Content
Do you sometimes feel like you are repeating the same tasks over and over again? Always working towards month-end closing deadlines with recurring and repetitive procedures? You enjoy working with finance and controlling concepts, but at the same time you would like to help design financial processes and help companies improve & streamline their financial and controlling procedures.
Maybe you are looking for something different, a new challenge where you can add more value and make a broader impact. If this sounds familiar, a career in SAP finance consulting might be an interesting next step. Keep on reading this blog article, it might be worthwhile.
SAP Finance Consultancy - A scary job?
I still remember when I applied for my first SAP Finance consultant position more than 25 years ago. At the time, I thought consultancy would be too technical for me, full of programming activities and with little “human” interaction. In reality, I quickly had to adjust my view. The role turned out to be much more about communication, collaboration, and understanding business processes.
Even today, many people ask me what finance, controlling, or SAP FICO consultants actually do in an SAP environment. A common misconception is that SAP consultants only perform IT-related tasks such as coding or programming, working somewhere in the back office without much interaction with the business.
Nothing could be further from the truth.
As an SAP finance consultant, interaction with customers, colleagues, stakeholders, and management is part of daily work. Consultants listen to business needs and help organizations design the best financial and controlling setup for their specific requirements. To do this successfully, you need to understand financial processes and translate them into effective system solutions. This includes analyzing requirements, interpreting business needs, designing solution concepts, communicating with stakeholders, testing solutions, and guiding implementations.
Many people assume that implementation automatically means programming. In reality, programming is usually performed by technical consultants when the SAP standard does not fully cover a requirement. The role of a finance consultant is mainly to configure and customize the system using standard SAP functionality and to act as a bridge between the business requirements, the SAP system, and technical experts when needed.
So in short: for me, being an SAP Finance consultant is not a scary job, it is a challenging and rewarding one.
Even after more than 25 years working at PIKON, I am still discovering new SAP functionalities. Financial regulations, guidelines, and business requirements continue to evolve, which means we are constantly learning and improving solutions for our customers.
Can I become an SAP FI Consultant without deep IT know-how?
Yes, you can!
Of course, you need to have some basic IT skills on an operative level, but most important is the financial and/or controlling experiences you bring along.
From the moment you have a couple of years of financial background and have worked with an accounting or ERP system as a user, you can relate to the problems companies are facing. You can understand and assess their processes, discuss with customers on the same level of understanding and terminology.
At PIKON we take care to extend your technical skill set, so that you can link your business know-how with the corresponding SAP settings and processes. If you can combine this with an outgoing and positive mindset, you are ready to start your career as an SAP finance consultant.
The biggest advantage of being a Finance SAP consultant at PIKON, is that you find a position which allows you to combine your financial knowledge and background, with more in-depth SAP system setup and communication with several stakeholders. It is a challenging and rewarding job, that not only brings added value to the customers you serve but also contributes to your own personal and professional growth.
How does a day as an SAP Finance Consultant look like?
This is a complicated question, as every day as an SAP Finance consultant is different. I cannot remember having lived the same day twice over my lengthy career. However, I can point out some of the frequent activities you can encounter in a project, far away from being a complete list… :
- Workshops with financial teams, as well as alignments with logistical teams for cross-module integrational topics.
- Regular status meetings with stakeholders.
- Analyzing & optimizing process flows.
- Researching possible solutions.
- Writing blueprints to be approved by the business and functional design documents (needed for aligning with technical consultants)
- Configuring the SAP system.
- Testing the processes in test systems, not only from your own, but from an end-to-end perspective.
- Providing training for the key users.
- Preparing cut-over activities and prepare the production system for start-up
- Supporting issues in the productive system.
And these only represent the customer projects. Apart from that, there are also many internal activities where you can make a difference, ranging from providing internal training to coaching newcomers.
How long do typical projects run?
Another interesting question, without a straight answer.
There are many different projects in which an SAP Finance consultant can be involved in. At one end of the spectrum, this could be a full scope greenfield implementation, where global and local business blueprints need to be written based on extensive analysis & design workshops, followed by a long build, testing, cut over and hypercare phases. These projects can last from one to several years.
For roll-outs (term typically used for organizations that have template processes but need to include a new acquisition or country on their SAP system), this could be done between half a year and one year.
On the other end, it could be the implementation of smaller solutions, like E-invoicing projects, service invoicing or a fixed asset module implementation, which might take up a couple of months to half a year.
And as always, the length of the projects depends on the size of the organization, the complexity of the processes and resources available (internal a the customer and external).
Not convinced yet?
Are you still doubting whether making the switch from a finance professional to an SAP finance consultant is the right step or do you have unanswered questions? Don’t hesitate to reach out to us. We’re happy to give you more insights and explore together whether a switch makes sense for your specific situation.
At PIKON, we are always looking for curious, motivated finance professionals who want to grow their career in SAP consulting. Our international team works on exciting projects around the world, supports continuous learning and development, and values collaboration, open communication, and a healthy work-life balance.
To see what life at PIKON looks like and find open positions, visit our career page:
If you’re curious about career transitions into SAP consultancy, you can also see the story of Olga Berendeeva, a Senior SAP Consultant at PIKON who moved from an internal finance role into SAP consulting and now works on varied projects, continues learning, and engages directly with customers.
If you’re considering a move into SAP consulting or would like to explore what a career in this field could look like for you, feel free to reach out to us via the contact button on the right side of the screen. Our team at PIKON Benelux will be happy to get in touch and answer any questions you may have.
