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ROLE PURPOSE:
The Finance Business Partner sits a level up from transactional trading support – acting as the strategic finance counterpart to the category director or functional head. Where Commercial Finance answers “is this promotion/SKU margin-accretive,” the Business Partner answers “should we make this investment, enter this category, or change this operating model.” The role is judged on the quality of the recommendation and its adoption, not on report timeliness alone.
KEY RESPONSIBILITIES:
A. Commercial reporting and insights
- Own end-to-end performance reporting and dashboards for allocated category or business unit — daily sales flash, weekly trade packs, monthly review packs and quarterly P&L reviews.
- Present financial insights to senior and executive leadership in clear, concise narrative, not just the numbers, but the “why” behind performance — translating data into commercial implications, risks and recommended actions.
- Proactively generate commercial insights to inform strategic and operational decisions — category margin dynamics, promo performance, channel mix shifts, volume trends.
- Provide insight and performance analysis across supplier income, store profitability, inventory and loss metrics.
- Adapt, simplify and continuously improve reporting — including Compass dashboard development and migration from legacy Excel-based reports.
B. Risk, opportunity and performance management
- Proactively identify risks and opportunities on sales and margin — quantify financial impact, communicate clearly to business leads and support active mitigation or realisation.
- Lead deep-dive analysis and root cause reviews in partnership with commercial, category and operations leads — going beyond variance reporting to understand and explain the "so what".
- Support target-setting and KPI tracking — revenue, margin, volume, promotional ROI and category contribution metrics. reconcile forecast uplift against actuals and feed learnings back into future planning summarising key financial outcomes.
- Drive continuous performance monitoring, flagging material movements identified through Compass AI anomaly detection and initiating analysis in response.
C. Planning, forecasting and business cases
- Drive the quarterly and rolling forecast process — ensuring all risks and opportunities are captured, assumptions are grounded in commercial reality, and outputs are communicated clearly.
- Support the annual budget and strategic planning process — bottom-up category build, assumption review, TM1 updates and alignment sessions with business stakeholders.
- Support business cases and post-investment reviews for new products, store investments, property initiatives and transformation programs.
- Support the development of financial business cases — challenging assumptions, stress-testing investment logic, scenario modelling and providing independent financial perspective.
- Lead post-implementation reviews to assess benefits realisation and investment outcomes against original business case commitments.
D. Category & Supplier Partnering
- Sit inside range review and space planning discussions, providing real-time margin and profitability input
- Track supplier rebates, cost-price negotiations, and terms compliance against contracted agreements
- Challenge category managers with data where trading decisions risk margin dilution
- Partner with Commercial, Operations, Supply Chain and Property stakeholders to support end-to-end P&L performance and decision making.
E. Stakeholder partnering and influence
- Serve as a trusted Finance partner to category directors, buyers, commercial GMs and operational leads — attending trading forums, category reviews and leadership meetings as the Finance voice.
- Challenge business assumptions constructively — bringing financial rigour to commercial decisions without losing the trust of the stakeholder relationship.
- Build and maintain strong working relationships with client organization, Head of Finance and reporting team— operating as one integrated Finance team.
- Communicate complex financial analysis in plain language, adapting style and depth for the audience — from analyst-level detail to executive summary.
- Mentor and provide quality oversight to team members and Analysts within the Business Partnering Pod.
E. Process and system improvement
- Identify and implement process improvements — eliminating manual steps where Compass or automation can replace them.
- Support Reporting and Planning platform migration – working with reporting team and supporting in commissioning new workarounds till migration gets complete
- Leverage Planning platforms as TM1, OneStream, Anaplan along with ERPs SAP S/4 HANA and emerging AI-commentary tools to improve the speed and accuracy of planning and reporting outputs.
- Success Measures / KPIs
- Forecast accuracy (revenue & margin) within agreed tolerance band, typically ±2–3%
- Promotional ROI delivered versus modelled at time of promotion approval
- Timeliness and accuracy of weekly/period trading packs
- Margin leakage identified and actioned ahead of period close
Qualifications
Skills & Experience
- 10–15 years minimum in a Finance Business Partnering, FP&A or commercial finance role
- Proven hands-on FBP experience in commercial, wholesale, merchandise, CPG or product-driven environments
- Direct experience supporting commercial GMs, category directors or senior operational business leads
- Experience owning end-to-end reporting cycles — from data pull through to executive presentation
- Track record of delivering commercial insights that have influenced business decisions — not just reporting numbers
- Experience at a FMCG or beverage-sector business is preferred.
- Strong financial analysis, modelling and scenario analysis capability
- Forecasting and budgeting — rolling forecast cycles, driver-based models, variance analysis with commercial narrative
- P&L management — revenue, COGS, gross margin, promotional cost, 5th margin and TPA mechanics
- Business case development — investment logic, sensitivity analysis, scenario modelling, post-implementation review
- Promo ROI modelling — how return on promotional investment is calculated, challenged and presented.
- Deep understanding of commercial constructs — 5th margin, TPA, category contribution, basket analytics (preferred)
Technical finance skills
- Strong financial analysis, modelling and scenario analysis capability
- Forecasting and budgeting — rolling forecast cycles, driver-based models, variance analysis with commercial narrative
- P&L management — revenue, COGS, gross margin, promotional cost, 5th margin and TPA mechanics
- Business case development — investment logic, sensitivity analysis, scenario modelling, post-implementation review
- Promo ROI modelling — how return on promotional investment is calculated, challenged and presented.
- Deep understanding of commercial constructs — 5th margin, TPA, category contribution, basket analytics (preferred)
Systems and tools
- Advanced Excel — financial modelling, large datasets, pivot analysis, complex formula work
- SAP ECC or equivalent ERP — cost centres, GL coding, report extraction, recon processes
- EPM / CPM planning tools — TM1 (IBM Planning Analytics), Anaplan, SAP SAC or equivalent rolling forecast platforms
- Reporting and visualisation — Power BI, Tableau or equivalent BI platforms
Interpersonal and leadership
- Strong stakeholder management — ability to build trust with commercial GMs and category directors quickly
- Clear and concise communication — written commentary, verbal presentation and executive summary capability
- Commercial curiosity — asks "why" and "so what", not just "what"
- Collaborative and team-oriented — works as one Finance team across the client teams
- Proven ability to challenge and influence senior business leaders on commercial decisions
- Experience leading cross-functional performance reviews including presenting to CFO or Divisional GM level
- Mentoring or coaching capability — willingness to guide other business partners and team members
Qualifications
- Degree in Finance, Accounting, Economics or Commerce
- CA / CPA fully qualified or in final stages of qualification
- Postgraduate qualification in Commerce or Finance preferred
Benefits of working at Accenture:
- 18 weeks paid parental leave
- Long & short-term career break opportunities
- Structured career development program
- Local and international career opportunities.
- Certified as a Family Inclusive Workplace™
- Flexible Work Arrangements - centered around Accenture’s Truly Human ethos and our commitment to supporting the health and wellbeing of our people.
- We are proud to be in the top 3 of last year’s Diversity & Inclusion Index!
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