Finance Business Partner
The role of a Finance Business Partner demands a combination of business acumen, insight and emotional intelligence. This pathway will help you to cultivate those skills and become a trusted advisor to your colleagues and clients.
£500 +VAT
Today, the expectations on finance professionals are higher than ever. This pathway will teach you what it means to be a successful Finance Business Partner, and how to achieve this goal. Learn how to become a person of influence and a trusted advisor within your organisation or for your clients and see the benefits of employing a holistic approach to the finance function. You will discover how to improve your strategic awareness and reporting, as well as new approaches to take when making decisions. Find out how you can add value as a Finance Business Partner.
- Addresses the 10 “Key responsibilities of a Finance Business Partner” as specified in ACCA’s Career Navigator
- Includes full coverage of the AICPA/CIMA “Skills and traits needed for effective business partnering”, specified in the CGMA report on Finance Business Partnering
- Includes all the “Business Partnering Skills, traits and behaviours” specified in the CAANZ Business Partner Report
- Covers the “10 traits of effective finance business partners” specified by Chartered Accountants Ireland
In this pathway
Learning
Supporting your journey to the next stage of your career
Business partnering
The tools, techniques, and skills you need to provide valuable business insights
Flexibility
Learn where you want, when you want
Certificate of Achievement
21 verifiable hours of CPD, an assessment and a Certificate of Achievement
Learning resources
Immerse yourself in the rich variety of articles, videos, activities, quizzes, discussions, and more, to develop the understanding and skills required to become a finance business partner.
Expert interviews
Discover how you can become an effective finance business partner, from our prestigious team of experts.
Action plan
Build up a practical plan of how you will put your new skills into action, and download a convenient summary of all the learning to take away.
Assessment
Achieving 75% on the multiple choice assessment is required to complete the career progression pathway. The assessment features two questions on each topic that has been covered.
Secure certification
Once you’ve finished the programme, you will receive a unique and secure Certificate of Achievement as evidence of your new understanding and capabilities.
This Career Progression Pathway is divided into seven sections corresponding to the key skills you will need to develop to become an effective Finance Business Partner. Complete all seven to unlock the end of pathway assessment and access your Certificate of Achievement.
Finance business partnering
The pathway starts by looking at what the role of Finance Business Partner – what it involves, and why the relationships you build are so crucial to your success.
- The FBP role
- Importance of communication
- Improving communication
- Building relationships
Influence
The next section looks at how you can become the go-to person for advice. We cover how you can work alongside a variety of stakeholders to offer a mix of expertise and support, get your voice heard, and be able to meet in the middle when it’s required.
- Persuading people
- Negotiation
Professional credibility
To become a credible and trusted advisor, you must demonstrate that you are able to see beyond a traditional accounting perspective, and think in more holistic business management terms. This section focuses on the key skills you will need to develop your professional credibility.
- Business acumen
- Professional scepticism
- Ethics
- Corporate principles
Strategic awareness
Strategic opportunities – and potential threats – are all around us, but to be successful you need to spot the signs and act accordingly. Here we focus on how to combine your technical expertise with an ability to look to the future, and plan the best course of action in uncertain times.
- Looking to the future
- Strategic thinking
- Alignment
Management reporting
Here we think about how best to reflect the key performance indicators of your business, in your management reports. You will learn how to make sure your reporting is linked to wider strategy, and also how to make your reports more meaningful and valuable to non-finance people.
- Improving reporting
- KPIs
Decision making
This section looks at how to extract value from your data to support innovation and continual improvement, spot potential cost savings and efficiencies, and to identify potential blind spots or anomalies for investigation.
- Data analysis
- Data-driven decisions
- Problem solving
Adding value
To add value to your organisation, you need to bring together everything you have learned to become a leader, strategist, specialist, technologist, and trusted advisor. The pathway concludes by enabling you to think about how to better understand your organisation’s aims and value proposition, so that you can measure your success against them.
- Understanding value
- Measuring performance
Assessment
Once you have completed all the elements of the pathway, you can take the assessment to access your Certificate of Achievement.
Lead Consultant
Sean Purcell
Sean Purcell (BA ACMA CGMA) has been involved in the training and development of finance staff for over 20 years. He has worked extensively with both CIMA and ACCA, designing and delivering both CPD and management development programmes for them, and has delivered over 200 courses in Singapore, Malaysia, Hong Kong, Dubai, Sri Lanka, Zambia and Croatia. Sean is a Visiting Executive Professor at the London School of Commerce, an award-winning trainer of finance staff and an acknowledged expert on the role of Business Finance Partner.
Other contributing faculty
Alan Nelson
After studying economics, Alan began his career in accountancy before moving into senior management positions in the book trade. After a successful stint as CEO of Thomson Learning, a major international textbook publisher, he founded Nelson Croom, the publisher of accountingcpd.net which he has run ever since. He was until recently Chair of ICAEW’s Practice Assurance Committee and a member of ACCA’s SME Committee. Alan is the author of three module in this pathway, on Professional Scepticism, Alignment and Negotiation.
Anna Faherty
Anna Faherty is a writer, editor, researcher and educator who has written extensively for accountingcpd on topics as diverse as ethics and strategy. She is an expert in the communication of complex ideas. Anna has delivered numerous workshops and webinars for ACCA and the AIA and has lectured at City University, Kingston University, Oxford Brookes University and University College London. Anna has provided six modules for this pathway, on Persuasion, Ethics, Strategy, Data Presentation, and two on aspects of Effective Communication.
