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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