Building trust across departments

Your weekly go-to guide to transform your finance function into a strategic powerhouse.

Welcome CFO Techstack Community ??,

This week, we feature an article by Fractional CFO, Manisha Chana, on a topic that’s becoming more important for finance teams: being effective business partners.

Finance professionals aren’t just about the numbers anymore—they’re playing a big role in driving business decisions. Manisha’s got over 12 years of experience working with startups and scaleups, and in this article, she gives practical tips on building relationships, collaborating with other teams, and using finance to add real value.

It’s a great read for anyone looking to make a bigger impact in the business!

FEATURED ARTICLE

The collaborative CFO

Strategies for effective business partnering

Finance teams nowadays are doing so much more than crunching numbers and creating reports. The ability to partner effectively with other departments has become a vital skill for finance pros, driving strategic decision-making and adding real value across the organisation.

I’ve spent the last 12 years working with startups and scaleups on their growth journeys, and I’ve learnt a lot about how Finance professionals can add value to an organisation.?

People working in accounting and finance generally have access to the most minute details of the business, and can use that knowledge to build a robust picture of a company’s strengths, weaknesses and opportunities. Finance professionals who can marry the details with commercial objectives can be invaluable business partners.?

However, it isn’t always that easy to be (or to have!) an effective business partner…?

Breaking down the office walls

Human relationships are the foundation for great business partnering. Making sure you nurture those relationships is critical—building mutual trust means that challenging each other in a respectful and calm way is much easier.?

In my early days as a Finance leader, I had a fractious relationship with one particular CEO. I didn't have the confidence to really speak my mind, and back up what I was saying with data. More than once, I shied away from difficult conversations because I was terrified of saying the wrong thing.?

However, I had great relationships with other colleagues in the business, and we were able to share information and ideas and they helped me build the confidence to have more difficult conversations with the CEO.?

Gaining that confidence to have difficult conversations would not have happened had I stayed in my Finance silo. It’s easy for Finance teams to focus on “Finance stuff” without looking to help other areas - for example, Finance teams can add lots of value when debating volume vs value trade-offs with Marketing teams.?

My advice is to nurture relationships with all your colleagues - go for lunch or coffee away from the office - and get to understand their problems and issues, and share your views and concerns. You’re all responsible for your own area, but you’re also all part of a wider company that would benefit from collaboration.

Bridging the department divide

We often talk about finance aligning with other teams, but I prefer to see the whole company as one big team, where everyone has a role to play. When you adopt that mindset, communication becomes so much easier. My advice is to approach conversations with curiosity—remember, you’re all in the same boat, rowing in the same direction. Go into meetings with an open mind—learn what’s happening in other departments, what they need from finance, and what insights finance can gather from them to help the business thrive. I’d highly recommend Mindset by Carol Dweck, which highlights why curiosity can be your superpower.

In my experience, 9 times out of 10, conflict arises from not taking the time to understand someone else’s perspective or data. If you push an agenda without fully grasping the other side’s view or having all the necessary information, you risk eroding trust and sparking unnecessary conflict.

Overcoming number phobia in non-finance teams

Getting non-finance departments to engage with the numbers can be tricky. Finance people are generally very comfortable with numbers and sometimes forget that others might not be. It’s even trickier because those who struggle with numbers often don’t admit it—they’ll smile and nod, but ultimately they don’t find their interactions with finance all that helpful.

Presenting information graphically and telling a story can be a great tool for sharing your perspective. Focus on getting three main points across—don’t overload people with data. They’re not looking for spreadsheets or figures; they want insights that help them do their jobs better.

Sometimes, though, you’ll encounter people who just won’t engage with numbers, no matter how you present them. I once worked with someone in marketing who didn’t want to see any stories, graphs, charts, or tables—nothing. I really struggled to get them to engage with data and insights. In the end, I found someone else in the marketing team who was able to understand, but it wasn’t an effective strategy. Some people just won’t engage with numbers in any format. In those cases, it’s key to find others who do understand the data and work with them to surface actionable insights.

Trust isn’t just about the numbers

When it comes to building trust, nothing beats face-to-face, non-work conversations. I try to remember the little details about my colleagues, like their kids’ names or what hobbies they’re into. Your colleagues are people. They have lives outside of work.

I also assume that my colleagues are competent and have the best intentions for the business. If I find evidence to the contrary, I’ll call it out, but I try to give everyone the benefit of the doubt. Being open and vulnerable helps build trust too. If I’m struggling at home or feeling anxious about something at work, I’m not afraid to share that with my team.?

I always try to speak my mind in a professional way—it’s not easy to give constructive feedback or call out substandard behaviour, but I make the effort. When I do, I focus less on what went wrong and more on the impact those actions had and how they affected stakeholders. This shifts the feedback from criticising the actions to emphasising the consequences. The goal is that next time, they’ll be more mindful of how their actions affect others.

Stepping out of the finance bubble (it's not so scary)

Effective business partnering is key for today’s finance teams. By breaking down silos, fostering open communication, and building trust, finance teams can evolve into strategic partners.

