Financial health and success is crucial for the longevity of any business, this is why it may be worth considering a finance business partner for your business.
What is business finance?
Fundamentally, business finance is whatever method is used to fund a business for its commercial purpose. Any money required to start, continue to operate or expand a business is business finance.
This money could come from many sources, such as venture capital, business loans, reinvesting revenues, crowdfunding or any other method.
What does a finance business partner do?
A finance business partner are accountants or other financial professionals who look after a business’s overall financial health, looking at things like performance, forecasting and performing financial analysis, guiding the decision making and business strategy of the owners or other members of an executive team or other decision makers. They are often chartered accountants.
This role requires commercial acumen, communication skills and analytical skills. Put broadly, the role is to both support the business by providing important insights into its finances, and to challenge decision makers on the financials of their ideas and ventures to ensure their viability and that they are informed by the available data. Other responsibilities may include attracting investors, setting targets or driving operational change.
Why use a business finance partner?
These external financial experts work closely with a business to provide board-level accountancy support, offering their advice and insights. This level of expertise and support would usually require the hiring of an in-house financial director, which can be extremely costly both to recruit and in terms of salary.
They are particularly useful to fast-growing smaller businesses. The level of management and detailed reporting can have a huge impact on a business’s financial health, as well as freeing up other directors or owners to focus on the core business. A business finance partner can also put together robust plans for growth, providing key metrics to be measured against over varying time frames.
Financial business partners can also be useful when implementing new systems, such as new financial management software or cloud accounting, especially if they are already familiar with the systems and the business itself, finding potential stress points as well as areas where the two may be easier.
Find out more about accounting for businesses of all sizes with our other blogs on topics like small business debt, short term finance and budgeting.
