Public Speaking Tips for Accounting Managers
By Joel Asante · Career & Business
How can an accounting manager speak about numbers more clearly? Say the conclusion before the number, round numbers to what the listener needs, and compare every figure with something they know: budget, last year, last month. Never read a table aloud. When you are questioned, take a breath and answer the question asked, plainly. How you sound under questioning shapes how much people trust the numbers.
Accounting managers present with slides less often than people think. Much of their speaking is unscripted and out loud: explaining the month-end result in a leadership meeting, answering a director's questions about a variance, walking a budget holder through why their department is over, briefing auditors. The numbers are prepared; the speaking usually is not. That gap is where accounting managers lose people who would otherwise trust them.
Say the conclusion first
Most finance people narrate a result in the order they calculated it: revenue, then costs, then the adjustments, then, eventually, the answer. The listener has to hold every number in their head until the end. Turn it round.
"We finished the quarter 3% ahead of budget on profit. Revenue was in line; the difference is lower freight costs, which we expect to continue."
Then stop and let them ask. The detail is there if they want it.
Round to what the listener needs
"Operating expenses were 4,218,563 dollars" is accurate and almost impossible to absorb when spoken. "About 4.2 million, which is 180,000 over budget" is what the listener needs. Precise figures belong in the pack; the spoken version should be rounded to the level that matters for the decision.
Compare every number with something
A number on its own means little to someone outside finance. Is 4.2 million good? Compared with what? Every figure you say should come with its comparison: budget, last year, last month, forecast. "Up 6% on last year" is a sentence people remember.
Never read a table aloud
If you find yourself reading row after row from a spreadsheet, stop. Pick the one or two lines that matter and say those. Point people to the table for the rest.
Under questioning
The hardest speaking an accounting manager does is answering questions in real time: a director challenging a forecast, an auditor asking about a judgement, a budget holder disputing a charge. How you sound in those moments matters more than finance people tend to expect.
There is research on how executives sound when questioned. William Mayew and Mohan Venkatachalam analysed the audio of company earnings calls with voice-analysis software and reported that the emotional tone of executives' voices, especially while analysts were questioning them, carried information about the company's future that the numbers and words did not.1 The software they used is disputed, so treat the precise finding with care. But the broader point is consistent with what any experienced finance leader will tell you: under questioning, listeners pay close attention to how sure you sound.
What helps:
- Pause before you answer. A second of silence sounds considered; a rushed answer sounds defensive.
- Answer the question that was asked, in the first sentence, then add context if it is needed.
- Say "I don't know, I'll check and come back to you today" when you do not know. It sounds far more credible than a guess.
- Keep hedges off the facts. "The accrual was 120,000" is stronger than "I think it was probably around 120,000 or so."
Explaining a variance to a budget holder
When a department is over budget, the conversation is often tense. Lead with the fact, then the cause, then what can be done: "You're 40,000 over for the quarter. Most of it is the contractor costs from the system project, which were budgeted in the IT cost centre instead of yours. We can move the budget, or reforecast the rest of the year." A clear, neutral explanation turns a dispute into a decision.
For presenting with slides and in formal reviews, see presentation tips for operations managers, and for the hedging habits that weaken a fact, how to sound professional when you speak.
References
- Mayew, W. J., & Venkatachalam, M. (2012). The power of voice: managerial affective states and future firm performance. The Journal of Finance, 67(1), 1–43. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1540-6261.2011.01705.x