WHAT DOES A FINANCE INTERN DO?
Published: Mar 17, 2025 - The Finance Intern supported the corporate finance team with treasury, ERP, and corporate finance projects, assisting in the analysis of financial processes and recommending optimizations. Prepared monthly financial reporting packages, financial models, and P&L, Balance Sheet, and Cash Flow forecasting. Assisted in executing Worksite projects and performed research to assess and improve current processes, managing time effectively to meet deadlines.
A Review of Professional Skills and Functions for Finance Intern
1. Finance Intern Duties
- Payment Assistance: Assist in AP payment and AR billing process
- Accounting Support: Support the accounting team with month-end closing activities, including but not limited to the preparation of accounting journals
- Reconciliation Support: Support in monthly balance sheet reconciliation
- Process Automation: Automate and document various finance processes
- Reconciliation Analysis: Account reconciliation and analysis
- Data Visualization: Create data visualizations and content in a financial dashboard environment
- Data Management: Data pull, validation and distribution
- Tax Compliance: Assist with various tax compliance matters
- Data Gathering: Gather competitive data from publicly available sources
- Audit Assistance: Assist with internal audits and assist with month-end close
- Relationship Management: Establish and maintain strong contacts with other departments and external partners on financial and accountancy aspects
2. Finance Intern Details
- Project Assistance: Assist in cross-functional finance-related projects
- Capital Management: Support efforts to manage working capital
- Treasury Setup: Support the set-up of the global treasury landscape
- Financial Planning: Assist in spreadsheet, business plan, budget, and forecast preparation and analysis
- Data Analysis: Support in conducting data-based quantitative analyses to enhance finance department KPI
- Project Ownership: Take ownership of one or more projects related to working capital financing, insurance, and treasury
- Report Management: Update, produce, and distribute financial reports on multiple reporting systems
- Analytical Research: Complete analytical projects that may include examining revenue drivers (e.g., billable hours), assessing the efficiency of business processes, evaluating market trends, and generating statistical snapshots of firm performance
- Strategic Planning: Participate in top-level financial planning and analysis, including setting billing rates, profitability modeling, revenue budgeting, and legal market forecasting
- Presentation Creation: Create presentations for practice groups and regional offices to be used by upper-level firm management
- Strategic Engagement: Engage in long-term, strategic projects aimed at business development and improving firm practices
- Record Maintenance: Assist with maintenance of timekeeper and rate records
3. Finance Intern Responsibilities
- Performance Insight: Partnering with the Commercial Finance leaders and operating teams to provide insight into key operating performance metrics, including profitability, growth, cash flow, price, and market share
- Data-Driven Management: Driving Daily Management and supporting data-driven decisions across the region, providing P&L, Balance Sheet, Cash Flow, and key metrics visibility to support timely actions
- Analytical Support: Analytical support during planning and estimate cycles, working with relevant stakeholders to align input assumptions
- Project Participation: Participate in project management, business analysis, research methods, and competitive analysis
- Material Development: Develop materials to support current and future programs (i.e., dashboards, communications, workflows, presentations, etc.)
- Program Support: Support the development and execution of departmental programs
- Process Development: Develop processes and partner with internal customers and business partners
- Request Response: Respond to ad-hoc requests for internal and/or external customers to ensure alignment of programs and initiatives
- Research and Presentation: Research, create presentations, provide recommendations, and insight into industry best practices, and provide customer service to internal departments
- E-Invoice Management: E-invoice issuance, monitoring aged receivables, and update of AR sheet
- Closing Assistance: Assist with monthly closing and management reporting
- Audit Assistance: Assist with year-end audit, CIT filing, submission of Statistic reports, and other documents as required by governmental authorities
4. Finance Intern Accountabilities
- Project Support: Support corporate finance team with the handling of projects within the field of treasury, ERP, and corporate finance
- Implementation Support: Support the projects team in understanding the current needs of Controlling & Accounting and help them implement new projects
- Data Preparation: Execute analysis and prepare complex data for the finance team
- Process Analysis: Analyze financial processes based on elaborate recommendations for action as well as measures of optimization for day-to-day business
- Reporting Preparation: Prepare monthly financial reporting packages for internal management review
- Modeling: Prepare financial models for P&L, Balance Sheet, and Cash Flow forecasting
- Financial Analysis: Prepare financial statement analysis and metrics and comparatives with industry peers
- Flux Analysis: Prepare financial statement flux analysis and provide detailed explanations for external auditors
- Project Assistance: Assist in the execution of specific Worksite projects
- Process Research: Perform research on current processes while assessing areas for improvement
- Review Identification: Identify matters that should be reviewed and/or escalated to Senior / Manager
- Time Management: Manage time in order to complete work timely and accurately
5. Finance Intern Functions
- Closing Assistance: Assist in monthly close schedule to include but not limited to: Preparation of journal entries, Preparation and entry of sales invoicing.
- Budget Assistance: Assist with the annual budget process and fixed asset reporting.
- Account Reconciliation: Reconciliation of general ledger accounts.
- Reporting Assistance: Assist with weekly and monthly production metric reports (Operations only).
- Cost Analysis: Assist with standard cost rolls, purchase price variance review and Kit Bill of Materials review (Aftermarket only).
- Costing Analysis: Provide costing analysis and margin review
- Process Improvement Support: Support the implementation of the finance process improvements in full cooperation with stakeholders.
- Domain Support: Give support to all relevant domains such as operations, sales, marketing, R&D.
- Analysis Support: Support for delivering the standard sales & margin analysis.
- Analytical Assistance: Assist on the business analytical review performed by the Business Partner.
- SAP Implementation Support: Support on the SAP S4 implementation project.