FP&A Business Partnership: Moving From Data Provider to Trusted Advisor

Business Partnership: Where FP&A Insights Guide Strategic Decisions

Finance professionals today face a critical challenge. How do you evolve your role from reporting financial data to one that shapes strategy?

Tim Vipond, CFI’s CEO and Co-Founder, recently sat down with Paul Barnhurst, “The FP&A Guy,” for a live webinar to explore this exact question. Their conversation revealed a fundamental shift across the FP&A field.

“Companies are really struggling to find FP&A people that don’t just dump the data on the business’s lap, but can tell them what to do with it,” Barnhurst explained. 

Most importantly, they take financial and operational data to what Barnhurst calls “the influencing, to the storytelling phase” where analysis guides strategic decisions. This gap between reporting data and strategic guidance represents an opportunity for ambitious finance professionals. 

Want to watch the full webinar replay on-demand? Find it here!

The Human Skills That Drive Strategic Impact in FP&A

Technical skills like Excel and financial modeling help you get a job in FP&A. But what are the skills that make you indispensable? 

According to Paul’s interviews with FP&A leaders across the globe, five soft skills consistently separate strategic partners from number crunchers.

• Empathy – Understanding what your business partners experience day-to-day.
• Active listening – Catching the deeper concerns behind your partners’ questions and grasping the pressures that business teams face.
• Influence without authority – Helping managers see possibilities and guiding them toward better decisions through compelling analysis.
• Data storytelling – Explaining complex information to leaders in operations, sales, and marketing in an engaging and understandable way.
• Relationship building – Creating trust through consistent interactions, reliable insights, and genuine interest in colleagues’ success.

“If you don’t step outside of finance, you don’t step outside of that Excel file and the numbers, you can’t be a good business partner,” Paul emphasized.

Building Authentic Business Partnerships That Last

The Power of Humble Curiosity in FP&A

When Paul asks FP&A leaders about the most important trait for business partnership, about 25-30% cite curiosity as number one. Not analytical skills. Not Excel expertise. Curiosity.

“One of the most important things you need to do is be curious and learn the business,” Paul noted. 

But this isn’t curiosity with an agenda. It’s what one leader called “humble curiosity,” meaning a genuine interest in understanding how things work.

Approaching your stakeholders with curiosity builds trust in ways that technical competence alone never could. When you show up genuinely interested in learning about warehouse operations or customer service challenges, business leaders notice. They start to share the real problems, not just the surface-level issues.

Learning without an agenda also means resisting the urge to immediately solve every problem you hear. Sometimes, understanding comes first. Solutions follow naturally when you truly grasp the situation.

Understanding the Operational Heart of a Business

Paul shared a powerful example of true business partnership. A friend working in consumer goods manufacturing started visiting the production floor regularly. Not for formal meetings. Just to understand.

Through relationships with floor workers and learning about the equipment, this finance professional developed an intuitive understanding of operations. Eventually, he could glance at daily reports and immediately know which machine was down. He’d pick up the phone, ready to help solve the issue.

“Financials are lagging indicators. The core is always something operational,” Paul explained. “And the more you can help remove those bottlenecks operationally, the better.”

When it comes to building relationships with your stakeholders, consistency wins. Show up regularly, ask genuine questions, and, most importantly, remember what they tell you. 

Practical Steps to Connect with Your Business Partners

Ready to develop stronger partnerships with your business stakeholders? The path forward is clearer than you might think.

• Schedule one-on-ones with business leaders across the organization. Don’t wait for an invitation. Reach out proactively and express interest in understanding their world. Most people appreciate the initiative.
• Get out of your office. Visit the manufacturing floor. Sit with the call center team for half a day. Watch how orders get processed. See firsthand what happens when systems go down or processes break.
• Become a student of your industry. Subscribe to trade publications. Set up Google alerts for your competitors. Listen to earnings calls — not just your own company’s, but competitors’ calls too. What questions do analysts ask? What metrics matter most?

Most importantly, focus on pain points. “Everybody likes to talk about themselves with few exceptions. They like to talk about the work they do,” Paul observed. “But the next big thing is how can you help solve pain points?”

Start conversations by asking stakeholders about challenges in their areas. What keeps them up at night? Where do they see inefficiencies? What would make their jobs easier? Listen actively and gain this deeper understanding first, then ask about how FP&A can help.

Tips for Developing FP&A Business Partnering Skills

The evolution from data provider to strategic advisor doesn’t happen overnight. But it’s absolutely within reach for FP&A professionals willing to develop new skills.

Technical expertise remains important. You still need solid financial modeling and analytical capabilities. 

But the professionals who truly influence their organizations go further. They build genuine relationships, understand operations, and communicate with empathy and clarity.

“It’s a great time to be in FP&A,” Paul concluded. “Focus on those soft skills. Don’t sleep on being that great business partner who can help influence the direction of the business and move it forward.”

Start with curiosity. Pick one department you don’t fully understand. Schedule a coffee chat. Ask questions. Listen more than you talk. From that single conversation, a partnership begins.

Next Steps to Becoming an Effective FP&A Business Partner

Ready to accelerate your journey from data reporter to strategic partner? CFI’s FP&A Professional (FPAP™) Certification provides the comprehensive skill development you need.

Through a structured learning path, you’ll build expertise in financial modeling, data storytelling, business partnering, and strategic analysis. The program balances technical skills with the soft skills that drive real business impact.

Paul created a few courses for the FPAP™ certification, including one focused on crafting narratives from data, a core skill in business partnership. He also completed the entire program himself and shared his perspective: “For the value, for the price, you’re going to find that it’s hard to beat.” 

Thousands of professionals have already enrolled and started transforming their approach to FP&A. Start building your FP&A business partnership skills today with CFI’s FPAP™ Certification.

Earn Your Certification!

Additional Resources

Prioritizing Internal Stakeholders: A Guide for Corporate Finance Professionals

Networking and Building Relationships (Part 1)

Networking and Building Relationships (Part 2)

Networking and Building Relationships (Part 3)

See all FP&A resources