Database skills strengthen your FP&A.

23 Oct 2026 · 1 min

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In this video, Paul Barnhurst explains why finance professionals often struggle with data handling and how a strong foundation in database skills can give a decisive edge in FP&A roles. He shares his own path—earning an MSc in Information Management, starting as a finance analyst who was essentially a data analyst, and writing SQL to manage databases. When he transitioned to an FP&A position, his deep understanding of data structures, normalization, and duplicate detection allowed him to perform analyses that many of his peers could not, highlighting the practical benefits of treating data with proper database principles.

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Many finance people struggle with data and understanding how to work with proper data structure. We know how to work with data in a finance sense, but people are getting better and better at that. I was fortunate enough that I did a Master of Science in Information Management. In my first role, I was called a finance analyst, was really a data analyst. I wrote SQL and worked with the database and, you know, how to deal with all those type of things. So when I switched into FP&A role, that data side was a huge benefit 'cause I could do things that other people couldn't with the data 'cause I understood how to properly structure it and always understood Okay, first normal and duplicates. If you've ever written SQL, I'm expecting a million back and you get back a billion and you're like, I have a duplicate somewhere. This is the immediate first thought you go to.