finance business partnering case study

The global body for professional accountants

• Search jobs
• Find an accountant
• Technical activities
• Help & support

Can't find your location/region listed? Please visit our global website instead

• Middle East
• Cayman Islands
• Trinidad & Tobago
• Virgin Islands (British)
• United Kingdom
• Czech Republic
• United Arab Emirates
• Saudi Arabia
• State of Palestine
• Syrian Arab Republic
• South Africa
• Africa (other)
• Hong Kong SAR of China
• New Zealand
• Our qualifications
• Getting started
• Your career
• Apply to become an ACCA student
• Why choose to study ACCA?
• ACCA accountancy qualifications
• Getting started with ACCA
• ACCA Learning
• Register your interest in ACCA
• Learn why you should hire ACCA members
• Why train your staff with ACCA?
• Recruit finance staff
• Train and develop finance talent
• Approved Employer programme
• Employer support
• Resources to help your organisation stay one step ahead
• Support for Approved Learning Partners
• Becoming an ACCA Approved Learning Partner
• Tutor support
• Computer-Based Exam (CBE) centres
• Content providers
• Registered Learning Partner
• Exemption accreditation
• University partnerships
• Find tuition
• Virtual classroom support for learning partners
• Find CPD resources
• Your membership
• Member networks
• AB magazine
• Sectors and industries
• Regulation and standards
• Advocacy and mentoring
• Council, elections and AGM
• Tuition and study options
• Study support resources
• Practical experience
• Our ethics modules
• Student Accountant
• Regulation and standards for students
• Your 2024 subscription
• Completing your EPSM
• Completing your PER
• Apply for membership
• Skills webinars
• Finding a great supervisor
• Choosing the right objectives for you
• Regularly recording your PER
• The next phase of your journey
• Your future once qualified
• Mentoring and networks
• Advance e-magazine
• Affiliate video support
• An introduction to professional insights
• Meet the team
• Global economics
• Professional accountants - the future
• Supporting the global profession
• Download the insights app

Can't find your location listed? Please visit our global website instead

01 April 2020

The role of the finance business partner

Neil johnson, we examine the role of the finance business partner, the skills and experience required for the job, how to get into the specialism and where it can take you in your career.

This article was first published in the April 2020 International edition of  Accounting and Business  magazine.

In an increasingly complex business environment, organisations are demanding that all units add greater value. Finance is doing this through business partnering, which helps other parts of a business improve analysis and decision-making. This also helps to foster a culture of governance, accountability and scrutiny, where strategic and tactical decisions alike are founded on data and projected figures.

Finance business partners are accountants who work very closely with the business to help it make key decisions. They discuss historical results as well as future projections. Key strategies are also discussed, as these all impact on the financial results.

Finance business partners will often be embedded within specific business units to create active partnerships that provide real-time support and analysis. This makes them trusted advisers focused on adding value to businesses.

An ability to understand your audience, to analyse data and to deliver information in a clear and user-friendly manner is critical.

‘Soft skills are essential to succeed as a finance business partner, as great communication is required to liaise successfully with different business units,’ says Nadeya Ijaz ACCA, a finance business partner at Allianz in Sydney, Australia. ‘Furthermore, an ability to explain numbers in “non-financial language” is a must. Not all business heads have a financial background.’

Financial business partners also need to be able to see the bigger picture of the company rather than focusing on a single division. ‘This requires liaising with different leaders to understand divisional requirements and each area differs immensely,’ says Ijaz.

The ability to influence and persuade senior stakeholders and people with little to no finance understanding is vital; you will not always be delivering welcome news, so confidence and the ability to motivate are also crucial.

Getting in and getting on

There is no one specific route to finance business partnering. The ACCA Qualification plus experience is a loose minimum, boosted by proven analytical, communication and commercial acumen skills. For example, after graduation, Ijaz started in investment banking. She moved over to the bank’s decision support team, where she is liaising with different areas of the business including marketing and HR. In her experience, decision support teams are a genesis for modern finance business partnering.

When she moved to Australia three years ago she introduced the role of finance business partner in the insurance industry.

‘I would say the opportunity was more organic as business units required more support,’ she says. ‘I believe a finance business partner can gain numerous skills over the years, and future ambitions would include becoming an FD or CFO. Alternatively, working with a specific division may spark interest in that area and lead on to various senior managerial positions.’ Neil Johnson, journalist

Related topics

• Future of the profession
• Professional skills
• ACCA Careers
• ACCA Career Navigator
• ACCA-X online courses

Useful links

• Make a payment
• ACCA Rulebook
• Work for us
• Supporting Ukraine

Using this site

• Accessibility
• Legal & copyright
• Advertising

Send us a message

Planned system updates

View our maintenance windows

Finance Business Partnering: How To Set Your Finance Team As A Business Partner?

Today, finance is expected to flexibly adjust to changing dynamics while consistently furnishing the organization with pertinent guidance. Moreover, it must continually enhance its capabilities to effectively address any forthcoming queries.

This underscores the significance of the ' Finance Business Partnering ' paradigm. A finance business partner (FBP), closely aligned with the business, possesses an acute awareness of ongoing operations and possesses the competence to respond adeptly.

In this article, we’ll discuss:

- Defining finance business partner (FBP)

- Why should you set finance as the proactive business partner?

- What’s the role of a finance business partner (FBP)?

- The values that FBPs bring in

- Steps to establishing your finance team as a business partner

- Final thoughts

Let’s dive right in.

Defining finance business partner (FBP)

Finance business partners encompass financial and accounting experts collaborating with the business to monitor financial performance. They offer financial data, forecasts, and analyses to steer decision-making and strategic development.

These partners offer both assistance and constructive scrutiny, ensuring ongoing alignment of business strategies with financial objectives.

Why should you set finance as the proactive business partner?

Whether it is FP&A, control, or compliance, the finance team has long focused on these traditional areas. Today, they increasingly partner with business functions to spearhead strategic decision-making and enterprise-wide transformation. As a true business partner, finance teams generate value by helping other departments make data-backed decisions.

💡 According to PWC , some characteristics that make finance the essential business partner include analytical skills, communication, relation management skills, and business knowledge.

What’s the role of a finance business partner (FBP)?

Focus on value-add activities.

Organizations that excel beyond their counterparts allocate a significant portion (23%) of their time to business partners. Flourishing finance departments collaborate more closely with the wider organization, highlighting the significance of the business partner role. Forward-thinking organizations recognize finance's importance in contributing to the achievement of the organization's commercial objectives.

Convert opportunities and threats into business drivers

Effective financial business partners, characterized by their ability to optimize costs, ensure dependability, and generate superior insights, can transform external opportunities and threats into catalysts for business collaboration.

Make use of enablers and predict constraints

Finance business partners need to possess the skill to leverage appropriate facilitators (like maintaining consistent and up-to-the-minute data) while foreseeing limitations (such as excessive emphasis on activities with limited value addition).

Look into the future

Effective FBPs should seek opportunities to generate fresh insights through thorough analysis and skillfully convey them to stakeholders. This enables a comprehensive evaluation of business performance.

The values that FBPs bring in

What makes finance professionals excel in a business partner role? Let's delve into the key reasons why they are particularly effective in fulfilling this role.

Data-driven decision-making: The foundation of solid decision-making is data, not assumptions. Data offers a transparent look into a company's performance, enabling executives to make informed choices. Finance business partners eliminate guesswork, replacing it with concrete evidence that lends credibility to decisions. By harnessing their expertise, organizations streamline decision-making, enhance clarity, and reduce uncertainty.

Comprehensive insight into operations: Progress assessment is contingent upon a holistic understanding of a company's financial landscape. Without this overview, steering an organization in the right direction becomes challenging. A finance business partner provides a panoramic view of financials, a perspective vital for effective navigation. These partners effectively communicate insights to all sectors, fostering strategic thinking and enhancing business planning across teams.

Shaping critical decisions: In a swiftly evolving market, the ability to react promptly and prepare for unforeseen shifts is paramount. Executives often face tight timelines for pivotal choices. Rapid adaptation and market anticipation grant organizations a competitive edge, allowing them to emerge stronger from uncertain periods. Finance business partners aid in swift responses and market foresight, contributing to resilient decision-making.

Enhanced operational efficiency: When heads of business units spend less time dissecting raw data, they can dedicate more effort to strategic endeavors. By realigning focus toward strategy, management allocates resources to projects that truly drive progress. Collaborative interactions among teams nurture productive relationships, concurrently enabling each function to enhance efficiency and productivity within their respective domains.

Steps to establishing your finance team as a business partner

#1 automate manual processes.

Finance teams have undergone a transformation that has engendered a demand for real-time, top-notch, and auditable data. The manual collection of external data, pivotal for identifying the forces propelling the organization forward, is challenging and prone to errors.

This is where the automation of finance processes, including tasks like data preparation, importing data from various business sources and integrations, and conducting comprehensive what-if scenarios, comes into play. This automation saves time and empowers teams to concentrate on tasks that generate value.

#2 Standardize data and definitions of data

If finance relies on spreadsheets to gather data for ad hoc analysis, it will consume a big chunk of time. Subsequently, standardizing the data collection and analysis becomes a challenge.

To address this, organizations are adopting cloud-based financial observability tools like Bluecopa. These tools consolidate data from various sources, establishing a singular source of truth that uncovers trends between diverse data types, which might have been overlooked or previously considered uncorrelated.

#3 Augment cross-functional collaboration

For finance to truly serve as a value-driven entity and a genuine partner for all functions, immediate access to information and analysis is indispensable.

This ensures seamless alignment with departments like sales, IT, HR, and tech, enabling finance to act as a strategic counterpart rather than learning about decisions after implementation. Achieving this requires finance to adopt cross-functional collaboration, eradicating decision silos.

Final thoughts

Effective finance business partners bring strong leadership qualities to the table and possess the ability to navigate complex financial processes with finesse. If you're looking to streamline your internal operations and elevate your business to new heights, consider incorporating a finance business partner into your cadre of business leaders.

