Which Career Path Is Yours? Start Here. Your accounting qualification opens six career paths. Most accountants do not know all six exist. Fewer know how to position themselves for them. That is what FDA is here to change. Read the description of each path below. One of them will feel immediately relevant to where you are and where you want to go. That is your starting point. PATH 1 — FINANCE BUSINESS ANALYST You analyse data, document how financial processes work today, identify the gaps between current state and future state, write the requirements for how the system should work, and build the artefacts that ERP programmes run on. You are the bridge between what finance needs and what the technology delivers. This is the most accessible entry point into ERP careers for qualified accountants. Your AP, AR, GL, and close experience is directly relevant. You do not need to know how to configure Oracle. You need to know what it needs to do — and why. Accounting knowledge that opens this door: Any experience in AP, AR, GL, reconciliations, month-end close, or financial reporting. PATH 2 — FUNCTIONAL CONSULTANT You design solutions, configure ERP systems to match business requirements, run design workshops with finance and operational teams, and support adoption. You understand Oracle, SAP, Dynamics, Unit4, or Workday well enough to configure it — and you understand finance well enough to know what the configuration must achieve. Functional Consultants sit at the intersection of accounting knowledge and system expertise. They are typically employed by Systems Integrators or work as independent contractors on ERP programmes. *Accounting knowledge that opens this door: Deep understanding of finance processes end to end — P2P, O2C, R2R, and the modules that support them.* PATH 3 — FINANCE SYSTEMS SPECIALIST You own the systems that finance runs on. You support users, optimise processes, manage system upgrades, ensure data quality, build reports, and drive continuous improvement. You sit between the finance team and IT — speaking both languages fluently and ensuring neither side loses the plot.

UAT Is Not a Technical Test. It Is a Finance Sign-Off. And You Are the Signatory. In your finance career you have signed off a lot of things. The management accounts. The statutory accounts. The audit file. The year-end journals. The grant return. You sign because you understand what you are certifying. UAT — User Acceptance Testing — is the same principle applied to an ERP system. Before Oracle Fusion goes live, the finance team must confirm: Can we process an AP invoice from receipt to payment with the correct approval workflow, the correct GL coding, and the correct payment terms? Can we run the period close from AP cutoff through to a signed trial balance — in the system — with the correct journal sequence? Can we run payroll, post the journals to GL, and reconcile the payroll creditor control account? Can we produce the management accounts from Oracle — and do they agree to what we would expect to see? Can we run the CIPFA SERCOP return from Oracle without manual manipulation? If you can answer YES to all of those — in a test environment, with test data — the system is ready for go-live. If you cannot — it is not. And a Finance BA who understands what each test is proving is the person who can make that call. Not the Oracle consultant. Not the Programme Director. The accountants who understand what these reports and processes are supposed to produce. **Discussion question:** If you had to test your current finance system from scratch, what would be the three processes you would test first — and why? Fall4U FCA FCCA — Future Defined Academy