Finance Business Partnering is about creating solutions and seeing opportunities, and those things aren't going to be the same every month.
Why become a Finance Business Partner ? Because accounting is boring. Yes, I said it.
I trained as a financial accountant at Ireland's largest company CRH, and while I did my training, it was interesting because I was always learning.
After that when I qualified, I moved to Australia and I was working for a smaller entity, and then the routine set in. Same old, same old, same old. Now that I wasn't learning as much, it wasn't quite as fun.
Accounting vs. Finance Business Partnering
It reminds me of a joke I once heard from a New Zealand finance recruiter: "Why did the accountant cross the road? Because that's what he did last year." I know, it's like the dad joke of accounting, but it's really true.
Accounting is boring when you're not learning, because it's the same old, same old repetition. That's the difference with Finance Business Partnering. It's about creating solutions, and seeing opportunities, and those things aren't going to be the same every month.
You're not always going to have the same problems. Most importantly, there's always going to be a fresh place to take the business.
What will you get out of it?
Along with having exciting work, if you are coming up with solutions and opportunities for a business, that's going to help you grow, and in addition help your career grow.
If you're the one improving the decision making of the company, what's that going to get you? Influence? Respect? Recognition? It’s going to get you opportunities.
Soon people will see you as a commercially focused finance person; and then they're going to come to you for your input. You won't be waiting in the wings anymore - you'll be front and centre.
You actually see a lot of finance people go into more commercial roles. These days you see a lot of CFOs now becoming the CEO.
People want that financial acumen.
Automation and robotics
Finally, let's not forget about automation, because there's not always going to be the opportunities that there once was in accounting. But, there will be opportunities in Finance Business Partnering. Because of automation, and robotics.
I heard just last week that Google have developed a new robot that can automate finance and accounting tasks for instance. Apparently it wasn't that expensive, and it even came with a better personality than an accountant!
So it's not really just about accounting being boring, the reason you should become a Finance Business Partner is because you’ll have a more rewarding career, and you’ll have more opportunities whether it's in finance or in the rest of the business.
Why become a Finance Business Partner? To sum it up, its' the place to be in the future.
So, for those of you out there who want to become Finance Business Partners, what attracts you to the role? For those of you that are already Finance Business Partners, what got you to make the decision to go there?