This leader can serve as a guiding hand in managing the intricacies of a successful business while also providing invaluable financial insights that contribute to informed decision-making. Their expertise can be the bridge between operational excellence and financial soundness, helping your business thrive in a competitive landscape.

If you're looking to build a forward-looking finance function, we should talk! Sign up for a demo .

Popular search terms

Finance Business Partnering: An ultimate guide

Let’s face it: most teams work in silos.

They go about their day working toward (and hopefully achieving) their goals, rarely thinking about how what they do affects other teams, let alone their impact on the company as a whole. So when it comes time to sit down with the CFO and prepare a budget and goals for the next year, everyone dreads the conversation because few people really have data to create, and support, their strategies.

When it comes time to setting budgets and updating key performance indicators, it often seems like no-one is on the same page. Operational leaders feel like new objectives don’t make sense, and finance leaders can’t understand why, perpetuating the desire to work in silos. But what if you had a bridge between finance and operational teams year-round? Enter: finance business partnering.

In theory, blending the finance function with operational leaders’ know-how can be an unstoppable force. The challenge is making finance business partnering work in practice. In this guide, we’ll define finance business partnering, explain why you need it, share how you can prepare your organization for it, and reveal the key skills of successful business partners.

What is Finance Business Partnering?

Finance business partnering is a methodology in which members of the finance team are paired up with particular business units (sales, marketing, product, customer success) to provide financial information, analysis, and insights. Today, 46% of organizations have a business partnering team, and 30% plan to establish one in the next three years, according to FSN Future of Business Partnering.

When done right, finance business partners serve as trusted advisors to operational stakeholders, improving their decision-making by highlighting new initiatives and unforeseen obstacles. As business partners continue to work with other departments, their ability to apply their unique knowledge will help optimize operations and boost a company’s bottom line.

Why you need Business Partnering

According to FSN Future of Business Partnering, 66% of organizations expect to invest in business partnering between now and 2030, making it abundantly transparent that business partnering has value. But what, exactly, is that value?

Below we break down just a few of the many benefits of business partnering 一 not only for the finance teams but for the entire organization.

• Cost-effectiveness - Each department head knows their corner of the business inside and out. When you combine that knowledge with a financial point of view, opportunities to increase efficiency, automate processes and standardize data begin to appear. Implementing these changes can lead to improved business performance and, ultimately, cost-effectiveness.
• Business empowerment - Typically, finance professionals work on a holistic level, diving into the details only when necessary. With business partnering, finance teams work directly with leadership, providing expert opinions, pinpointing the right data, and explaining how to set business strategy and budget accordingly.
• Informed decision-making - Believe it or not, some companies still operate based on hunches. But with business partnering, they don’t have to. Business leaders can look to their embedded financial analysts to help them decipher their data and devise a plan to increase profitability in slower-growing markets, decrease time to value, and boost profits. Because of this mutual relationship, both parties hold themselves accountable for getting and staying on the right track.
• Analytical skills - A large part of business partnering is education. While it goes both ways, finance teams can provide ample technical knowledge from regulations to accounting. In addition, business partners help their counterparts understand how their work impacts the broader organization, what opportunities lie ahead of them, and how to prepare for potential challenges using real-time reports, dashboards, and forecasts.

How to create an successful Business Partnership

While finance business partnering can confer many benefits, they aren’t realized without the proper setup. Before implementing a full-on business partnering model, organizations should ensure that all teams:

• Participate in change management - Business partners will have difficulty providing value without senior management buy-in. They need to be invited to and participate in strategy meetings. They need their counterparts to face the ugly truths that may be hidden in the data. And they need leadership’s commitment to making data-driven business decisions.
• Understand the business - It’s hard to get the buy-in required to make business partnering work if the finance teams don’t take the time to deeply understand the business一both as a whole and on a departmental level. With greater awareness of how it all fits together, they can marry what they know with the right data and help their colleagues in other teams succeed.
• Leverage data - Business partnering is not possible without a solid data foundation. In fact, 88% of organizations believe the key to unlocking the future potential of business partnering lies in enhancing analytics. Using a platform that everyone can trust and promotes collaboration is key to making business partnering work.
• Identify opportunities to create value - Business partnering isn’t about going through the motions; it’s about unlocking new insights and streamlining efforts across the organization. And that doesn’t happen without a customizable analytics platform . Deep transaction-level analysis coupled with well-designed dashboards and visualizations can help all teams get on the same page and uncover new ways to set the business apart.

What to look for in an effective Finance Business Partner

An excellent finance business partner is already recognized as a top talent in the finance department but is equally trusted by operational leaders due to their credibility, capability, and strategic thinking. Let’s dive into what each of these means below.

Credibility

A first-rate business partner is business-savvy. They use technology to their advantage, creating automated reports, dashboards, and forecasts and performing ad-hoc analysis when required. Equipped with that information, they can determine the next best steps and present them compellingly to non-finance stakeholders. Because they’ve developed trust with these decision makers, what they say is influential and prompts people to take action.

Great business partners have strong analytical skills and understand how to slice and dice data to reveal valuable insights . They emphasize precise, statistically relevant data and use that data to boost a company’s bottom line. Because of their past experience, they are comfortable with ambiguity and risk. They also take steps to learn parts of the business they aren’t as familiar with, so they can anticipate the needs of management and operations.

The best business partners flex their financial and strategic muscles every day. They put together the puzzle pieces in a way that makes sense and drives the company forward 一 no matter the headwinds. They know how and where to create value and are skilled at measuring it. They are excellent communicators and can use data to persuade people to make changes that will move the needle.

Equip your Financial Business Partners with an exceptional FP&A platform

Business partnering is on the rise, and for good reasons. An outstanding business partnering model can help organizations cut costs, become more efficient, make data-driven decisions, and uncover opportunities that propel them ahead of their competition. But business partners can only do so much without the right tools at their fingertips.

Phocas , a premier business intelligence solution, is the ideal foundation for business partnering. A unique ad-hoc analysis layer built into the platform allows business partners to answer their pressing questions and test new business cases without disrupting regular reporting. They can also design, iterate on, and automate reports to help their stakeholders grasp what’s really going on in their department and how they can improve it.

The best part is that Phocas is transparent, helping everyone interpret and learn from data. Interested? Give Phocas a try and see for yourself how the platform can help your business partnering function grow.

Using her 15 years+ experience as a CA, Jordena helps Phocas develop financial products that save time and provide ways to extend analysis and performance.

Excel-based vs web-based budgeting and forecasting

For decades, Excel spreadsheets have been the trusted companion of finance teams. Their flexibility, ease of use, and low cost have made them a go-to tool for budgeting and forecasting. However, as businesses evolve and complexity increases, so too have expectations on financial planning. There is greater demand on the finance team and CFO to be more strategic, efficient, and accurate when it comes to financial planning, with the scope to also scale businesses grow.

The role of strategic finance in modern business

What is strategic finance? Strategic finance is a financial business partnering approach that many accountants know as aligning financial goals with the overall strategy of your organization. The concept has been around for awhile but it has often been difficult to achieve. Now with more flexible FP&A software available, it is easier to get that longer-term financial view by combining financial and operational data to support your financial planning and forecasting.

When to use an operating budget for more detailed planning

What is an operating budget? An operating budget is a resourceful tool that enables businesses to estimate income projections and expected expenses and plan for low-earning or high-spending months. This financial plan provides data that constantly records the costs of your business operations for a specific period (mainly up to the end of the year). It also serves as an outline detailing how much money a company spends and incurring expenses.

Best practices for cash flow forecasting

Whether you are managing inventory or planning an acquisition, to maintain day-to-day operations you need a clear cash flow forecasting process. Staying on top of cashflow means you can gauge your solvency and profitability from a long and short-term perspective.

Find out how our platform gives you the visibility you need to get more done.

By clicking "Accept all", you agree to the storing of cookies on your device to enhance site navigation, analyze site usage and assist in our marketing efforts.

When you visit any website, it may store or retrieve information in your browser, mostly in the form of cookies. This information might be about you, your preferences or your device and the primary purpose is to ensure the website functions as you expect it to. While this information typically doesn't directly identify you, it contributes to a more personalized browsing experience. Because we respect your right to privacy, we provide the option to control certain types of cookies. Click on the different category headings below to learn more and modify our default settings according to your preferences. However, blocking some types of cookies might impact your experience of the website and the services we are able to offer.

More information

AstraZeneca – Defining a global model for finance partnering

As part of a far-reaching finance transformation programme, AstraZeneca sought to drive more value from their business-facing finance teams in all countries and sites around the world.

How we helped our client

• Defined global model for finance business partnering: which business decisions to prioritise; characteristics of great business partners; how to free up time; and what roles and capabilities are needed
• Launched business partnering programme at global finance leaders summit with best practice assessment and gap analysis for 10 countries, including China, Japan, U.S.A.
• ‘Deep-dive’ in Russia to re-design the finance organisation and develop a practical road-map of improvements
• Worked with the finance leadership team to identify the priority finance transformation initiatives to deliver tens of millions of dollars of cost reduction
• Developed a new approach to pricing in Europe and changed the role of finance to deliver business value in pricing
• Created and ran summits to launch finance business partnering in Eastern Europe and Latin America to mobilise finance directors into action

Business outcomes

• Separate finance business partner organisation, distinct from transaction or specialist finance, with clear roles, skills and career paths
• Business partners performing at or close to the top 10% of externally benchmarked peer organisations
• Finance business partners operate as peers on management teams driving strategy and decision making, and managing business performance
• Significant uplift in capabilities through knowledge sharing, targeted education and business briefings
• Awarded Finance Business Partner organisation of the year by the Chartered Institute of Management Accountants.

