Course ID: FBPPAW

Finance Business Partnering: Practical Application Workshop

Finance leaders increasingly expect more than accurate reporting—they expect finance professionals to clarify decisions, challenge assumptions, and influence outcomes. Yet many finance teams struggle to move from “being helpful” to being genuinely consultative, especially when requests are vague, stakeholders disagree, or the real issue is hiding behind the first question. Practical Business Partnering is a hands-on, workshop-style course built to close that gap. Instead of learning concepts in the abstract, you’ll bring a real project from your organization and work it through a practical partnering method: Diagnose → Reframe → Influence. You’ll learn how to run a strong intake conversation, define the real problem (not just the symptom), create options with clear trade-offs, and deliver a recommendation that leaders can act on. You’ll also build a stakeholder alignment plan so your insight translates into decisions—not just discussion. You will leave with a usable work product: a Business Partner Brief tailored to your project, plus toolkits you can reuse for future requests. If you want to increase your strategic value, build credibility with business partners, and move from “explaining the numbers” to shaping the decision, this course is designed for you.

This course is available for 4.0 – 8.0 CPE credits.


Learning Objectives
  • Identify the core responsibilities of a consultative finance business partner from traditional reporting and analysis support.
  • Apply a structured intake questioning approach to clarify the business decision, success measures, constraints, risks, and key stakeholders for a real organizational project.
  • Determine a decision-ready problem statement by reframing the presented request into defined scope, assumptions, and success criteria.
  • Determine multiple solution options and analyze key trade-offs (cost, risk, speed, feasibility, and stakeholder impact) to support a defensible recommendation.
  • Select a concise recommendation using an executive-ready structure that states the ask, summarizes rationale, and outlines risks, assumptions, and next steps.

Major Topics
  • The consultative model: Diagnose → Reframe → Influence
  • Intake conversations: high-value questions to clarify the decision, success criteria, constraints, risks, and stakeholders
  • Problem framing: separating the presented problem from the true problem; defining scope and decision-ready statements
  • Developing options and trade-offs: building realistic alternatives, assumptions, risk/mitigation, feasibility, and timing
  • Recommendation structure: executive-ready one-page logic (headline, rationale, evidence, risks, ask, next steps)
  • Stakeholder alignment: mapping decision rights, objections, influence pathways, and pre-wire strategies
  • Real-world project lab: building a Business Partner Brief and an action plan to advance the project after the course

Advanced Preparations

None


Who Should Attend

CPAs working with clients or internal business leaders


Fields of Study
Business Management & Organization

Prerequisites

At least 3 years in accounting or finance.


Provider
Business Learning Institute

CPE Credits
8.0

Level
Intermediate

This course is available for your group as:

 

Let's Roll!

To learn more or customize this course for your group, complete this form and a BLI team member will get back with you shortly.


Or, contact BLI: or team@blionline.org
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