V Skill HF-D4.6-004 cross-sector 10 skills
Budget and financial accountability
Drawing up a budget, tracking spend against plan, explaining variances and accounting for financial choices to a sponsor, executive team or controller.
How hrmforce measures this
- Assessment method
- Knowledge test · rho 0.40 (SD 0.13)
- hrmforce instrument
- Knowledge test (client-specific), Work sample test
- Trainability
- high
- Demand outlook 2026 to 2030
- stable
Test of declarative job knowledge, usually assembled per client.
Behavioural anchors
| Level | Behaviour at this level |
|---|---|
| N1 Guided | Keeps track of spend within a given budget and submits receipts and justification according to procedure. works under supervision and follows instruction · routine, one variable at a time · own task |
| N3 Proficient | Draws up the team budget, explains monthly variances with figures and adjusts in order to stay within the annual budget. sets own approach and seeks input proactively · several variables, some ambiguity · own team or process |
| N5 Leading | Sets the multi-year budget of the organisation, weighs investment proposals and provides accountability in the annual accounts and to supervisors. sets the standard and the policy · strategic, under high uncertainty · organisation, value chain or profession |
N2 and N4 are deliberately not anchored. Raters place them between the anchors, following the O*NET convention.
Underlying skills
These skills inherit the assessment route and the behavioural anchors of this construct.
| T | Skill | Definition | Demand outlook 2026 to 2030 |
|---|---|---|---|
| V | Drawing up a budget Budgeting | Sets out expected costs and revenues per item and period and substantiates the assumptions. | stable |
| V | Producing a budget report Budget reporting | Reports realisation against budget per period with an explanation of the main differences. | declining |
| V | Conducting a variance analysis Variance analysis | Analyses why actual costs or revenues deviate from budget and which part is structural. | rising |
| V | Updating a financial forecast Financial forecasting | Revises the expectation for the rest of the year based on realisation and known developments. | rising |
| V | Substantiating an investment proposal Business case | Calculates cost, return and payback of an investment and submits the proposal for decision. | rising |
| V | Managing cost centres Cost centre management | Ensures costs land on the right cost centre and ledger account and corrects incorrect postings. | declining |
| V | Approving invoices and commitments Invoice approval | Checks whether the service was delivered, the amount is correct and the spend fits the mandate. | declining |
| V | Calculating cost price or rate Cost price calculation | Calculates what a product, hour or treatment costs including overhead and derives a rate from it. | stable |
| T | Extracting financial reports from a system Financial reporting software | Extracts figures per cost centre and period from the finance system and turns them into a readable overview. | declining |
| V | Drawing up a cost reduction proposal Cost reduction plan | Finds structural savings options, weighs the service consequences and presents choices with scenarios. | stable |