Arcus Consulting have played an invaluable role in our 2-year journey to transform finance business partnering across the globe. They helped us to set the vision and direction for business partnering; they’ve conducted practical improvement projects on-the-ground in Europe and Russia; and they’ve been successful at mobilising our finance directors into action in Latin America and Eastern Europe.

Arcus Consulting are seasoned consultants who are able to work effectively with our senior business and finance leaders; they operate at a strategic level as well as ‘rolling-up their sleeves’ to tackle practical operational issues; they are highly collaborative with our teams and very successful at making change happen in our organisation.

Privacy | Cookies | Terms Copyright 2018 Arcus Consulting Limited ©

Skill level

Specialisms

• Advisory and consultancy
• Audit and assurance
• Financial and business reporting
• Financial management
• Performance management
• Risk management
• Sustainability

Capabilities

Collaboration

• SKILL LEVEL :

Finance business partner

• Share via twitter
• Share via facebook
• Share via linkedin
• Share via email

What is a finance business partner and what do they do?

Finance business partners are accountants who work alongside different business departments/units, creating a real and active partnership with both operations and management. They provide financial information, tools, analysis and insight to executives, challenging their thinking, helping them make more informed decisions and driving business strategy. Their role is to provide real-time support and analysis, to be a trusted advisor and to add value that will assist in decision-making. As most unit managers and staff are not finance professionals, it is important that they have an ability to communicate their message, to understand their audience and deliver the information in a clear and user-friendly manner.

Key responsibilities

Responsibilities may vary but duties could include: 

• building partnerships and strong relationships with all senior managers and their teams, and providing financial support to commercial decision- making
• delivering analysis and insight on business opportunities 
• providing options and scenarios for business decisions 
• conducting market research studies and analysis to assess current market trends 
• presenting financial performance, full-year forecasts and budget variances, including understanding financial opportunities and risk 
• challenging current ways of working 
• driving efficiencies and cost savings wherever possible 
• assisting with year-end audit 
• dealing with and working through issues of conflict and operational challenges with project teams and other stakeholders 
• understanding the cost drivers of the business and providing insight to non-finance members.

Person specification

Finance business partners must have excellent interpersonal skills, with the ability to build strong relationships and communicate effectively in order to explain financial concepts to and collaborate with non-finance staff. They should be able to influence key decision-makers and think strategically. Excellent commercial acumen giving clear business insight, along with expertise in project management and digital analytical skills, are also required for this role.

Why are they important?

Finance business partners are an important bridge between the finance function, management and other areas of the business. They deliver financial information, tools, analysis and insight to executives across the business, which equips them with the information they need to make informed decisions that align with company objectives. The finance business partner role is important in providing the insight that allows managers to challenge, coach and motivate their teams. Often embedded in the business unit itself, they reduce the silo effect that exists in organisations where finance is a separate department.

While the accountancy profession offers diverse career options and paths, the core capabilities required to perform at the highest standards remain the same - irrespective of skill level or job role.

• Learning resources & CPD
• How the ACCA Qualification prepares you

Continuing professional development at ACCA

A commitment to life-long learning is a vital part of your ACCA membership; it unlocks the full potential of your career choices - and drives forward the profession.

We deliver a wide range of CPD resources tailored to different areas of expertise - and an ever-changing profession. Our, and your, commitment to quality CPD ensures you will have the most up-to-date skills to perform at the highest standard. 

So, get started (or restarted) and take a look at our curated list of the most relevant CPD resources to secure and succeed in this role.

Online course

Finance business partnering 10 course pack.

This 10-course pack from BPP is designed to develop the new skills you need to be an effective and successful finance business partner. Changes and pressures on the economy have meant there is now much more of a relationship between finance and the operational part of the business. This has resulted in the development of the role of the finance business partner, which requires a completely different skill set to those needed by a more traditional financial accountant. 

Career progression pathway: finance business partner

Today, the expectations on finance professionals are higher than ever. This pathway will teach you what it means to be a successful finance business partner, and how to achieve this goal. Learn how to become a person of influence and a trusted advisor within your organisation or for your clients, and see the benefits of employing a holistic approach to the finance function. You will discover how to improve your strategic awareness and reporting, as well as new approaches to take when making decisions. Find out how you can add value as a finance business partner.

How does the ACCA qualification support this job role?

From a combination of exams, ethics and experience, the ACCA Qualification will boost your employability and performance at every stage of your career journey.

Here we have listed some elements of the ACCA Qualification that will help you perform at the highest standard in this job role.

Strategic Professional

Strategic business leader.

Strategic Business Leader (SBL) mirrors the workplace and provides you with real-world challenges, allowing you to demonstrate a blend of technical, practical and professional skills. Work through the Ethics and Professional Skills module either before you start or alongside your studies. This gives you insight into professional skills that you can apply in your exam and in the workplace.

Strategic Business Reporting

The Strategic Business Reporting (SBR) exam requires you to demonstrate your ability to make strategic business reporting decisions. Set within the corporate reporting environment, the exam will test you on concepts, theories, principles and crucially your ability to apply this knowledge to real life scenarios.

Strategic professional

Advanced performance management.

You'll apply relevant knowledge, skills and exercise professional judgement in selecting and applying strategic management accounting techniques in different business contexts and to contribute to the evaluation of the performance of an organisation and its strategic development.

Practical experience

• Unit 12: Evaluate management accounting systems, (a-e)
• Unit 13: Plan and control performance, (d-e)
• Unit 14: Monitor performance, (a-e)

Explore further

• Related job profiles
• Areas of expertise
• Vice president in financial services
• Chief financial officer
• Finance director

The global employability site for accountancy and finance professionals

Case study for this role

From AB magazine interview

The view from Jon Piggott FCCA

Further ACCA resources and services that help support your career

Role Insights

Now you've chosen your career path, visit ACCA Careers to explore live vacancies and jobs data.

ACCA Learning

Access the full catalogue of learning and CPD resources on ACCA Learning.

Fintech state-of-play: opportunities for finance professionals

Fintech, the coming together of financial services and digital technology, has transformed how financial services are delivered and consumed.

ACCA Global

Find out more about ACCA; who we are, what we do, why we do it and who for.

Not yet started your ACCA journey?

Looking to start or restart your journey with us? Apply or re-register with us today to access all the benefits ACCA membership brings

Finance business partnering

FREE ACCOUNT

Finance business partnering makes an important contribution to improving decision making and ensuring the sustainable success of business.

In many organisations, the accounting and finance function is being transformed to be more effective. This is being enabled by developments in information technology, allowing management accountants to extend their role to include finance business partnering. Finance business partnering makes an important contribution to improving decision making and ensuring the sustainable success of business. It also widens the career opportunities for management

Download the Finance business partnering

File name: cgma-business-partnering-report.pdf

Already a member?

Log in with your account, not a member, mentioned in this article, related content.

This site is brought to you by the Association of International Certified Professional Accountants, the global voice of the accounting and finance profession, founded by the American Institute of CPAs and The Chartered Institute of Management Accountants.

CA Do Not Sell or Share My Personal Information

• Log in
• Site search

Finance business partner — Toby Sharpe

Toby studied BSc Aviation Management at Coventry University before joining British Airways' (BA) three-year Finance Graduate Scheme as a finance business partner for their corporate affairs, legal and insurance division

How did you get onto the graduate programme?

I applied to the scheme through the BA Careers website. There were a variety of different assessment stages, including an online skills assessment, longer written answers and a recorded video interview where you had to quickly record answers in a similar format to a normal interview. My final interview was on Microsoft Teams (due to COVID-19) but everything ran very smoothly.

What's a typical day like on the scheme?

One of the best aspects of the scheme is the variety - very few days are the same and we gain a significant amount of responsibility from day one.

My first-year role has been working as a finance business partner supporting the corporate affairs, legal and insurance division. I work in central services finance, which is essential for all the centralised functions in the company, such as people, property, reward and the global learning academy.

I directly manage the budgets and spending for the areas that I partner with. I support quarterly re-forecasting processes to review line area spending and support their business requirements. We conduct wider budgetary reviews to support the business and financial plans. As part of my role, I've had the valuable opportunity to present budgets to two management committee members that I support. This has allowed me to significantly develop my presentation skills.

Outside of month-end or re-forecasting periods, I support business cases, approve purchase orders for any spend and assist with any ad-hoc requests.

What do you enjoy most about the programme?

I enjoy the variety offered by three different placements. This allows us to build a broad variety of financial and business-partnering skills.

In my first year, I particularly enjoyed supporting the financial roll-out of BA Better World, our sustainability programme. This has allowed me to make a difference to a key strategic priority for BA. I'm excited to be given further opportunities to develop my skills as I move to my second placement supporting our global customer care team, which is another key priority for BA.

There are other specific activities on the finance graduate scheme that add value. For example, experience days where we get to visit operational areas and 'audience with' sessions where we hear from interesting guest speakers around the business.

As part of the scheme, we choose between studying three accountancy qualifications (ACA, ACCA or CIMA). The study process forms part of a Level 7 apprenticeship, supported by First Intuition. I chose to study CIMA as I felt it was most aligned with my long-term goals and ambitions.

What are the challenges?

Managing work and study can be challenging at times, requiring resilience alongside open communication with our teams. However, we are well supported with study leave for study and revision sessions.

The responsibility from day one is also challenging but in an exciting way, as you get the opportunity to make a difference to BA immediately. There is very strong support for the graduates from the entire department - many senior positions in the team are held by former graduates.

The key thing is asking as many questions as you need, especially to start with.

In what way is your degree relevant?

Although I didn't study finance or accountancy - I studied aviation management, a specialised form of business management - I knew I was interested in a career in aviation.

My degree allowed me to build a strong working knowledge of many aspects of the sector - I could highlight many relevant projects and coursework that I undertook. For example, I undertook a strategic and financial analysis of another European airline, which allowed me to develop valuable knowledge and skills for the role.

Many of the graduates on the scheme studied a variety of different courses, so it's not necessary to have studied finance or accountancy previously.

