The finance function has outgrown its old job description. Accurate reporting is now the minimum, and the businesses best placed for 2027 will be the ones whose finance teams shape decisions, use AI with confidence and still keep the controls tight. Most finance job adverts haven't caught up with that shift yet, and the gap is where good hires get lost.
Ahead of our 2027 Finance Leaders Outlook on 8 October, here are five questions every business should be asking about its finance team before the new year.
What will businesses expect from their finance function in 2027?
Businesses will expect the finance function to help run the business, not just report on it. That means forward-looking insight, a view on commercial decisions before they are made, and clear thinking when conditions change at short notice.
Several years of cautious hiring, rising costs and policy uncertainty have taught boards that a management pack arriving three weeks after month end describes the past. It doesn't guide the next decision. The finance team is the one part of the business that can model what a choice will cost before anyone commits to it.
Picture a manufacturer weighing up a new production line. In a traditional set-up, finance approves a budget that operations has already built. In the set-up boards now want, finance sits in the first conversation, testing pricing, cash flow and payback while the idea can still change.
If your finance team spends most of its week producing reports, revisit the role definitions before you start hiring. Otherwise you will recruit for the job you had, not the one you need.
Which finance skills will employers need most in 2027?
The finance skills employers will value most in 2027 are commercial judgement, clear communication and confidence with data, built on solid technical accounting. A professional qualification remains the entry ticket. It no longer separates a good hire from a great one.
Even businesses that have slowed hiring elsewhere rarely leave a gap in finance for long. The function has simply become too central to how decisions get made.
In practice, the most sought-after finance professionals can explain a margin problem to a sales director in plain English, build a dashboard rather than wait for one, and bring a team with them through a systems change.
Test for these skills directly. Ask candidates to talk you through a time their numbers changed a business decision. The strongest answers describe the conversation as well as the spreadsheet.
How are finance roles changing as AI and automation take hold?
AI and automation are taking over the repetitive parts of finance roles, and the time they free up is moving people towards analysis, judgement and control. Few finance roles will disappear outright. Most will change shape.
For most businesses, AI in finance is still at an early stage. It is a tool for drafting commentary or matching transactions, rather than something built into how the whole team works. Most finance teams are at the start of this change, not the end.
Take a purchase ledger role where invoice matching is now automated. The work doesn't vanish. The person in that seat handles exceptions, supplier queries and fraud checks, which call for more judgement than the task they replaced.
The bigger risk sits at entry level. If automation removes the roles where finance people traditionally learned the basics, businesses need a deliberate route for junior talent. Without one, they will struggle to find their own finance managers in five years' time.
Are finance salaries keeping pace with what employers now expect?
For new hires, broadly yes. For people already in post, often not, and that gap is where retention problems start.
Competition for experienced, commercially minded finance professionals has pushed up what new starters can ask for. Annual pay reviews for existing staff have tended to move more slowly.
Here is how that plays out. Say your management accountant joined two years ago on £45,000 and has had two annual rises of 3%. They now earn £47,740. If you need to pay £50,000 to hire a second management accountant, your new starter earns £2,260 more than the colleague who will train them. That is salary compression, and experienced finance people notice it quickly.
There is a second gap too. Many finance roles have grown to include business partnering, systems work and AI oversight, while the salary band stayed where it was. When you set an advertised salary, review the pay of the team around that role at the same time, and pay for the job as it is today.
Do employers need to change how they recruit finance professionals?
Yes. Strong finance candidates still have choices, so a slow process, a vague brief or an out-of-date salary will lose them to a business that moves faster.
A cautious market has brought more people to the table, and many employers are seeing more applications per role. But more applications don't mean more of the right people. Finance professionals who combine technical depth with commercial confidence remain hard to find, and they tend to be the ones receiving more than one offer.
Three changes make the biggest difference. Write the brief around the outcomes you need from the role in its first year. Agree the salary band, including the impact on existing staff, before you advertise. Keep the process tight, ideally two stages within a fortnight, with feedback after each one.
Candidates also want to know where the role is heading. Be clear about the systems you use, your plans for AI and how someone progresses. A finance professional choosing between offers will pick the business with a credible answer.
These are the conversations we'll be having at our 2027 Finance Leaders Outlook. It's a breakfast briefing at The Haycock in Peterborough on 8 October, hosted in partnership with Chattertons Solicitors and Wealth Management.
Francis Laud of Huws Gray opens with "What's in My Inbox?", a candid CFO-led discussion on the real challenges finance leaders face today. A specialist panel follows. Jayson Everett, CFO and PE board director, explores how AI is changing the finance function. Rebecca Sneath, Tax Manager at Chattertons, shares the latest tax developments. Head of Wealth Management Scott Wiseman looks at wealth, planning and investment for the year ahead. Our own Charlotte Willis rounds off the panel with a finance recruitment market update covering salary trends, candidate availability and the hiring challenges finance leaders are facing.
Registration and breakfast start at 8.30am, with networking after the panel until 11.30am. To reserve your place, email charlotte@annecorder.co.uk.
And if you're planning finance hires for 2027 now, our finance recruitment team is happy to talk through what the market looks like for your roles.