Manager - Business Finance Partnering
Role Summary
Business Finance Manager is the focal point of contact for the business, providing support to leaders in the respective Advisory vertical on financial analysis, insights and help the leaders make informed decisions. The manager acts as a controller for the business, providing guidance and measuring performance to ensure business is on track as planned.
By collaborating closely with leaders, the Business Finance Manager (BFM) aims to improve business outcomes by enhancing the visibility of performance, both in terms of projections and understanding the reasons for historical performance.
Key Responsibilities
- Responsible for monitoring and analyzing the financial performance of client engagements within the department. Prepare financial reports on key performance indicators (KPIs), and dashboards to provide insights on profitability, cost control, revenue generation, and other relevant metrics.
- Function as strategic partner to different stakeholders, including management, business leaders, and operational teams. Collaborate with these stakeholders to understand their objectives, support strategic decision-making, and provide financial guidance for achieving organizational goals.
- Own the end-to-end budgeting and forecasting process and perform sensitivity analysis, scenario planning, and ability to prepare financial models to support business annual planning. Analyze financial data, review vertical P&L, prepare monthly performance reports and presentation decks.
- The Business Finance Manager plays a crucial role in identifying and mitigating financial risks. Assess potential risks around revenue recognition, deviation from plan, cost over-runs, proper engagement documentation in place before revenue accruals and timely recognition of provisions.
- Review engagement financial position and perform onerous reviews to ensure early identification of cost over-runs and propose adjustments when required.
- Management of work-in-progress (WIP) is vital for maintaining billing, cash flow, and lockup days. Ensure timely billing of WIP and recognition is based on realized value of the work done.
- Business Finance Managers help implement and maintain strong financial governance framework. Help with the quarterly and annual financial audit of engagements by internal and external auditors.
- Review secured work backlog and follow up on pending actions to complete the visibility of the secured revenue. This includes frequent assessment and revision of the backlog numbers, confirming the accuracy of data, and making sure that any modifications or updates are accurately reflected in the reports.
- Liaise with the business to review new pipeline data for new business and incorporate it correctly in the overall business backlog for committed and non-committed work.
- The role of Business Finance Manager involves investigating and resolving queries, generating business-specific management information, and conducting ad-hoc analyses to support the leadership in making informed decisions.
- Continuously assess processes and use Artificial Intelligence (AI) to enhance reporting accuracy, and data analysis to play a more effective role in overall AI based efficiencies. Identify opportunities to streamline operations and reduce costs by optimizing existing tools.
- Provides guidance to the junior team members and be able to provide training to the business on project financials, new procedures, and processes, and tools.
- Work closely with cross-functional teams to understand processes impacting the Advisory business and recommend improvements.
Required Experience & Qualifications
- Bachelor’s degree in finance, Accounting, or a related field (Master's degree or a professional qualification such as CPA, CA, ACCA or CIMA, is preferred).
- Minimum 8-10 years of experience in a Business controlling or business partnering or financial analysis capacity.
- Advanced proficiency in financial modeling, data analysis, and other MS tools (such MS Excel, PowerPoint, Word, Access, and PowerBI), and financial systems (such as SAP software).
- Excellent written and verbal communication, and presentation skills; able to communicate complex matters in a clear and compelling manner.
- Highly effective stakeholder management and relationship building skills; credible and confident with stakeholders at all levels.
- Strong analytical skills and attention to detail; able to analyze and interpret complex technical information.
- Experience in Consulting, Professional Services, Big 4 Advisory, IT/Technology Services, or project based businesses is highly preferred.