How has your role developed and what are your career ambitions?

I've had the opportunity to support various departments in central finance. I previously helped support the property team for two months and looked after safety and security for six months.

In the short to medium-term, I'm looking to maximise my two remaining placements on the scheme and successfully complete my CIMA qualification, so I become a chartered accountant and can use these skills throughout my career. I hope this will conclude in a successful long-term career with BA.

What tips would you give to others looking to apply for this scheme?

For the application process, I'd take time to carefully review the job description and skills required for the scheme . It's useful considering any relevant skills or achievements to date and how these can be applied to any answers that you give.

An interest in aviation is helpful too, although you aren't expected to have too much background knowledge, such as the difference between types of aircraft.

Find out more

• Consider applying to airline graduate schemes .
• Get the lowdown on how to become an accountant .
• Discover more about the British Airways Finance Graduate Scheme .

How would you rate this page?

On a scale where 1 is dislike and 5 is like

• Dislike 1 unhappy-very
• Like 5 happy-very

Thank you for rating the page

Case Study: Maersk - Future of the CFO and Finance Function

Presentation by Rex Gu, CFO, Maersk Far East Operations

A.P. Moller–Maersk is an integrated container logistics company headquartered in Copenhagen Denmark with 76,000 employees in 130 countries (2019 revenue $41 billion).

It serves customers with frequent departures on all major trade lanes and inland services. Its main business lines are ocean, logistics and services, terminals and towage, and manufacturing (e.g., producing containers).

Maersk’s finance function transformation journey started five years ago with the advancement of an ERP system that has allowed transactional work to be fully managed in global shared service centers in the Philippines, India and China (where the majority of its finance employees are based).

The retained finance team is positioned as a business function to drive value creation in a trusted business partner role.

How does the finance team drive value creation?

The finance team has achieved status as a trusted finance business partner in three areas:

Finance : “provide and recommend”

• Indicators: own and drive performance management process and data
• Information: Provide meaningful and relevant reports to decision makers
• Insights: Tell the story behind the numbers and recommend next steps

Business : “ask and drive”

• Inquire: ask, and ask again, to ensure deep understanding of the business
• Impact: drive future business decisions by building and implementing models for decision makers
• Integrity: be objective and always represent the interests of the entire business

Partner : “challenge and own”

• Inclusion: be an active member of relevant business teams, meetings and committees
• Influence: enable, challenge and influence decision makers by driving all performance management discussions
• Integrate: sit with the business, be available, build relationships, take ownership and responsibility

The finance team’s involvement in value creation focuses on the tangible and actionable areas to create and protect value, and the specific activities they can perform as partners. The actionable areas are captured in a value creation framework for the finance team that provides inspiration and direction on

• Where they need to contribute : identifying value drivers, commercial excellence, cost leadership and capital efficiency.
• What they can contribute to: data, reports, analysis, insight, influence, and impact.

Rex provided a specific example in relation to achieving cost leadership. Key actions from the finance team captured in their value framework are in the table below.

Maersk Finance Talent Compass: Defining Talents

The finance talent compass helps identify required talent and potential future finance business partners and leaders. It covers five key areas: 

• Self-awareness – Leveraging awareness of strengths and weaknesses, whilst actively adapting own behavior to different situations.
• Intellectual ability – utilizing mental abilities, whilst learning quickly and adapting to change with ease.
• Strategic thinking – thinking ahead strategically by implementing strategic actions, hence mastering both complexity and ambiguity.
• Followership – Creating strong followership and sense of direction through which collaboration is enabled and talents build.
• Aspiration and determination – seeking more responsibility and complexity, hence embracing challenges, whilst being curious and emotionally stable.

Maersk’s Competency Framework

A competency framework identifies four core competency areas finance business partners need to create value:

• Technical : planning and forecasting, business analysis, performance management
• Partnering : communication, influence, relationships
• Analysis : problem solving, creativity, decision-making
• Leadership : myself, people, change.

Finance transformation has been accelerated by the mindset of experimentation which is encouraged throughout the organization.

Experimentation is how Maersk validates new ideas – de-risking the exploration of opportunities by validating the most fundamental aspects in terms of desirability, feasibility and viability of the project.

The key experimental mindset principles that its finance staff have embraced in their work are:

• Starting small: running small-scale experiments to test new ideas
• Learning fast: gathering customer feedback, collecting data and evidence to increase confidence in new products
• Falling forward: learning to benefit from failed experiments and sharing this valuable knowledge.

Two examples of this mindset approach and the finance team’s digital and data competency below demonstrate how the finance team is delivering its value creation promise in business partnering.

Bringing data to decision making

Combining financial and non-financial data has been a priority in operational and contingency planning, particularly in relation to adverse weather events or COVID-19 related restrictions, and in enhancing procurement contracts.

In one example, Far East Finance has enabled the business to improve its operational planning by combining cost information related to changes in routing with customer experience data on customer preferences in terms of how they wish their containers handled. They have been able to provide data-driven insights in a “sandbox” environment to help operational managers apply their judgment in dealing with particular events in a way that maximizes customer satisfaction and optimizes cost . Finance team has truly breathed life to the culture of making informed decisions on daily basis.

In another example, Far East Finance has been able to help significantly reduce the $1.5bn procurement budget by implementing a digitized contract repository and algorithm that supports live scenario and sensitivity simulation and evaluation that helps support contract negotiations. A digital “total cost of ownership” tool was developed to:

• ensure a standard presentation for all procurement projects,
• extract data directly from the ERP system,
• provide automatic scenarios, and
• reduce maintenance and manual intervention.

The tool allows the identification of scope, targets and team members; variables sensitivity analysis; scenario simulation; and evaluation.

This was a presentation to the IFAC Professional Accountants in Business Advisory Group during their September 2020 meeting. See here for the full meeting report: Accountants Supporting Sustainable Recovery

• Today's news
• Reviews and deals
• Climate change
• 2024 election
• Fall allergies
• Health news
• Mental health
• Sexual health
• Family health
• So mini ways
• Unapologetically
• Buying guides

Entertainment

• How to Watch
• My Portfolio
• Latest News
• Stock Market
• Premium News
• Biden Economy
• EV Deep Dive
• Stocks: Most Actives
• Stocks: Gainers
• Stocks: Losers
• Trending Tickers
• World Indices
• US Treasury Bonds
• Top Mutual Funds
• Highest Open Interest
• Highest Implied Volatility
• Stock Comparison
• Advanced Charts
• Currency Converter
• Basic Materials
• Communication Services
• Consumer Cyclical
• Consumer Defensive
• Financial Services
• Industrials
• Real Estate
• Mutual Funds
• Credit cards
• Balance Transfer Cards
• Cash-back Cards
• Rewards Cards
• Travel Cards
• Personal Loans
• Student Loans
• Car Insurance
• Morning Brief
• Market Domination
• Market Domination Overtime
• Opening Bid
• Stocks in Translation
• Lead This Way
• Good Buy or Goodbye?
• Fantasy football
• Pro Pick 'Em
• College Pick 'Em
• Fantasy baseball
• Fantasy hockey
• Fantasy basketball
• Download the app
• Daily fantasy
• Scores and schedules
• GameChannel
• World Baseball Classic
• Premier League
• CONCACAF League
• Champions League
• Motorsports
• Horse racing
• Newsletters

New on Yahoo

• Privacy Dashboard

Yahoo Finance

The demise of red lobster is a perfect case study in how to kill a business.

With the chain on the verge of bankruptcy, it has become abundantly clear that Red Lobster letting customers eat all the shrimp their hearts desire was not a great business idea . It's also not the reason the restaurant is in a deep financial mess .

In mid-April, Bloomberg reported the debt-laden seafood chain and home of beloved cheddar biscuits was considering filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. Red Lobster is being bogged down by increased labor costs and expensive leases on its restaurants. Some observers were quick to blame the financial woes on its decision last year to make its "Endless Shrimp" promotion, which used to be an occasional, limited-time offering, permanent. The move was not a smart one. While Red Lobster increased traffic somewhat, people coming in to chow down on all-you-can-eat shrimp was a money bleeder. The company blamed Endless Shrimp for its $11 million losses in the third quarter of 2023, and in the fourth quarter, the picture got even worse, with the restaurant chain seeing $12.5 million in operating losses.

But the story about what's gone wrong with Red Lobster is much more complicated than a bunch of stoners pigging out on shrimp (and, later, lobster ) en masse. The brand has been plagued by various problems — waning customer interest, constant leadership turnover, and, as has become a common tale, private equity's meddling in the business.

"If anything, the Endless Shrimp deals are probably as much a symbol of just either desperation or poor management or both," Jonathan Maze, the editor in chief of Restaurant Business Magazine, said.

Red Lobster first opened in Lakeland, Florida, in 1968 and was acquired by the food conglomerate General Mills in 1970. General Mills then spun the chain off in 1995 along with the rest of its restaurant division, which also included Olive Garden, as Darden Restaurants. In 2014, amid flagging sales and pressure from investors, Darden sold Red Lobster for $2.1 billion to Golden Gate Capital, a San Francisco private-equity firm.

To raise enough cash to make the deal happen, Golden Gate sold off Red Lobster's real estate to another entity — in this case, a company called American Realty Capital Properties — and then immediately leased the restaurants back. The next year, Red Lobster bought back some sites, but many of its restaurants were suddenly strapped with added rent expenses. Even if Darden had kept Red Lobster, it's not clear it would have taken a different route: A press release from the time says it had contacted buyers to explore such a transaction. But in Maze's view, the sale of the real estate was sort of an original sin for Red Lobster's current troubles. He compared it to throwing out a spare parachute — chances are, you'll be OK, but if the first parachute fails, you're in deep trouble.

"The thing that private equity does is just unload assets and monetize assets. And so they effectively paid for the purchase of Red Lobster by selling the real estate," he said. "It'll probably be fine, generally, but there's going to come a time in which your sales fall, your profitability is challenged, and your debt looks too bad, and then suddenly those leases are going to look awfully ugly."

