Job Outlook for an SAP FICO Consultant

In any organization, finance and accounting are important processes, which require flawless management skills. To carry out financial and accounting operations effectively and efficiently, SAP has offered a module called SAP FICO which consists of two main modules, i.e, SAP FI (Financial) and SAP CO (Controlling). This software helps to conduct all the financial transactions, controlling and reporting activities easily.

It is easy to integrate SAP FICO modules with other modules such as sales, distribution, and material management, etc. With this tool, one can also address various issues in areas like Accounts payable, Account Receivable, Bank Accounting, General ledger, etc. Because of all these factors, most of the organizations have started implementing the SAP FICO module in their business and therefore looking aggressively for proficient experts who can work with the SAP FICO module. Thus, at present, there is a high demand for SAP FICO consultants in every industry. The candidates who wish to begin a career as an SAP FICO consultant should know about the roles and responsibilities, salary structure, job titles, etc. This post presents a complete job outlook for an SAP FICO consultant. Let’s start with the educational background.

Educational Background and other skills:

To start a career as an SAP FICO consultant, a candidate should hold a Bachelors’s or Master’s degree in any domain from a reputed institution. It would be an added advantage if a candidate has at least a year of experience in SAP FICO modules such as Internal Orders, Cost, and Profits Center Accounting, Account receivable, Account Payable, and General Ledger. Apart from this, a candidate should have sound knowledge or experience in implementing a full cycle of SAP R3. If a candidate is experienced in the project preparation stage to the live stage it will give them in-depth knowledge about the SAP ERP system. The other required skills are knowledge of SAP Financial Accounting and Controlling, Good business and banking domain knowledge, good communication, and interpersonal skills.

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Different Job Titles in SAP FICO

The various job titles for SAP FICO are:

1. SAP FICO Consultant

2. IT developers and tester

3. Data Analysts

4. BI and reporting professionals

5. Project Managers

6. Data Scientists

Roles and Responsibilities of SAP FICO Consultant:

The SAP FICO consultant is mainly responsible for designing, building, and deploying SAP-based ERP solutions; leading analysis and design in the SAP FI/CO area, often in close cooperation with the client’s finance team; Conducting structured testing internally and with users; Ensuring stabilization of the solution and continuous improvements.

Responsibilities of SAP FICO Consultant include:

• Understanding the business requirement of the organization
• Preparation of blueprint for implementing the project.
• Implementation of the project.
• Finalise the requirements of the report.
• Execute any changes in customizing.
• Provide training to the end-user.
• Sort out day to day queries of end-users.
• Enhancement of the SAP for the end-user based on the requirement.
• Executing SAP Business Warehouse (BW) in projects.
• Guiding other consultants from MM, PP, PS, and PM modules
• Financial configuration based on business needs.
• Training the recruits and the end-users.
• Offering support in the testing process to discern errors in the documentation or applied business processes.
• Connecting opportunities for business system enhancement.

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An SAP FICO consultant is responsible for performing the following tasks: 

• Attend meetings with the client.
• Gather information on their current business processes and prepare a document.
• Gather information on their business requirements and prepare.
• Data Mapping-Mapping the source data element for each data element in the target environment.
• Gap Analysis-finding the gap between as-Is and To-Be processes.
• Document on requirements gathered during workshops which is nothing but Business Blueprint.
• Functional testing and Integration Testing.
• Configure Global settings and Enterprise structure settings.
• Configure G/L, A/P, A/R, Asset Accounting.
• Prepare the End-user training Document.
• Prepare workflow which is nothing but a sequence of business processes flow to complete the project within defined scope, budget and time.
• Production support after the product goes Live.

Salary Trend for SAP FICO consultant:

Presently, SAP FICO is one of the demanding modules in the IT industry, and thus, there are plenty of job opportunities in this particular field. SAP FICO consultant plays a vital role in any IT industry because they are responsible for implementing and configuring the system based on business requirements, improving processes, and new opportunities. As the demand for SAP FICO is growing, the salary structure of an SAP FICO consultant is highly lucrative. According to indeed.com, the average salary for an SAP FICO consultant ranges from approximately $78,334 per year for Business Analyst to $159, 626 per year for an SAP Project Manager in the USA. On the other hand, the average salary of an SAP FICO consultant in India is around ₹583,000 per year.

Following is the salary structure for the jobs related to SAP FICO in the USA.

Industries in which SAP FICO is implemented: SAP FICO is a comprehensive module that deals with the financial aspects of an organization. SAP FICO is implemented in most industries such as Automobile, Oil and Gas, Consumer Products, Engineering, construction, Operations, Healthcare, Industrial Machinery and Components, Telecommunications, Chemicals, Utility, Government Sector, and so on.

Future Scope of SAP FICO:  SAP FICO stands for Financial Accounting, and Costing. This module pays the highest salary with an excellent growth rate. Many companies are looking for certified SAP FICO professionals. But it is not that easy to get a job in SAP FICO as the competition is very high. The job of an SAP FICO consultant represents one of the most profitable career paths in the market today.

Conclusion

The SAP market is expanding rapidly, more and more industries are implementing SAP systems nowadays. SAP FICO is one of the best products of SAP as this is an excellent application for finance-related functions. In SAP FICO, the learning curve will be very sharp for a person who is just starting his or her career. The candidate is expected to grasp as much as possible and should focus on knowledge-building in the different scenarios and transaction flows.

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