This is what Lucuma hands back on a real role — not a match percentage from a black box, but a ranked shortlist where you can read the reasoning on every candidate and agree or disagree.
Illustrative, fully anonymised sample. Candidates are composites, not real people.
ACCA-qualified with six years owning month-end for a £40m manufacturer, on NetSuite. Hits every hard criterion and shows scope beyond the brief (led on budgeting cycles, managed a junior). Only reason it isn't higher: no forecasting-model rebuild evidence, which the client values.
The CV is plainly written and front-loads routine duties, so a 20-second skim (or a keyword filter) reads "average". But buried in the third role: they led an ERP migration to Oracle and rebuilt the month-end process, cutting close from 10 days to 4. That's exactly the systems + process strength the client wants — Lucuma read the whole CV and surfaced it.
Five years, excellent FP&A and forecasting, strong industry background. Marked down — not out — because they are a CIMA finalist, not yet fully qualified. Lucuma states this plainly rather than hiding it, so you can decide if "finalist" clears your bar.
ACA-qualified and sharp, but a practice (audit) background — not the hands-on industry month-end the brief asks for. Genuinely transferable, common first-move-out-of-practice, but it's a real gap, so Lucuma places them as a considered "maybe", not a false top-tier match.
Part-qualified, three years, clearly on the right path — but hasn't yet owned month-end end-to-end. A strong stretch hire if the client will develop; not a like-for-like. Scored honestly for what's evidenced, not inflated on potential.
Qualified and capable — but a statutory / financial accounting focus (year-end, reporting, compliance), not the forward-looking management accounting this role needs. Adjacent, not a match. Lucuma won't pad the shortlist to look busy.
Their CV is packed with the words "accounts", "reconciliation" and "ledger", so a keyword-matching ATS would happily rank them near the top. But read it and it's a bookkeeping role with no management accounting, no qualification, no month-end ownership. Lucuma reads meaning, not keywords, and correctly filters them out — so your genuine shortlist stays clean.
You already know who you shortlisted and why. See if Lucuma reaches the same names — and whether it flags one you didn't. Free, no card, five minutes.
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