That time, according to recent reporting, is now. With struggling sales and operational losses, the leases are an added headache that is helping push the company to the brink, though bankruptcy may help Red Lobster get some wiggle room on them.

Eileen Appelbaum, a codirector of the Center for Economic and Policy Research, a progressive think tank, and a longtime private-equity critic, said in 2014 that private equity wouldn't be the solution to Red Lobster's ills. She isn't surprised about how this is all turning out.

"Once they sell the real estate, then the private-equity company is golden, and they've made their money back and probably more than what they paid," she said, noting that this was a common theme in other restaurants and retailers and adding: "The retail apocalypse is all about having your real estate sold out from under you so that you have to pay the rent in good times and in bad."

After the real estate move, Golden Gate sold 25% of the company in 2016 to Thai Union, a Thailand seafood company, for $575 million and unloaded the rest of the company to an investor group called the Seafood Alliance, of which Thai Union was a part, in 2020. Golden Gate likely came out ahead, but the same can't be said for Thai Union, which also controls the Chicken of the Sea brand. It is now looking to get out of its stake in Red Lobster and took a one-time charge of $530 million on its investment in the fourth quarter of last year. In 2021, Red Lobster refinanced its debt, with one of its new lenders being Fortress Investment Group, an investment-management group and private-equity firm. According to Bloomberg, it's one of the "key lenders" involved in debt negotiations now.

Beyond the pandemic-related troubles that hit restaurants across the country , analysts and experts say that Red Lobster's particular problems are attributable to a mix of poor brand positioning and unstable leadership. The seafood-restaurant business is a tough one in the US, and people who are hankering for lobster or fish are increasingly going to steak houses that offer those options, said Darren Tristano, the CEO and founder of Foodservice Results, a food-industry consultancy.

"What's truly happened with Red Lobster is that the consumer base has changed and Red Lobster hasn't," he said. "Red Lobster isn't losing to a competitor in their space — they're losing to competitors outside their space."

John Gordon, a restaurant analyst in San Diego, said Red Lobster had been on the decline for 20 years but that it didn't "fall on the knife" until Thai Union got it. "They were totally unprepared to hold a casual-dining restaurant," he said. Kim Lopdrup, Red Lobster's longtime CEO, retired in 2021, and since then, the restaurant hasn't had much in the way of stable leadership. His successor resigned after only a matter of months, and the role remained vacant for more than a year before someone else was appointed. He's left, too, and now Jonathan Tibus, an expert in restructuring, is at the helm.

"One of the problems is that Thai Union just had no credibility in terms of recruiting a new CEO," Gordon said.

Essentially, Red Lobster finds itself in a landscape where there just aren't a lot of bright spots. Add on the weight of the debt and lease obligations the company's private-equity owners saddled the brand with, and a turnaround becomes a gargantuan task.

"It's hard to blame leadership when you have a problem that is unsolvable — I mean, getting the consumer back in the door, increasing traffic. All-you-can-eat shrimp can only do so much," Tristano said.

Red Lobster did not respond to a request for comment for this story. Golden Gate declined to comment. Thai Union pointed to a press release about its intention to exit its investment and said it didn't wish to comment further.

As to what drove Red Lobster to the edge, it's clear that despite not being a very good idea, the blame doesn't fall on Endless Shrimp. Years of changing tastes, tough industry conditions, and poor brand management all contributed to the chain's difficult position. But plenty of other restaurants have faced similar issues and aren't on the verge of bankruptcy. What separates Red Lobster is a decade of private-equity and investor tampering. Pinging from owner to owner makes it hard to settle on a turnaround vision. The company faces challenges that necessitate a long-term view that requires patience — the kind that the short-term-focused Wall Street often struggles to tackle. Whether Red Lobster can turn it around from here remains to be seen: Even if it files for bankruptcy protection, the chain may not disappear. Plenty of companies go bankrupt and keep on keeping on.

"You've got to at least be able to pay your bills, and what's happened over the last five years is the cost of operating a restaurant has taken off," Maze said. "One bad promotion should not doom a restaurant chain like that."

Emily Stewart is a senior correspondent at Business Insider, writing about business and the economy.

Read the original article on Business Insider

Recommended Stories

These dividend aristocrats are slashing payouts, ending decades of consecutive dividend increases.

Dividend Aristocrats, a group of S&P 500 companies that have consistently increased their annual dividend payouts for at least 25 consecutive years, are often considered a haven for income-seeking investors. These companies are known for their ...

Jerome Powell offered markets a reprieve. It vanished in a blink.

(Bloomberg) -- Traders on Wall Street cheered on Wednesday when Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell signaled he didn’t see oncoming interest-rate hikes despite inflationary pressures. The celebration didn’t last long.Most Read from BloombergUS and Saudis Near Defense Pact Meant to Reshape Middle EastJerome Powell Offered Markets a Reprieve. It Vanished in a BlinkTesla Axes Supercharger Team in Blow to Broader EV MarketNYPD Arrests Over 300 Protesters in Crackdown on College CampusesThe Ozempic E

Possible Stock Splits in 2024: 2 Growth Stocks Up 437% and 541% in 7 Years to Buy Now, According to Wall Street

These potential stock-split stocks could help patient investors turn a profit in the market.

Trump's 2025 policies could spur inflation. The debate is by how much.

Donald Trump's agenda includes a range of policies that could create new inflation pressures in the years ahead. The emerging debate among economists is exactly what those price effects would be.

Jay Powell won't give in to the market's biggest fear: Morning Brief

As interest rate cuts get pushed into the future, investors fear potential rate hikes. Fed Chair Jerome Powell, however, appears not to share these worries.

Analysts revise AMD stock price targets after earnings shock

AMD's new MI300X processor is expected to challenge Nvidia's AI market dominance.

A New Twist on the 401(k): A Monthly Paycheck for Life

BlackRock has a plan for your retirement savings: A 401(k) plan that comes with a monthly check for life. The firm's LifePath Paycheck takes a portion of an employee's retirement savings, and invests it in annuity contracts.

Discover the latest MyICAEW app for ACA students and members, available to download now. Find out more

• Benefits of membership

Gain access to world-leading information resources, guidance and local networks.

• Visit Benefits of membership

Becoming a member

98% of the best global brands rely on ICAEW Chartered Accountants.

• Visit Becoming a member
• Pay fees and subscriptions

Your membership subscription enables ICAEW to provide support to members.

Fees and subscriptions

Member rewards.

Take advantage of the range of value added or discounted member benefits.

• Member rewards – More from your membership
• Technical and ethics support
• Support throughout your career

Information and resources for every stage of your career.

Member Insights Survey

Let us know about the issues affecting you, your business and your clients.

• Complete the survey

From software start-ups to high-flying airlines and high street banks, 98% of the best global brands rely on ICAEW Chartered Accountants. A career as an ICAEW Chartered Accountant means the opportunity to work in any organisation, in any sector, whatever your ambitions.

Everything you need to know about ICAEW annual membership fees, community and faculty subscriptions, eligibility for reduced rates and details of how you can pay.

Membership administration

Welcome to the ICAEW members area: your portal to members'-only content, offers, discounts, regulations and membership information.

• Continuing Professional Development (CPD)

Continuing Professional Development (CPD) is an integral part of being a successful ICAEW Chartered Accountant.

The ICAEW Chartered Accountant qualification, the ACA, is one of the most advanced learning and professional development programmes available. It is valued around the world in business, practice and the public sector.

ACA for employers

Train the next generation of chartered accountants in your business or organisation. Discover how your organisation can attract, train and retain the best accountancy talent, how to become authorised to offer ACA training and the support and guidance on offer if you are already providing training.

Digital learning materials via BibliU

All ACA, ICAEW CFAB and Level 4 apprenticeship learning materials are now digital only. Read our guide on how to access your learning materials on the ICAEW Bookshelf using the BibliU app or through your browser.

• Find out more

Take a look at ICAEW training films

Focusing on professional scepticism, ethics and everyday business challenges, our training films are used by firms and companies around the world to support their in-house training and business development teams.

Attract and retain the next generation of accounting and finance professionals with our world-leading accountancy qualifications. Become authorised to offer ACA training and help your business stay ahead.

CPD guidance and help

Continuing Professional Development (CPD) is an integral part of being a successful ICAEW Chartered Accountant. Find support on ICAEW's CPD requirements and access resources to help your professional development.

ICAEW flagship events

ICAEW boasts an extensive portfolio of industry-leading conferences. These flagship events offer the opportunity to hear from and interact with all the key players in the industry. Find out what's coming up.

Leadership Development Programmes

ICAEW Academy’s in-depth leadership development programmes take a holistic approach to combine insightful mentoring or coaching, to exclusive events, peer learning groups and workshops. Catering for those significant transitions in your career, these leadership development programmes are instrumental to achieving your ambitions or fulfilling your succession planning goals.

Specialist Finance Qualifications & Programmes

Whatever future path you choose, ICAEW will support the development and acceleration of your career at each stage to enhance your career.

Why a career in chartered accountancy?

If you think chartered accountants spend their lives confined to their desks, then think again. They are sitting on the boards of multinational companies, testifying in court and advising governments, as well as supporting charities and businesses from every industry all over the world.

• Why chartered accountancy?

Search for qualified ACA jobs

Matching highly skilled ICAEW members with attractive organisations seeking talented accountancy and finance professionals.

Volunteering roles

Helping skilled and in-demand chartered accountants give back and strengthen not-for-profit sector with currently over 2,300 organisations posting a variety of volunteering roles with ICAEW.

• Search for volunteer roles
• Get ahead by volunteering

Advertise with ICAEW

From as little as £495, access to a pool of highly qualified and ambitious ACA qualified members with searchable CVs.