Ben Rawal
Ben is a Director and Lead Consultant with Soft Skills, a business providing leadership development, team dynamics improvement, and emotional intelligence services for accounting and finance professionals. He is a chartered accountant (FCCA) and has an MBA from Warwick Business School. Ben is the author of the section in this pathway on Building Relationships.
David Allen
David Allen CBE, MPhil, FCMA, FCIS was employed for many years by the Cadbury Schweppes group, holding directorships of various companies, latterly Cadbury Ltd. During that period he was also president of the Chartered Institute of Management Accountants (CIMA), chairman of the Management Accounting stream of the International Federation of Accountants, a visiting professor at Loughborough University Business School and a member of the Review Panel of the Financial Reporting Council. David is the author of the module in this pathway entitled Looking to the Future.
John Taylor
John is a Chartered Accountant who spent many years advising small and medium-sized businesses across the North of England. John went on to work at Bradford College and Leeds Met University where he specialised in teaching auditing on ACCA professional courses and Forensic Accounting at Masters level. John is the author of modules in this pathway on Business Acumen and Corporate Principles.
Paula Guilfoyle
Paula Guilfoyle is a member of the Institute of Certified Public Accountants in Ireland and accountingcpd.net’s resident expert on all things to do with Excel and Power BI. She is an expert in the presentation of financial information using excel, and shares he wisdom in this pathway as the author of the module on Improving Reporting.
Ross Maynard
Ross Maynard is a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Management Accountants. He has worked as a consultant and trainer for over 20 years, specialising in process improvement and lean for finance teams. He has presented at lean conferences in the UK, Australia, Italy and Denmark and has written many articles and blogs on process improvement. Ross is author of the module on Key Performance Indicators in this pathway.
Samuel Ellis
Samuel Ellis is a chartered accountant with experience working in private accounting firms and a number of high growth businesses. He has spent the past six years working as Head of Finance for InterWorks, a global specialist data consulting practice. Sam was the founding Chair of the ACCA’s Global Technology Forum and currently Chair of ACCA’s Member Advisory Committee and a member of the ACCA’s International Assembly. Sam is the author of the module in this pathway on Data Analysis.
Eima Meade –
It is a brilliant course that covers everything you need to become an excellent FBP. The quizzes and articles helps to embed the material.
Oaratwa Relaeng –
Excellent CPD
Sha Sa –
The course is helpful.
Jessica Burke –
Very relevant and value add to someone working in or pursuing a career as a finance business partner. This will set you up with a mindset to start the role, or as a realignment for a seasoned FBP.
Ljubica Naumovska –
Good structure, easy to follow. The module has comprehensive approach looking at different angles of FBP role.
Lorna Wass –
Well presented and easy to follow.
Santosh Kumar Katyarth Udayan –
structured and good course
Denisa Adamcikova –
I truly enjoyed this CPD course, and I believe I now have a better understanding of what a FPB role entails.
Christina Maher –
Module did cover a lot of things I already knew instinctively but helped to embed my knowledge in multiple areas.
Olive Burns –
Because I feel the course provided a great overview and insight into the key competencies required for the Finance Business Partner role applicable in any organisation type while also providing practical tools and techniques that FBPs can use in their every day working lives and to set themselves up for a successful career.
Alison Hepworth –
Excellent course – really makes you think about some everyday things from a new perspective
Abdul Ali –
This course has provided me thoughtful insights about the role.
Tufel Ahmed Miah –
This worthwhile course covers a wide range of subjects across business functions and soft skills, with many practical, usable implications. I plan to revisit the material to fully benefit from the depth and detail provided. However, I wish there were an option to download the slides for easier reference
Anish kumar Kheddoo –
Very well explained throughout the whole course.
Sam Dyer –
Great course plus I could spread it out over several weeks to make my CPD requirement more achievable. A lot of what I have learnt I can take into my role.
Shi Wen Koh –
The course provides a great insight into the role and expectations of business partnering. Highly applicable to accountants or anyone in the finance team.
Tyler Trimble –
Easy to navigate, great content
Natalie Farrelly –
A good course for those new to business partnering
Hema Patel –
I enjoyed this course and it certainly gave me taught me a lot and gave me plenty of information to think about and use. I hope i can put my learning to use.
Denis J Collins –
Excellent course – interested in more of these,
Paul Whyte –
the most complete, rounded and interesting course that I have taken for some time. I have saved numerous pdfs and will be referring to the items in this for the foreseeable. Highly recommended
Carl Postians –
The Finance Business Partner course was incredibly enlightening and valuable. It offered a comprehensive overview of the evolving role of finance professionals in modern businesses. The course effectively combined theoretical knowledge with practical applications, enhancing my understanding of how to align financial expertise with broader business strategies. The modules on performance management, value stream mapping, and ethical considerations were particularly insightful. I appreciated the focus on developing soft skills, such as communication and problem-solving, which are crucial in a business partnering context. The interactive elements and real-world case studies made the learning experience engaging and relevant. Overall, this course has significantly bolstered my confidence and skill set as a finance professional, equipping me to contribute more effectively to strategic decision-making processes.
Nicholas Riggs –
nn
Wenita Kwong –
Very informative.
Aoife Carter –
Interesting & comprehensive course covering a wide range of topics.
Vivian Chiang –
Overall contents are good. The linkage between modules can be more obvious.
Malcolm Comerford –
Another excellent course which will be of great bennefit to me
Mark Austin –
Great course, really breaks down the FBP role to enable you to apply it in your workplace