In the experience of CIMA Forum members, the HR (Human Resources) and ICT disciplines use the term business partner to identify a contact point within that department who can contribute expert support when required. Their ambition is for the finance and accounting function’s business partners to be influential. 

When CIMA Forum members talk about what finance and business partnering means in their business, it becomes apparent that it varies. There are as yet no established best practice models or processes.

A recent discussion of the CIMA Forum about partnering with marketing or research and development (R&D) functions provided some insights into the role of finance and business partners. From a small sample, it seems that in a mature market (or a market with long product-development cycles) it is required that business partners should provide tactical support but in a more dynamic sector, and finance must be prepared to challenge strategically. 

The global alcoholic beverages company Diageo sums up its finance role broadly as a constructive irritant. In contrast, Rolls-Royce’s finance team performs a more supportive and monitoring role — but a constructive irritant when necessary.

The job title varies too. Business partner or finance and business partner are recognised as descriptions of the role. Financial or business analyst, business or finance manager, or simply management accountant, are all used as job titles.

Matrix-reporting relationships are the norm, usually with a dotted-line connection to the business and a solid line to the finance and accounting function. Geoff Lewins, Director of Finance Strategy at Rolls-Royce, spoke of the ‘duck theory’: if he/she looks like a finance and business partner and behaves like a finance and business partner, they are a finance and business partner no matter whom they report to.

The main types of finance and business partners: 

1. Shared service centres, including outsourced centres, can have the capabilities to provide reporting and analysis services that would otherwise have been provided by a finance and business partner. At Ford Motor Company, an accounting and business partner supports the business lines to ensure that standard systems and processes are used. But ordinarily, this is not considered to be finance and business partnering.
    
2. Most finance and business partners are embedded in the business and provide tactical financial support (for example with budgets, planning and analysis) to line managers. They do not produce accounts but they resolve problems, reconcile differences and tailor reports to the line managers’ requirements. Generally, they have a matrix reporting relationship, which has a solid-line connection to the finance and accounting function, and a dotted line to the business unit manager. Some of this financial support can now be provided by shared service centres.
    
3. Some finance and business partners are more definitely expert members of the finance function, reporting directly to the finance directorate. These may provide finance and business partnering in specialist areas, such as risk management or merger and acquisition activity, or they may be strategic finance and business partners who support the group’s finance director. They may not have the close understanding of the business usually expected of business partners but their distance can make it easier for them to challenge the business.
    
4. Only a select sub-set of finance people embedded in the business can combine the business understanding and close working relationships gained through proximity, with the financial expertise and strategic thinking needed to provide finance leadership.
    
5. These are regarded as ‘true’ finance and business partners by the CIMA Forum. They can challenge line managers as sparring partners. They do not produce financial or management information but they promote the application of finance disciplines to decision making, challenging the business to generate more value and having a significant influence on the business’s direction. They provide as much leadership as support. They can be embedded in the business or have a matrix-reporting relationship.