Early careers and training

Start your ACA training with ICAEW. Find out why a career in chartered accountancy could be for you and how to become a chartered accountant.

Qualified ACA careers

Find Accountancy and Finance Jobs

Voluntary roles

Find Voluntary roles

While you pursue the most interesting and rewarding opportunities at every stage of your career, we’re here to offer you support whatever stage you are or wherever you are in the world and in whichever sector you have chosen to work.

ACA students

"how to guides" for aca students.

• ACA student guide
• How to book an exam
• How to apply for credit for prior learning (CPL)

Exam resources

Here are some resources you will find useful while you study for the ACA qualification.

• Certificate Level
• Professional Level
• Advanced Level

Digital learning materials

All ACA learning materials are now digital only. Read our guide on how to access your learning materials on the ICAEW Bookshelf via the BibliU app, or through your browser.

• Read the guide

My online training file

Once you are registered as an ACA student, you'll be able to access your training file to log your progress throughout ACA training.

• Access your training file
• Student Insights

Fresh insights, innovative ideas and an inside look at the lives and careers of our ICAEW students and members.

• Read the latest articles

System status checks

Getting started.

Welcome to ICAEW! We have pulled together a selection of resources to help you get started with your ACA training, including our popular 'How To' series, which offers step-by-step guidance on everything from registering as an ACA student and applying for CPL, to using your online training file.

Credit for prior learning (CPL)

Credit for prior learning or CPL is our term for exemptions. High quality learning and assessment in other relevant qualifications is appropriately recognised by the award of CPL.

Apply for exams

What you need to know in order to apply for the ACA exams.

The ACA qualification has 15 modules over three levels. They are designed to complement the practical experience you will be gaining in the workplace. They will also enable you to gain in-depth knowledge across a broad range of topics in accountancy, finance and business. Here are some useful resources while you study.

• Exam results

You will receive your results for all Certificate Level exams, the day after you take the exam and usually five weeks after a Professional and Advanced Level exam session has taken place. Access your latest and archived exam results here.

Training agreement

Putting your theory work into practice is essential to complete your ACA training.

Student support and benefits

We are here to support you throughout your ACA journey. We have a range of resources and services on offer for you to unwrap, from exam resources, to student events and discount cards. Make sure you take advantage of the wealth of exclusive benefits available to you, all year round.

• Applying for membership

The ACA will open doors to limitless opportunities in all areas of accountancy, business and finance anywhere in the world. ICAEW Chartered Accountants work at the highest levels as finance directors, CEOs and partners of some of the world’s largest organisations.

ACA training FAQs

Do you have a question about the ACA training? Then look no further. Here, you can find answers to frequently asked questions relating to the ACA qualification and training. Find out more about each of the integrated components of the ACA, as well as more information on the syllabus, your training agreement, ICAEW’s rules and regulations and much more.

• Anti-money laundering

Guidance and resources to help members comply with their legal and professional responsibilities around AML.

Technical releases

ICAEW Technical Releases are a source of good practice guidance on technical and practice issues relevant to ICAEW Chartered Accountants and other finance professionals.

• ICAEW Technical Releases
• Thought leadership

ICAEW's Thought Leadership reports provide clarity and insight on the current and future challenges to the accountancy profession. Our charitable trusts also provide funding for academic research into accountancy.

• Academic research funding

Technical Advisory Services helpsheets

Practical, technical and ethical guidance highlighting the most important issues for members, whether in practice or in business.

• ICAEW Technical Advisory Services helpsheets

Bloomsbury – free for eligible firms

In partnership with Bloomsbury Professional, ICAEW have provided eligible firms with free access to Bloomsbury’s comprehensive online library of around 80 titles from leading tax and accounting subject matter experts.

• Bloomsbury Accounting and Tax Service

Country resources

Our resources by country provide access to intelligence on over 170 countries and territories including economic forecasts, guides to doing business and information on the tax climate in each jurisdiction.

Industries and sectors

Thought leadership, technical resources and professional guidance to support the professional development of members working in specific industries and sectors.

Audit and Assurance

The audit, assurance and internal audit area has information and guidance on technical and practical matters in relation to these three areas of practice. There are links to events, publications, technical help and audit representations.

The most up-to-date thought leadership, insights, technical resources and professional guidance to support ICAEW members working in and with industry with their professional development.

• Corporate Finance

Companies, advisers and investors making decisions about creating, developing and acquiring businesses – and the wide range of advisory careers that require this specialist professional expertise.

• Corporate governance

Corporate governance is the system by which companies are directed and controlled. Find out more about corporate governance principles, codes and reports, Board subcommittees, roles and responsibilities and shareholder relations. Corporate governance involves balancing the interests of a company’s many stakeholders, such as shareholders, employees, management, customers, suppliers, financiers and the community. Getting governance right is essential to build public trust in companies.

Corporate reporting

View a range of practical resources on UK GAAP, IFRS, UK regulation for company accounts and non-financial reporting. Plus find out more about the ICAEW Corporate Reporting Faculty.

Expert analysis on the latest national and international economic issues and trends, and interviews with prominent voices across the finance industry, alongside data on the state of the economy.

• Financial Services

View articles and resources on the financial services sector.

• Practice resources

For ICAEW's members in practice, this area brings together the most up-to-date thought leadership, technical resources and professional guidance to help you in your professional life.

Public Sector

Many ICAEW members work in or with the public sector to deliver public priorities and strong public finances. ICAEW acts in the public interest to support strong financial leadership and better financial management across the public sector – featuring transparency, accountability, governance and ethics – to ensure that public money is spent wisely and that public finances are sustainable.

Sustainability and climate change

Sustainability describes a world that does not live by eating into its capital, whether natural, economic or social. Members in practice, in business and private individuals all have a role to play if sustainability goals are to be met. The work being undertaken by ICAEW in this area is to change behaviour to drive sustainable outcomes.

The Tax area has information and guidance on technical and practical tax matters. There are links to events, the latest tax news and the Tax Faculty’s publications, including helpsheets, webinars and Tax representations.

Keep up-to-date with tech issues and developments, including artificial intelligence (AI), blockchain, big data, and cyber security.

Trust & Ethics

Guidance and resources on key issues, including economic crime, business law, better regulation and ethics. Read through ICAEW’s Code of Ethics and supporting information.

Communities

ICAEW Communities

Information, guidance and networking opportunities on industry sectors, professional specialisms and at various stages throughout your career. Free for ICAEW members and students.

• Discover a new community

ICAEW Faculties

The accountancy profession is facing change and uncertainty. The ICAEW Faculties can help by providing you with timely and relevant support.

• Choose to join any of the faculties

UK groups and societies

We have teams on the ground in: East of England, the Midlands, London and South East, Northern, South West, Yorkshire and Humberside, Wales and Scotland.

• Access your UK region
• Worldwide support and services

Support and services we offer our members in Africa, America, Canada, the Caribbean, Europe, Greater China, the Middle East, Oceania and South East Asia.

• Discover our services

ICAEW Faculties are 'centres of technical excellence', strongly committed to enhancing your professional development and helping you to meet your CPD requirements every year. They offer exclusive content, events and webinars, customised for your sector - which you should be able to easily record, when the time comes for the completion of your CPD declaration. Our offering isn't exclusive to Institute members. As a faculty member, the same resources are available to you to ensure you stay ahead of the competition.

Communities by industry / sector

Communities by life stage and workplace, communities by professional specialism, local groups and societies.

We aim to support you wherever in the world you work. Our regional offices and network of volunteers run events and provide access to local accounting updates in major finance centres around the globe.

• Ukraine crisis: central resource hub

Learn about the actions that ICAEW members are taking to ensure that their clients comply with sanctions imposed by different countries and jurisdictions, and read about the support available from ICAEW.

Insights pulls together the best opinion, analysis, interviews, videos and podcasts on the key issues affecting accountancy and business.

• See the latest insights
• Making COP count

This series looks at the role the accountancy profession can play in addressing the climate crisis and building a sustainable economy.

• Read more on COP28

Professional development and skills

With new requirements on ICAEW members for continuing professional development, we bring together resources to support you through the changes and look at the skills accountants need for the future.

• Visit the hub

When Chartered Accountants Save The World

Find out how chartered accountants are helping to tackle some of the most urgent social challenges within the UN Sustainable Development Goals, and explore how the profession could do even more.

• Read our major series

Insights specials

A listing of one-off Insights specials that focus on a particular subject, interviewing the key people, identifying developing trends and examining the underlying issues.

Top podcasts

Insights by topic.

ICAEW Regulation

• Regulatory News

View the latest regulatory updates and guidance and subscribe to our monthly newsletter, Regulatory & Conduct News.

• Regulatory Consultations

Strengthening trust in the profession

Our role as a world-leading improvement regulator is to strengthen trust and protect the public. We do this by enabling, evaluating and enforcing the highest standards in the profession. 

Regulatory applications

Find out how you can become authorised by ICAEW as a regulated firm. 

ICAEW codes and regulations

Professional conduct and complaints, statutory regulated services overseen by icaew, regulations for icaew practice members and firms, additional guidance and support, popular search results.

