Elevating finance business partnering

Today's CFO is expected to lead a team that goes beyond reporting numbers and managing budgets. They’re expected to play a pivotal role in driving value and improving overall business performance.

To achieve this, finance teams can’t work in silos. They must work across departments, delivering actionable insights that enable all teams to make better decisions, mitigate risks, and seize new opportunities.

Dedicated finance business partners act as a bridge between finance and other business areas, challenging them and sharing financial insights to make best-informed decisions.

In practice, though, it's difficult to do well. To achieve the full potential of finance business partnering, steps should be taken to ensure these roles are properly defined, equipped, and positioned to succeed.

Are your finance business partners set up for success?

Here are four questions to ask yourself:

1 Are your finance business partners advisers or gatekeepers?

Finance business partners should be advisers who empower other teams. You need to set up your team to develop relationships built on trust. Resistance arises when the finance team’s involvement is considered intrusive.

To prevent this, finance business partners should engage stakeholders early to understand their goals and perspectives before making suggestions. When financial discussions are framed around shared business outcomes and success is celebrated, teams are more likely to see finance as a valuable partner, earning a seat at the table.

2 Are your finance business partners using accurate data?

Good data quality is the foundation of effective decision-making. Without it, stakeholders either won’t trust the insight or could blame poor data for an unexplained variance, which could lead to missing a red flag – and lowering trust in your team.

When good quality data is paired with visualisation tools, it’s easier for your team to focus on the 'now what' behind the data rather than its accuracy. Tools that allow business leaders to self-serve and explore insights independently give finance teams more time for strategic work.

3 Have you allocated enough budget and resources for training?

Hiring finance business partners internally is often more affordable and effective than hiring externally, and with effective workforce planning, non-finance commercially-minded talent can be leveraged to bring diversity of thought. However, training still requires budget allocation.

Businesses are increasingly recognising that this role needs different skills to the traditional finance role. In our survey, finance business partnering was one of the top three skills CFOs say they plan to prioritise hiring over the next 12 months.

Finance business partners still need strong technical proficiency, but they also require commercial awareness, soft skills, and an ability to translate the ‘what’ of the data into the ‘so what’ and ‘now what’.

For instance, if a business unit proposes running a sale because competitors are doing the same, an effective finance partner might assess the strategic timing and recommend running it at a different time with smaller discounts to improve margins and market position, rather than outright rejecting the proposal based on short-term financial effects.

Simply reassigning roles without proper training is ineffective, because it demands a distinct skillset and mentality not taught through accountancy exams – yet only 22% of CFOs we surveyed say that investing in training and development programmes is a key way they tackle talent challenges. CFOs should be wary of the message this may send to employees in terms of their value if they are not prioritising their team’s development.

4 Do you and your team know what good looks like?

CFOs need to be clear on what success looks like, and the steps to make this happen. We work with clients whose skilled finance business partners are ‘firefighting’ across the business, rather than supporting targeted areas that align with the business strategy. To prioritise their time effectively, partners need clear benchmarks to understand what good looks like and be empowered to push back on non-value-added activities, like providing raw data.

To find out how we can help your Finance Business Partners add more value to your organisation, reach out to Gill Ellyard or Ruth Walsh.