Active discussions

Meet the Other Phone. Child-safe in minutes.

Meet the Other Phone.
Child-safe in minutes.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

Talk
Work

Chat with other users about all things related to working life on our Work forum.

Original poster

I don't get finance people

105 replies

NaanPeshwari · 03/10/2025 21:38

I have to work with finance people and I really don't understand them.

We have budgets that have to be managed and god help me I hate it. They have different ways of doing things. I'm not dyslexic but there my be some kind of discalculia as if you talk to me about numbers I don't get it. Numbers aren't a language to me, they are, I don't know shapes on a page. So I can work with them if they are written down. But finance people talk too fast in these meetings. I've asked them to slow down but they do it again. What do I do?

OP posts:
topcat2014 · 05/10/2025 07:27

Successful finance people can communicate across all parts of the business. Sadly AI will come for the work being done by people who punch documents in all day and never speak to anyone.

BloomingGardens · 05/10/2025 09:42

Oblomov25 · 04/10/2025 22:51

Hmm. I see this both ways. I am finance, and appreciate that finance in itself attracts lots of people who are quirky and have poor communication skills.

I myslef try very very hard to explain things to people, on their level, and ask make a point to check that they really have understood.

However, there are many many people that despite my efforts, just don't get it, don't get basics. So I need to work around, and adjust for that. But if they tell me that they don't even want to understand, what exactly do you expect me to do?

Oh it definitely goes both ways - I've worked with people in the business who just hate being constrained by a spreadsheet and can't understand why they have to do something as boring as do accurate accruals, and accountants who can't adjust how they work to deal with people who aren't comfortable with accounting processes. I don't actually think AI will get rid of these jobs because AI won't know rubbish in rubbish out. This is where the accountant with a good business understanding and good people skills shines, AI can only work from the information it's given, it won't know that Jane always under estimates her travel spend because she believes better to ask forgiveness than permission and you have to sit beside John to do his monthly accruals because he'll throw any old crap into a spreadsheet and you have to have a friendly relationship with Mandy because she ignores requests she thinks aren't important from people she doesn't like.

Theeyeballsinthesky · 05/10/2025 10:03

This is such a brilliantly useful thread! Thank you

topcat2014 · 05/10/2025 11:11

you have to have a friendly relationship with Mandy because she ignores requests she thinks aren't important from people she doesn't like.

This applies to every aspect of working life - I Love it!

FinallyHere · 05/10/2025 20:37

123ZYX · 03/10/2025 22:39

Accruals - costs you’ve incurred but haven’t been invoiced for yet (at the date of the report e.g. month end). For example if you’ve used a consultant in June, but don’t get the invoice until July, the June accounts have an accrual for the amount so the cost is recorded when you got the benefit.

prepayment - costs you’ve been invoiced for but not had the benefit yet, so the cost is taken out until you’ve had the benefit. For example, if you pay June, July and August rent in June, at the June accounts date you’ve only benefitted for one month of it, so the other two months are prepaid so that only the June cost is included for now

Show quote history

Thank you @123ZYX may I steal this analogy? It’s better than any explanation I have ever heard. Thank you

New posts on this thread. Refresh page
Swipe left for the next trending thread