• Training File
• Practice Exam Software
• Ethics Cpd Course
• Routes to the ACA
• ACA students membership application
• Join as a member of another body
• How much are membership fees?
• How to pay your fees
• Receipts and invoices
• What if my circumstances have changed?
• Difficulties in making changes to your membership
• Faculty and community subscription fees
• Updating your details
• Complete annual return
• Promoting myself as an ICAEW member
• Verification of ICAEW membership
• Become a life member
• Become a fellow
• Request a new certificate
• Report the death of a member
• Membership regulations
• New members
• Career progression
• Career Breakers
• Volunteering at schools and universities
• ICAEW Member App
• Working internationally
• Self employment
• Support Members Scheme
• CPD is changing
• CPD learning resources
• Your guide to CPD
• Online CPD record
• How to become a chartered accountant
• Register as a student
• Train as a member of another body
• More about the ACA and chartered accountancy
• How ACA training works
• Become a training employer
• Access the training file
• Why choose the ACA
• Training routes
• Employer support hub
• Get in touch
• Apprenticeships with ICAEW
• A-Z of CPD courses by topic
• ICAEW Business and Finance Professional (BFP)
• ICAEW Annual Conference 2024
• Audit & Assurance Conference 2024
• Restructuring & Insolvency Conference
• Virtual CPD Conference
• Virtual Healthcare Conference 2024
• All our flagship events
• Financial Talent Executive Network (F-TEN®)
• Developing Leadership in Practice (DLiP™)
• Network of Finance Leaders (NFL)
• Women in Leadership (WiL)
• Mentoring and coaching
• Partners in Learning
• Board Director's Programme e-learning
• Corporate Finance Qualification
• Diploma in Charity Accounting
• ICAEW Certificate in Insolvency
• ICAEW Data Analytics Certificate
• Financial Modeling Institute’s Advanced Financial Modeler Accreditation
• ICAEW Sustainability Certificate for Finance Professionals
• ICAEW Finance in a Digital World Programme
• All specialist qualifications
• Team training
• Start your training
• Improve your employability
• Search employers
• Find a role
• Role alerts
• Organisations
• Practice support – 11 ways ICAEW and CABA can help you
• News and advice
• ICAEW Volunteering Hub
• Support in becoming a chartered accountant
• Vacancies at ICAEW
• ICAEW boards and committees
• Exam system status
• ICAEW systems: status update
• Changes to our qualifications
• How-to guides for ACA students
• Apply for credits - Academic qualification
• Apply for credits - Professional qualification
• Credit for prior learning (CPL)/exemptions FAQs
• Applications for Professional and Advanced Level exams
• Applications for Certificate Level exams
• Tuition providers
• Latest exam results
• Archived exam results
• Getting your results
• Marks feedback service
• Exam admin check
• Training agreement: overview
• Professional development
• Ethics and professional scepticism
• Practical work experience
• Access your online training file
• How training works in your country
• Student rewards
• TOTUM PRO Card
• Student events and volunteering
• Xero cloud accounting certifications
• Student support
• Join a community
• Wellbeing support from caba
• Student mentoring programme
• Student conduct and behaviour
• Code of ethics
• Fit and proper
• Level 4 Accounting Technician Apprenticeship
• Level 7 Accountancy Professional Apprenticeship
• AAT-ACA Fast Track FAQs
• ACA rules and regulations FAQs
• ACA syllabus FAQs
• ACA training agreement FAQs
• Audit experience and the Audit Qualification FAQs
• Independent student FAQs
• Practical work experience FAQs
• Professional development FAQs
• Six-monthly reviews FAQs
• Ethics and professional scepticism FAQs
• Greater China
• Latin America
• Middle East
• North America
• Australasia
• Russia and Eurasia
• South East Asia
• Charity Community
• Construction & Real Estate
• Energy & Natural Resources Community
• Farming & Rural Business Community
• Forensic & Expert Witness
• Global Trade Community
• Healthcare Community
• Internal Audit Community
• Manufacturing Community
• Media & Leisure
• Portfolio Careers Community
• Small and Micro Business Community
• Small Practitioners Community
• Travel, Tourism & Hospitality Community
• Valuation Community
• Audit and corporate governance reform
• Audit & Assurance Faculty
• Professional judgement
• Regulation and working in audit
• Internal audit resource centre
• ICAEW acting on audit quality

Everything business

• Latest Business news from Insights
• Strategy, risk and innovation
• Business performance management
• Financial management
• Finance transformation
• Economy and business environment
• Leadership, personal development and HR
• Webinars and publications
• Business restructuring
• The Business Finance Guide
• Capital markets and investment
• Corporate finance careers
• Corporate Finance Faculty
• Debt advisory and growth finance
• Mergers and acquisitions
• Private equity
• Start-ups, scale-ups and venture capital
• Transaction services
• Board committees and board effectiveness
• Corporate governance codes and reports
• Corporate Governance Community
• Principles of corporate governance
• Roles, duties and responsibilities of Board members
• Stewardship and stakeholder relations
• Corporate Governance thought leadership
• Corporate reporting resources
• Small and micro entity reporting
• UK Regulation for Company Accounts
• Non-financial reporting
• Improving Corporate Reporting
• Economy home
• ICAEW Business Confidence Monitor
• ICAEW Manifesto 2024
• Energy crisis
• Levelling up: rebalancing the UK’s economy
• Resilience and Renewal: Building an economy fit for the future
• Social mobility and inclusion
• Autumn Statement 2023
• Investment management
• Inspiring confidence
• Setting up in practice
• Running your practice
• Supporting your clients
• Practice technology
• TAS helpsheets
• Support for business advisers
• Join ICAEW BAS
• Public Sector hub
• Public Sector Audit and Assurance
• Public Sector Finances
• Public Sector Financial Management
• Public Sector Financial Reporting
• Public Sector Learning & Development
• Public Sector Community
• Latest public sector articles from Insights
• Climate hub
• Sustainable Development Goals
• Accountability
• Modern slavery
• Resources collection
• Sustainability Committee
• Sustainability & Climate Change community
• Sustainability and climate change home
• Tax Faculty
• Budgets and legislation
• Business tax
• Devolved taxes
• Employment taxes
• International taxes
• Making Tax Digital
• Personal tax
• Property tax
• Stamp duty land tax
• Tax administration
• Tax compliance and investigation
• UK tax rates, allowances and reliefs
• Artificial intelligence
• Blockchain and cryptoassets
• Cyber security
• Data Analytics Community
• Digital skills
• Excel community
• Finance in a Digital World
• IT management
• Technology and the profession
• Trust & Ethics home
• Better regulation
• Business Law
• UK company law
• Data protection and privacy
• Economic crime
• Help with ethical problems
• ICAEW Code of Ethics
• ICAEW Trust and Ethics team.....
• Solicitors Community
• Forensic & Expert Witness Community
• Latest articles on business law, trust and ethics
• Audit and Assurance Faculty
• Corporate Reporting Faculty
• Financial Services Faculty
• Academia & Education Community
• Construction & Real Estate Community
• Entertainment, Sport & Media Community
• Retail Community
• Career Breakers Community
• Black Members Community
• Diversity & Inclusion Community
• Women in Finance Community
• Personal Financial Planning Community
• Restructuring & Insolvency Community
• Sustainability and Climate Change Community
• London and East
• South Wales
• Yorkshire and Humberside
• European public policy activities
• ICAEW Middle East
• Latest news
• Access to finance special
• Attractiveness of the profession
• Audit and Fraud
• Audit and technology
• Adopting non-financial reporting standards
• Cost of doing business
• Mental health and wellbeing
• Pensions and Personal Finance
• Public sector financial and non-financial reporting
• More specials ...
• The economics of biodiversity
• How chartered accountants can help to safeguard trust in society
• Video: The financial controller who stole £20,000 from her company
• It’s time for chartered accountants to save the world
• Video: The CFO who tried to trick the market
• Video: Could invoice fraud affect your business?
• So you want to be a leader?
• A busy new tax year, plus progress on the Economic Crime Act
• Does Britain have a farming problem?
• Budget 2024: does it change anything?
• Will accountants save the world? With ICAEW CEO Michael Izza
• Crunch time: VAT (or not) on poppadoms
• Where next for audit and governance reform?
• A taxing year ahead?
• What can we expect from 2024?
• COP28: making the business case for nature
• COP28: what does transition planning mean for accountants?
• More podcasts...
• Top charts of the week
• EU and international trade
• CEO and President's insights
• Diversity and Inclusion
• Sponsored content
• Insights index
• Charter and Bye-laws
• Archive of complaints, disciplinary and fitness processes, statutory regulations and ICAEW regulations
• Qualifications regulations
• Training and education regulations
• How to make a complaint
• Guidance on your duty to report misconduct
• Public hearings
• What to do if you receive a complaint against you
• Anti-money laundering supervision
• Working in the regulated area of audit
• Local public audit in England
• Probate services
• Designated Professional Body (Investment Business) licence
• Consumer credit
• Quality Assurance monitoring: view from the firms
• The ICAEW Practice Assurance scheme
• Licensed Practice scheme
• Professional Indemnity Insurance (PII)
• Clients' Money Regulations
• Taxation (PCRT) Regulations
• ICAEW training films
• Helpsheets and guidance by topic
• ICAEW's regulatory expertise and history

Business partnering

Latest on business partnering, business partnering courses, reports and case studies, business press, external resources.

• 16 Nov 2021
• 09 Sep 2021
• 11 Aug 2021
• 13 May 2021
• 14 Sep 2020
• 05 Nov 2018
• 20 Feb 2018
• PDF (1,088kb)
• Thought leadership report

The ICAEW Library & Information Service provides full text access to a selection of key business and reference eBooks from leading publishers. eBooks are available to logged-in ICAEW members, ACA students and other entitled users. If you are unable to access an eBook, please see our Help and support advice or contact [email protected] .

• eBook chapter
• Sally Percy
• Reach the Top in Finance

Terms of use

You are permitted to access, download, copy, or print out content from eBooks for your own research or study only, subject to the terms of use set by our suppliers and any restrictions imposed by individual publishers. Please see individual supplier pages for full terms of use.

• 20 Nov 2013
• 01 Dec 2023
• Daniel Butcher
• 01 Nov 2022
• Rebecca G.Fay, Kenneth Herbst, Josh Lobs, Norma R.Montague
• 01 Aug 2019
• Andrew Jepson
• 20 Mar 2019
• 01 Apr 2016
• Allen Schiff, Jonathan Schiff
• 01 Jun 2012
• Robert Half
• Financial Management

ICAEW accepts no responsibility for the content on any site to which a hypertext link from this site exists. The links are provided 'as is' with no warranty, express or implied, for the information provided within them. Please see the full copyright and disclaimer notice .

