The employability number that started this
According to the India Skills Report 2026, commerce graduate employability jumped to 62.81%, up from 55% the year before — the single largest gain of any academic stream, ahead of Science (~61%) and Arts (~55.55%). The report attributes this almost entirely to BFSI and fintech expansion.
That's a good headline. But "commerce is hot" doesn't tell a B.Com or M.Com student in Coimbatore, Kochi, or Bangalore what to actually go learn. So we pulled the numbers behind the trend — job counts, salary bands, and certification data — to find out which specific skills and tools are actually driving that employability jump.
1. Tally Prime — still the volume leader
Job-count estimates for Tally vary a lot by portal depth — from around 150 listings on Internshala to 6,200+ on PlacementIndia, with 230 in Delhi alone on Foundit. The spread reflects indexing differences more than real demand swings, but the consistent signal is that Tally remains the single largest base of any accounting tool skill in India. It's still the default expectation for SME and small-business accounting roles, and usually the first tool a fresher is expected to know walking in the door.
2. SAP FICO — the biggest salary lever, and it's time-boxed
SAP FICO carries the clearest pay premium in the data. Average salaries for SAP FICO skills sit around ₹21.8 lakh (range ₹16.6L–₹50L), while fresher-level SAP FICO roles start at ₹3.5–6 LPA, rising to ₹8–10 LPA at firms like Accenture, Deloitte, EY, Infosys, and Capgemini.
There's also a specific, dated opportunity here: SAP is ending mainstream support for its older ECC platform on December 31, 2027, and companies are actively migrating to S/4HANA now. Consultants with S/4HANA-specific FICO configuration skills are commanding a documented 20–30% premium over those who only know classic ECC FICO. For a commerce graduate deciding what to study next, this is a rare case where the market is telling you exactly which version of a tool to learn, and by when.
3. Zoho Books — the one with a South India tilt
Zoho Books shows a smaller absolute footprint than Tally — around 1,677 "Zoho" job listings nationally as of July 2026 — but the geographic concentration is notable: 252 in Tamil Nadu and 131 in Chennai specifically. That lines up with Zoho's headquarters and ecosystem being based in Chennai. For commerce graduates in Tamil Nadu and the broader South Indian corridor, Zoho Books fluency is a more locally-relevant differentiator than it would be for a graduate in, say, Delhi or Mumbai.
4. Power BI and Advanced Excel — where "accountant" becomes "analyst"
Power BI listings sit around 7,351 nationally (as of March 2026), with salary bands of ₹6–15 LPA. Advanced Excel remains the highest-volume single skill by a wide margin, with 28,615 listings nationally in mid-2026 — but at that volume, it's table stakes rather than a differentiator.
The pattern in job descriptions is that Power BI and data-analysis skills are increasingly bundled directly into "finance analyst" and "FP&A" postings rather than appearing as standalone BI roles. This is the layer that separates a data-entry-level accounting job from the higher-paid analyst or GCC-track roles.
5. GST/taxation — the cheapest path in
Hard enrollment numbers for GST certification programs are thin in public data, but demand is consistently cited across manufacturing, retail, e-commerce, financial services, and audit firms. Fresher GST-track salaries run ₹2.5–4 LPA. Of everything on this list, it's the lowest-cost, fastest-to-complete certification with the clearest fresher-to-hired path — a practical starting point rather than a career ceiling.
The nuance the headline number hides
Here's the part worth reading twice: Naukri's own JobSpeak Index showed Banking & Financial Services hiring down 15% year-on-year in January 2026, even while commerce employability and AI/ML hiring (+45% for the fiscal year) both rose sharply.
Put together, this doesn't mean accounting is shrinking. It means pure back-office BFSI hiring is soft, while GCC, fintech, and analytics-flavored finance roles are absorbing the growth — and those are exactly the roles that ask for SAP FICO, Power BI, and data skills on top of the accounting basics. The skill stack matters more than the sector label.
Takeaway
If you're a B.Com or M.Com student mapping out what to learn next: Tally and GST get you in the door as a fresher. SAP FICO — specifically the S/4HANA flavor, before the late-2027 ECC cutoff — is the single biggest lever on your salary. Power BI and Advanced Excel are what move you from "accountant" to "analyst." And if you're based in Tamil Nadu, Zoho Books is a genuinely local edge that graduates elsewhere in India don't have the same reason to prioritize.
Sources
- India Skills Report 2026 – Careers360
- Tally job listings – PlacementIndia
- Tally job listings – Internshala
- SAP FICO salary data – 6figr
- SAP FICO fresher salary guide – Spanbix
- SAP FICO / S4HANA demand – Cokonet
- Zoho job listings, Tamil Nadu – Glassdoor
- Power BI job listings – Glassdoor
- Advanced Excel job listings – Foundit
- GST Practitioner Course guide – Thinking Bridge
- Naukri JobSpeak Index, January 2026
Data current as of July 2026. Job-count figures vary by portal indexing depth and should be read as directional signals, not precise market totals.
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