It’s about approaching interactions with curiosity, presenting data in simple ways, and understanding other teams’ perspectives. While technology can enhance collaboration, it’s the human connections—those face-to-face conversations and shared problem-solving—that really matter.

When finance teams step out of their traditional roles and engage proactively, everyone benefits. Yes, the journey to becoming an indispensable business partner can be challenging, but the rewards—for both you as a professional and the business overall—are definitely worth it.?

COMMUNITY INSIGHTS

?? How I stacked?it

Cheryl Morgan, Group Finance Manager at Unity Health Group, shares their tech stack

Unity Health Group is a healthcare-focused group comprising three businesses: Pure Physiotherapy, offering physiotherapy services through clinics and the NHS; Rehabilitation Direct, specialising in injury case management; and Medical and Legal Admin Services, working with Expert Witnesses assisting with providing expert witness reports.?

Cheryl told us, "As Group Finance Manager, I head up day-to-day operations across our businesses. Each business has its own team managing accounts receivable, accounts payable, bank reconciliations, and similar tasks, as well as a senior team handling the management accounts. I oversee that all is running as it should be. My role is incredibly varied—no two days are the same. I could be analysing figures for potential new sites as we grow the business or assisting the team with contracts, pricing, or any other support they need."

Here's what Cheryl and her team are using:

1. Mayday for Intercompany: We use Mayday to manage our intercompany transactions, and it has been incredibly helpful. We're using the Xero browser extension for cross-entity bank rec, and Recharger for our payroll recharges, which has saved us a lot of time. With the volume of intercompany transactions we handle, the Balancer feature has been a real lifesaver. It lets us quickly spot any posting errors, making our processes much smoother.
2. Pleo for Expenses: We use Pleo for our company cards and expenses, giving cards to all our directors, exec team, and senior leadership. It really saves us a lot of time since we no longer have to chase receipts or handle expense authorisations for mileage claims manually. It’s made the whole process much smoother and quicker for reimbursements.
3. Know-it for Chases and Credit Checks: We use Know-it for chasing payments and doing credit checks. Its Check-It feature is linked with Creditsafe, Companies House and various other sites to help us analyse the risks. We’ve also set up the automated chasing feature to fit our needs, so we can customise when reminders go out. This has really improved our payment collections and saved us a lot of time.
4. Fathom for Reporting: We use Fathom for our board and consolidated reporting, primarily handled by our Finance Director. He compiles the reports and tailors them to each company's needs before distributing them.
5. Nook for Accounts Payable: We have started implementing Nook, but due to time constraints from our growth, I haven't made much progress yet. We are currently set up to use it for our supplier payment runs and to process our monthly payroll file, and I am just in the process of setting up the PO rules with various departments, then we will be able to use it for end-to-end AP processing.

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Keen to share how you stack it? Email to [email protected]?

NEW IN THE WORLD OF CFO SOFTWARE

??? News from the stack-o-sphere

• Fathom is now ISO27001 certified and SOC 2 Type 1 compliant. Learn more.
• ApprovalMax now has the option to merge bills from the same supplier in ApprovalMax Pay. Check out the latest updates.
• Roveel announces the launch of their new Marketplace, designed to enhance your financial reporting and analytics experience. Take a look.

WHAT THE DATA SAYS

?? Stat of the week

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57% of finance leaders believe that their finance systems are a barrier to business partnering.

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Research by Deloitte.

UPCOMING EVENTS

??? Save the date

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Webinar: Processing & Recharging Payroll for Groups: How it works with Employment Hero and Mayday

Thu 17 Oct, 11am AEST

When it comes to running payroll for multiple locations and branches in larger businesses, time savings are paramount. No one wants to spend hours (or days) on manual work, data double-handling and switching between systems that don’t speak to each other. If you didn’t realise that Employment Hero can break down payroll by tracking categories via Xero and you can recharge this automatically to other entities in your group via Mayday, this webinar is here to show you how.

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Webinar: Stay Ahead: Strategic Planning Using Forecasting

Fri 18 Oct, 11am BST

Are you ready for the year ahead? Learn how to leverage Fathom’s forecasting tools to plan strategically and stay ahead of the curve.

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IRL Event: Beyond London

Thu 24 Oct, 1-6:30pm

Pleo's annual Beyond event is back! Join them for an event tailored for finance professionals in central London. It will be an afternoon full of insights, innovation and networking for you to discover how to tackle the latest challenges in finance. They will be joined by Olympians and financial industry leaders to talk through how to drive your business forward and elevate your finance strategy so make sure to sign up for a spot today!

MORE OF THE GOOD STUFF

And lastly, our top picks!

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??? Podcast: CFO Stories: Mastering the Art of CFO Communication with Jason Godley, ep. 182, CFO 4.0 by itas

?? ?Guide: Finance Business Partnering: Guide to Driving Business Growth

?? ?Joke: Did you hear about the race between 19 and 20? 21.

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