Finance business partnering is not a new concept and has been around for a while. Well, not just for a while, for more than 60 years. Since then, finance community could not come up with one single definition of finance business partnering. It’s still unclear whether it’s a job title, or a role, or the way of working, etc.

Indeed, the concept is not the easiest one to define, but its benefits for the companies are intuitively obvious and well known.

From a strategic standpoint, FP&A capabilities to provide business insights and drive informed decision-making can become a source of competitive advantage for the company. That is the reason why many finance and FP&A leaders are taking the steps to transform their functions.

This article describes the FP&A maturity assessment model focused on major tasks of the function and built around 3 key areas – processes, tools/systems and people.

Assessing efficiency of businesses, projects and processes, the finance function does not always set an example in terms of best productivity. There is always a room for process optimization in which lean approach can help by focusing on value maximization while minimizing efforts.

Fast-changing environment of the digital age requires not only rapid adaptation of business but also of the finance function, which leads to the evolving responsibilities and roles of the finance professionals.