Can't find what you're looking for?

The ICAEW Library can give you the right information from trustworthy, professional sources that aren't freely available online. Contact us for expert help with your enquiries and research.

• Live web chat
• [email protected]
• +44 (0)20 7920 8620

Some of the content on this web page was provided by the Chartered Accountants’ Trust for Education and Research, a registered charity, which owns the library and operates it for ICAEW.

Read out this code to the operator.

Lawsuits test Tesla claim that drivers are solely responsible for crashes

Multiple civil cases — and a federal investigation — contend that tesla’s technology invites ‘drivers to overly trust the automation’.

SAN FRANCISCO — As CEO Elon Musk stakes the future of Tesla on autonomous driving, lawyers from California to Florida are picking apart the company’s most common driver assistance technology in painstaking detail, arguing that Autopilot is not safe for widespread use by the public.

At least eight lawsuits headed to trial in the coming year — including two that haven’t been previously reported — involve fatal or otherwise serious crashes that occurred while the driver was allegedly relying on Autopilot. The complaints argue that Tesla exaggerated the capabilities of the feature, which controls steering, speed and other actions typically left to the driver. As a result, the lawsuits claim, the company created a false sense of complacency that led the drivers to tragedy.

Evidence emerging in the cases — including dash-cam video obtained by The Washington Post — offers sometimes-shocking details: In Phoenix, a woman allegedly relying on Autopilot plows into a disabled car and is then struck and killed by another vehicle after exiting her Tesla. In Tennessee, an intoxicated man allegedly using Autopilot drives down the wrong side of the road for several minutes before barreling into an oncoming car, killing the 20-year-old inside.

Tesla maintains that it is not liable for the crashes because the driver is ultimately in control of the vehicle. But that contention is coming under increasing pressure, including from federal regulators. Late Thursday, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) launched a new review of Autopilot, signaling concern that a December recall failed to significantly improve misuse of the technology and that drivers are misled into thinking the “automation has greater capabilities than it does.”

Meanwhile, in a twist, Tesla this month settled a high-profile case in Northern California that claimed Autopilot played a role in the fatal crash of an Apple engineer, Walter Huang. The company’s decision to settle with Huang’s family — along with a ruling from a Florida judge concluding that Tesla had “knowledge” that its technology was “flawed” under certain conditions — is giving fresh momentum to cases once seen as long shots, legal experts said.

“A reckoning is coming as more and more of these cases are going to see the light of a jury trial,” said Brett Schreiber, a lawyer with Singleton Schreiber who is representing the family of Jovani Maldonado, 15, who was killed in Northern California when a Tesla in Autopilot rear-ended his family’s pickup truck in 2019.

Tesla did not respond to multiple requests for comment on the lawsuits.

The outcomes of the cases could be critical for the company. Tesla’s stock has lost more than a third of its value since the beginning of the year. Last week, the company reported a steeper-than-expected 55 percent plunge in first-quarter profit as it struggles with falling sales of electric vehicles and stiff competition from China. To allay investors’ concerns, Musk has made lofty promises about launching a fully autonomous “robotaxi” in August. Soon, he said during Tuesday’s earnings call, driving a car will be like riding an elevator: You get on and get out at your destination.

“We should be thought of as an AI or robotics company,” Musk told investors. “If somebody doesn’t believe Tesla is going to solve autonomy, I think they should not be an investor in the company. But we will.”

Meanwhile, the company has defended itself in court documents by arguing that its user manuals and on-screen warnings make “extremely clear” that drivers must be fully in control while using Autopilot. Many of the upcoming court cases involve driver distraction or impairment.

Autopilot “is not a self-driving technology and does not replace the driver,” Tesla said in response to a 2020 case filed in Florida. “The driver can and must still brake, accelerate and steer just as if the system is not engaged.”

But the Huang case also potentially involved a distracted driver: Huang was allegedly playing a video game when his Tesla plowed into a highway barrier in 2018. Tesla has not said why it decided to settle the lawsuit, and details of the settlement have not been disclosed in court documents.

More fatal crash details emerge

Meanwhile, federal regulators appear increasingly sympathetic to claims that Tesla oversells its technology and misleads drivers. Even the decision to call the software Autopilot “elicits the idea of drivers not being in control” and invites “drivers to overly trust the automation,” NHTSA said Thursday, revealing that a two-year investigation into Autopilot had identified 467 crashes linked to the technology, 13 of them fatal.

NHTSA did not offer specific information about those crashes. But two fatal crashes from 2022 are detailed in lawsuits that have not been previously reported.

In Phoenix, Iwanda Mitchell, 49, was driving a Tesla in May 2022 when she struck a Toyota Camry that had stalled on the highway, according to court documents and dash-cam footage obtained by The Post. According to the Mitchell family’s lawyer, Jonathan Michaels with MLG Attorneys at Law, Autopilot and the car’s other features — including forward collision warning and automatic emergency braking — failed to result in Mitchell’s Tesla taking evasive action and prevent the vehicle from barreling into the stalled sedan.

Mitchell was then struck and killed by an oncoming vehicle when she got out of her car.

Tesla did not respond to a request for comment regarding this case. In response to the complaint in January 2024, Tesla said it denies the allegation and “has not yet had an opportunity to inspect” Mitchell’s vehicle.

About a month later in Sumner County, Tenn., Jose Roman Jaramillo Cortez drank two beers and three tequila shots after his shift at a local restaurant, and then hopped into his Tesla Model 3, court documents say. He plugged his address into the Tesla’s GPS and flicked on Autopilot, it said.

According to the lawsuit filed in June 2023 and dash-cam footage obtained by The Post, the car then pulled onto the wrong side of the road. After driving south in a northbound lane for several minutes, the Tesla rammed into a car driven by Christian Malone, 20, who died from the impact. In its response to the complaint, Tesla said “the crash was caused by the negligence and/or recklessness of the driver.”

Trial dates for both cases will be set later next year, Michaels said.

In another case — set for trial in November in Key Largo, Fla. — a Tesla in Autopilot allegedly failed to detect an approaching T-intersection while its driver searched for a dropped phone. The Tesla barreled through flashing lights and a physical barricade before crashing into a vehicle parked on the side of the road, killing a woman and seriously injuring a man.

In court documents, Tesla has argued that the driver was ultimately responsible for the trajectory of the car. Tesla also states in user manuals that Autopilot may not operate as intended “when unable to accurately determine lane markings” or when “bright light is interfering with the camera’s view.”

When these cases head to trial, juries may be asked to consider whether Tesla’s many driver warnings are sufficient to spare the company from liability. Ross Gerber, CEO of Gerber Kawasaki Wealth and Investment Management, said the last thing the company needs is a highly publicized courtroom battle that focuses attention on such questions.

At a trial, “the defense would dig into the weeds … and it would become very clear that the perception of the Autopilot software was very different from the reality,” Gerber said. “Every day would be a headline, and it would be embarrassing.”

So far, Tesla has faced a jury only once over the role Autopilot may have played in a fatal crash. In Riverside, Calif., last year, a jury heard the case of Micah Lee, 37, who was allegedly using Autopilot when his Tesla Model 3 suddenly veered off the highway at 65 mph, crashed into a palm tree and burst into flames. Lee died of his injuries, while his fiancée and her son were severely injured.

Because of the extensive damage to the car, Tesla said it could not be proved that Autopilot was engaged at the time of the crash. During the trial, Michael Carey, the attorney for Tesla, argued the technology was not at fault, and that the crash “is classic human error.” According to a toxicology report taken after the crash, Lee had alcohol in his system but it was within the legal limit in California.

“This case is not about Autopilot. Autopilot didn’t cause the crash,” Carey said during opening statements. “This is a bad crash with bad injuries and may have resulted from bad mistakes — but you can’t blame the car company when that happens. This is a good car with a good design.”

Ultimately, Tesla’s arguments prevailed, and a jury found the company not liable.

But the company appears to face headwinds in some other cases. Last year, Florida Circuit Judge Reid Scott upheld a plaintiff’s request to seek punitive damages in a case concerning a fatal crash in Delray Beach, Fla., in 2019 when Jeremy Banner and his Tesla in Autopilot failed to register a semi truck crossing its path. The car plowed under the truck at full speed, killing Banner on impact.

In the ruling, Scott said the family’s lawyers “sufficiently” presented evidence to reasonably seek punitive damages at trial, which could run millions of dollars.

The plaintiffs’ evidence included that Tesla “knew the vehicle at issue had a defective Autopilot system,” according to the order. Citing other fatal crashes involving Autopilot, Scott wrote that there is a “genuine” dispute over whether Tesla “created a foreseeable zone of risk that posed a general threat of harm to others.”

Tesla’s appeal of the ruling is pending.

Change in defense strategy?

As the spate of lawsuits churns forward, Tesla has shown a fresh willingness to settle such cases — despite Musk’s vow on Twitter in 2022 to never settle “an unjust case against us even if we will probably lose.”

In addition to settling the Huang case, Tesla “indicated” that it was open to discussing a potential settlement in the Riverside case as it was being presented to a jury last fall, said Michaels, the MLG lawyer who represented Lee’s family.

The month-long trial featured testimony from an accident reconstructionist, a top engineer at Tesla and a paramedic who responded to the crash and said it was among the most horrific accidents he had ever seen. Michaels said he declined to engage in settlement talks because he wanted to continue to “make this a really public issue.” He said he also “did not have confidence in our ability to come to an agreeable amount.”

Tesla and its lawyer in the case, Carey, did not respond to a request for comment.

After four days of deliberations, the jury decided the case in Tesla’s favor.

Though he lost, Michaels said the trial attracted media attention and gave other lawyers with cases against Tesla insight into the company’s defense strategy. Plus, he said, his law firm’s phone has since been blowing up with potential clients.

“We walked away from guaranteed money,” Michaels said, “but that wasn’t what it was about.”