Business Partnering for FP&A

Effective business partnering in FP&A goes beyond analysis—it’s about influence, collaboration, and creating shared accountability for financial outcomes. This course explores how finance professionals can evolve into trusted strategic advisors, balancing the need for data integrity with commercial insight and relationship-building across the organization.

Participants will learn how to translate complex financial concepts into actionable insights, adapt communication styles for different stakeholders, and navigate the tensions between finance control and commercial freedom. The course also covers the importance of mutual understanding, real-time decision support, and how to develop strong two-way partnerships that elevate finance’s role across the business.

Take your business partnering skills to the next level: learn powerful techniques for adding value and influencing your stakeholders.

You’re welcome to join just this workshop, but for a deeper dive, we recommend registering for the full program.

Course Testimonials

Setting up a new FP&A team in a fast-paced business, the FP&A bootcamp was a great way to get everyone on the same page as quickly as possible. We loved Catherine's teaching style and the interactive format of the course. The team took examples from the very first workshop and immediately put them into practice. It sparked such debate in the team that we almost have too many new ideas! A nice problem to have... Thanks Catherine and GrowCFO!

This is both a good refresher for seasoned professionals and a good introduction for individuals with less experience. Time went by very fast as it was an enjoyable course.

The course takes you through a practical approach to FP&A and you walk away with ideas and strategies you can begin to utilize in your business right away.

If you are new to FP&A or have been doing it for years, this is a great course to ensure you are on the correct path. The time commitment isn’t so much that you take too much time away from work, but enough that you feel you are getting plenty of resources to take back to your job.

The courses were very comprehensive and out team learned a lot from them. The breakout groups were both fun and engaging, and the trainers were excellent, bringing impressive first-hand experience in solving these real-world challenges.

This course was fantastic! It was the perfect refresher I needed to start a new job in FP&A. I thoroughly enjoyed the Zoom class sessions along with the exercises that we did in class.

I recommend this to everyone who is interested in understanding FP&A. I’m transitioning to an FP&A role and this course helped me get a jumpstart to prepare myself with the skills required to succeed.

Course Overview

What we Cover:

Financial Storytelling
Finance Business Partnering
Financial Modeling
Planning & Forecasting

The Challenges:

Translating financial data into commercial value
Building credibility with non-finance teams
Driving alignment without authority
Balancing challenge with collaboration
Supporting real-time decisions with clarity and confidence

The Barriers:

Communication gaps between finance and business units
Perception of finance as “scorekeepers”
Difficulty influencing without direct control
Misaligned incentives and unclear expectations
Lack of training in stakeholder management

Learning Objectives:

By completing this course, participants will:

Understand the mindset and behaviours of effective finance business partners
Build stronger, trust-based relationships with business stakeholders
Tailor financial insights to support strategic decision-making
Communicate with clarity, confidence, and commercial awareness
Proactively shape conversations to influence business direction

Business Benefits:

Enhanced cross-functional collaboration
Faster, better-informed decision-making
Greater trust in the finance function
Improved strategic alignment across teams
A stronger, more influential FP&A capability

Course Facilitator

Catherine Marks

Facilitator

Catherine led the O2 FP&A team through its merger with Virgin Media.

Prerequisites: Must have a basic understanding of FP&A

Advanced Preparation: No advanced preparation is required

Program Level: Basic

Delivery Method: Group Live

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