeline Analysis and Recommendations

4. Functions for Commercial Finance Analyst Cover Letter

  • Engage in cost center reporting, analysis & monitoring.
  • Prepare monthly Management Reports.
  • Perform variance analysis preparation, work closely with key business partners
  • Support month-end closing in line with the timetable.
  • Compare actual to budgeted results at the end of each reporting period & report on significant variances.
  • Complete ad-hoc financial analysis for management projects to ensure sound financials are behind the decision-making process.
  • Provide full business analytics support to the Team Lead Sales & Team Lead Marketing.
  • Deliver on-time and accurate Monthly Reports.
  • Report on KPI trends (Net Sales, Trade Investment and Gross Margin) at a Country & Customer level.
  • Have regular Interaction with the Global Finance Team (GFT).
  • Driving process improvement
  • Develop and maintain specific KPI’s to support the contract and customer reporting requirements.
  • Executing accurate daily, weekly and monthly reporting in a timely manner, including operational and financial performance of the business unit to key stakeholders both internal and external.


Skills: Cost Center Reporting & Analysis, Management Reporting, Variance Analysis, Month-End Closing Support, Ad-Hoc Financial Analysis, Business Analytics Support, KPI Reporting, Process Improvement

5. Accountabilities for Commercial Finance Analyst Cover Letter

  • Provide financial counsel and analysis for proposed strategic growth initiatives, monitor local operations performance against financial LRP/Plans/Updates/LBE’s and ensure management is advised on exposure issues.
  • Drive development and preparation of solid financial business plans (and underlying analysis) to ensure the affiliate delivers its financial commitments.
  • Advise senior management in areas of profit maximization, resource prioritization, negotiating with distributors and day-to-day operations. 
  • Anticipate market activities that can impact business. 
  • Provide economic/political scenarios.
  • Provide timely inputs to management regarding any financial risks, including those associated with trade activities and inventory issues across the supply chain. 
  • Provide recommendations on how to manage these risks
  • Ensure that overall internal controls and administrative procedures are adequately maintained for the nutrition business.
  • Trade promotion activities, including price discounting, free goods promotions and similar activities are properly monitored to ensure that these are within approved budgets and will not lead to the accumulation of trade inventory beyond targets
  • All expenses related to the above trade promotion activities are properly and timely recorded in the books
  • Trade promotion programs are reviewed and evaluated to make sure that amount of investment achieves the desired returns (ROI)
  • Drive the demand management team to develop robust demand forecasts to achieve acceptable accuracy levels. 
  • Ensure the proper inventory mix is maintained at the distributor to ensure no stockouts.
  • In cooperation with the distributors, manage the risk of excess/expiring products to minimize write-offs and returns Review and approve distributor claims in coordination with Host Finance/Accounting


Skills: Financial Analysis & Counsel, Budget Management & Planning, Risk Management & Mitigation, Economic & Market Insight, Trade Promotion Oversight, Inventory & Demand Management, Internal Controls & Compliance, Financial Reporting & Evaluation

What Are the Qualifications and Requirements for Commercial Finance Analyst in a Cover Letter?

1. Knowledge And Abilities for Commercial Finance Analyst Cover Letter

  • Experience in a commercial, financial management or accounting role, with exposure to forecasting, modelling and variance analysis
  • Ability to effectively use systems and analytical tools to generate reports, utilising data from a variety of sources
  • A detailed understanding of business cost drivers and KPIs
  • Ability to work both within a team and independently to resolve complex financial issues
  • Ability to influence, negotiate and present key issues to stakeholders to achieve desired outcomes
  • Ability to develop positive and collaborative relationships
  • Ability to self-manage and prioritise time appropriately
  • Exceptional data handling skills (Excel/SAP/BI
  • Able to illustrate with data to influence stakeholders.
  • Strong business partnering skills
  • Able to demonstrate professional handling of challenging commercial situations.


Qualifications: BA in Finance with 4 years of Experience

2. Experience and Requirements for Commercial Finance Analyst Cover Letter

  • Working experience in finance
  • Excellent skills with MS Excel such as Oracle, HFM/CMR, Cognos 
  • Experience within a finance function. 
  • Strong financial acuity, including familiarity with concepts of forecasting, budgeting, and variance analysis
  • Data management experience and the ability to manage large sets of data and accurate reports
  • Attention to detail and consistently delivering high-quality work. 
  • Ability to learn quickly, meet deadlines, and multi-task in a deadline-driven environment.
  • Strong team-building skills working with a diverse group of people
  • Experience within retail or FMCG
  • Excellent numerical and analytical skills
  • Passionate about the luxury retail industry


Qualifications: BA in Accounting with 3 years of Experience

3. Skills, Knowledge, and Experience for Commercial Finance Analyst Cover Letter

  • Analytical experience, with an aptitude for problem solving and decision making
  • Strong data management and Excel skills- applied use of Excel to advanced level (macros, pivots, reporting, queries etc)
  • Confident, articulate, able and willing to challenge peers and seniors
  • Experience in a B2B sales organisation required and SaaS or other subscription business background desirable
  • Salesforce experience (or other relevant large CRM exposure)
  • Should be comfortable with utilising and interrogating a wide variety of systems
  • Previous experience working with IBM Planning Analytics / TM1 or similar planning tools preferable
  • Excellent communication and inter-personal skills, ability to build relationships with key stakeholders
  • Ability to prioritize workload, perform under pressure and meet tight deadlines
  • Qualified Accountant (ACA, ACCA, CIMA)
  • Focus on continuous improvement
  • Ability to easily determine the key drivers of a result and articulately explain the "story"
  • Able to succeed in a fast, high-growth and fairly unstructured work environment


Qualifications: BA in Business Administration with 4 years of Experience

4. Requirements and Experience for Commercial Finance Analyst Cover Letter

  • Experience in FP&A, Commercial Finance, Consulting, or any other field with substantial exposure to analytical and financial modeling, forecasting, KPI development and measurement
  • Strong quantitative skills and the ability to use them practically to solve commercial problems (including the fuzzy, imperfectly scoped ones!).
  • Able to execute and continuously improve financial processes across many systems.
  • Excellent business partnering skills
  • Experience in talking the language of varied stakeholders across Growth Commercial & Marketing, Supply Chain Operations, Data/BI, and Finance
  • Form own judgments about stakeholders’ requests and priorities
  • Ability to work autonomously
  • Strong organization and time management skills with the ability to work under pressure and to tight deadlines
  • Intermediate to advanced MS Excel skills
  • Ability to synthesize qualitative and quantitative findings into leadership-level presentations
  • Ability to work cross-functionally with partners across multiple departments


Qualifications: BA in Economics with 6 years of Experience

5. Education and Experience for Commercial Finance Analyst Cover Letter

  • Strong Microsoft Excel skills – Formulas, Pivot Tables and Vlookup
  • Experience in financial and business analysis in a corporate environment
  • Experience with Microsoft finance processes (forecasting/planning/revenue management, etc.), products and services
  • Demonstrated experience in handling complex business analytics, reporting and revenue forecasting in a multi-country setting
  • Ability to work with stakeholders spread across various time zones and cultural backgrounds
  • Experience in commercial forecasting and partnership
  • Strong technical skills across Microsoft Office Suite and Salesforce.com
  • Excellent problem-solver and dynamic team contributor
  • Experience in fast-growing, international business
  • Excellent communication skills and the ability to present complex financial data in a clear and relevant way
  • Strong interpersonal skills, with an ability to influence and challenge others


Qualifications: BA in Financial Management with 4 years of Experience