Gone are the days when finance was confined to bookkeeping, reporting, and compliance. Today’s finance partners are expected to integrate well with business units and learn to understand business complexities and be involved in the decision-making. Their work extends to financial planning, risk assessment, analysis of the performance, and more. They are not only the gateholders to financial data but co-pilots to drive the business to sustainability.
Financial planning and analysis as well as developing financial models, financial forecasts and budgets that assist in formulating strategic direction are key roles of the finance partners. They facilitate strategic decision making in investment, acquisition, pricing as well as resource allocation. Risk management implies the detection of the financial risks and the development of mitigation strategies whereas financial reporting presents the accuracy and the timely of reports, which is essential to the internal governance and external compliance.
Capital and cash flow management targets the maximization of funding and working capital along with the investment decisions. Business growth enablement entails identification of new opportunities and financial plans to exploit them. Teamwork and the vision behind it lies in being responsible as an intermediary between finance and the rest of the world, that is between the internal and external stakeholders. These duties are performed within the setting where speed of adjustment, flexibility and strategic planning are very important.
Building Trust: The Bedrock of Finance Partnering
At the heart of effective finance partnering lies trust. A finance partner must be more than a numbers expert—they must be a trusted advisor.
Key Trust-Building Practices
Listen Actively, Act Proactively: One must be a good listener. To find effective business pain points, it is helpful to pick on the hints acquired during a more relaxed talk, perhaps, over a cup of tea. Working on the areas of problems without calling upon makes one a proactive person and gains added credibility.
Balance Business Engagement with Core Responsibilities: Daily life of a finance partner encompasses activities of closing books, P&L analysis and maintenance of compliance issues. But taking the time to be present with business teams (at least, in less hectic times at the end of the week) can pay off. These encounters are to be made as curiosity and partnership instead of questioning.
Be Present in the Field: Accompany the business teams in the field as part of the process of negotiation, reviews, or visits. Learn the business decision logic, be financially knowledgeable and help business tell an effective value story. When a situation is dire, you could exert an unrealistic amount of influence with appropriate action as a finance partner.
Schedule Regular 1:1s: During these meetings, get feedback, be in agreement about the business goals, and provide mutual support to each other. Key action items should be documented and the follow up must be done regularly. The ability to appear, on time and ready, also helps one to cultivate a professional respect.
Challenge Without Confronting: The problematic part of trust-building game is when and how to disagree. This will involve setting expectations by making it clear that parcel of the job is to question assumptions, play the devil-advocate and in no way do so to weaken the business. Employ formal forums, where routine review processes that involve cross-functionality can be the best forums to pose hard questions, which should be supported with evidence. This minimizes chances whereby questions can be seen as an obstruction. Understand your stakeholders and use an approach that is specific to the individual. Use your understanding of their decision-making history, such as their "say-do" ratio, to calibrate your interventions.
Trust takes time to build and only moments to erode. A conscious, consistent approach to partnering ensures it becomes second nature.
Also Read: Beyond Numbers: Charting the Course of Financial Excellence
Driving Insights: Beyond the Numbers
In the age of automation and AI, generating reports is becoming commoditized. What differentiates a finance partner is the ability to interpret the numbers, understand what's behind them, and communicate implications with clarity.
Insight Generation in Practice
Don't Settle for GIGO (Garbage In, Garbage Out): Tools can flag variances, but they don't explain causality. As a finance partner, your value lies in connecting the dots. Was an exceptional sales spike driven by a successful campaign or a one-time channel promotion? Was poor profitability due to pricing, input costs, or product mix?
Prioritize and Persist: With a bird's eye view of the business, finance must identify what truly matters. Once a red flag or opportunity is spotted, pursue it with persistence. It's easy for businesses to get distracted—your consistency is key to impact.
Track What Matters: Build your analytical muscle. Operational metrics like sales, returns, inventory health, and collections are vital to business performance. Monitoring them daily, even at the risk of being called a "nit-picker," allows early issue identification.
Finance Acumen: A Strategic Asset
Deep financial knowledge, when applied with a business-first mindset, becomes a source of strategic advantage.
Process Orientation
Strong processes are the engine behind timely and reliable data. For instance, claiming brand incentives depends on collecting and sharing accurate sales data promptly. A finance partner must understand the bottlenecks, drive automation, assign clear ownership, and enforce SLAs. Even minor process failures can cascade into major working capital issues.
Being process-savvy also means knowing when to delegate transactional tasks while retaining oversight of outcomes. Build, monitor, and continuously improve SOPs to maintain financial hygiene.
Solutions and Growth Mindset
When plans go off-track, the natural tendency is to highlight misses. But a great finance partner moves from diagnosis to solutioning.
State the Facts Boldly: Don't sugarcoat underperformance. Highlight what changed in the environment and how initial assumptions did not play out.
Find the Levers: Identify what can still be influenced. Can underperforming businesses be restructured or co-funded by brands? Are there high-margin products that deserve more attention? Can marketing budgets be reallocated to salvage demand?
Prioritize Actionable Opportunities: Don't try to fix everything. Focus on high-impact, high-feasibility solutions. Assign clear owners, track progress, and hold teams accountable—with finance as the enabler and conscience-keeper.
Controllership Mindset
While finance partners may not own the accounting books, they cannot be detached from them. Poor account reconciliations, delayed collections, or unexpected provisions can derail performance. Engage proactively with the controllership team by diving deep into P&L and balance sheet movements.
Review receivables aging to ensure timely collections, deep dive billing processes, and review processes followed by partners. Identify and address improvement opportunities to reduce DSO. Review inventory levels to enable timely actions to improve inventory holding days and liquidate aged inventory. Understand policy changes and their implications, and partner in mitigating risks related to provisions or write-offs.
By co-owning outcomes, finance partners can enhance their credibility and strategic impact.
Conclusion: The Finance Partner as a Co-Pilot
In today's dynamic business environment, finance partnering is not a luxury—it is a necessity. As co-pilots to the business, finance partners bring a unique combination of analytical rigor, strategic insight, and interpersonal skill.
They listen deeply and act decisively. They challenge with respect. They turn data into insight and insight into action. They build trust not just through competence, but through commitment and curiosity.
The best finance partners are those who are trusted in the boardroom, respected in the field, and valued across the business. They are the steady hands who help steer the ship—not just through calm waters, but especially when the storm hits.
About The Author
Mahesh Sharma, CFO at Directors' Institute - World Council Of Directors, is a seasoned finance leader with 20+ years experience across global powerhouses like Amazon, Nielsen, GE, and SABIC in capacities ranging from Head of Business Finance, Operations Finance verticals to CFO and Board Director. He has spearheaded cost optimization and profitability programs, advised boards on strategic growth and governance. His leadership spans across Finance partnering, Supply Chain Finance, Controllership, FP&A, and Risk Management - underpinned by strong compliance and stakeholder alignment. From driving financial performance and growth initiatives at Amazon to enabling business turnaround and strengthening controllership at Nielsen, he has a proven track record of delivering outcomes. He thrives in high-growth environments, cross-functional leadership, and mentoring high-potential talent.
