Fictional candidate — not a live person. Do not submit.
Application pack — Finance Business Partner (sample)
1. Brief we would have received
Target: Finance Business Partner, local government or housing, South East / remote, £50k–£65k. Must keep current employer unnamed on public boards.
2. Twenty-role hunt (names only — paid pack is 20 live URLs and close dates)
- County council FP (DSG) — pick
- Housing association FP — pick
- NHS division accountant — skip (nights / on-call)
- University faculty partner — pick
- Charity restricted-funds BP — longlist
- District council commercial BP — pick
- Academy trust FP — pick
- ALMO housing partner — longlist
- Combined authority FP — skip (three days on site)
- Adult social care BP — longlist
- Children’s services FP — skip (out of area)
- Public-health finance partner — longlist
- Fire authority FP — skip (pay below floor)
- Police and crime finance partner — skip
- Further-education college FP — longlist
- National park authority accountant — skip
- Waste-authority FP — longlist
- Passenger-transport FP — skip
- Internal-audit secondment — skip (not partnering)
- Interim FP via agency — longlist
The paid pack names 20 live URLs and close dates. This dummy does not, so it cannot be submitted by mistake.
3. Tailored CV (compressed — paid pack is two pages)
Alex Reed FCCA · Milton Keynes
Finance Business Partner with 8 years in a group finance desk. Turns budget-holder packs into decisions: forecast variance, DSG-style ringfence discipline, and a written challenge note the budget holder can sign.
- Built a monthly partner pack covering £18m of cost centres; cut unexplained variance from 6.4% to 1.9% in two quarters.
- Wrote the recovery tracker a director used in a budget challenge meeting — actions dated, owners named, no extra slides.
- Coached 11 non-finance managers to complete their first forecast without a late return.
4. Person-spec map
| Essential criterion | Evidence used |
|---|---|
| CCAB / equivalent | FCCA, membership current |
| Partnering budget holders | 11 managers, two-page pack, variance 6.4% → 1.9% |
| Written reports for DLT | Recovery tracker used in a director meeting |
| Excel / finance system | Named system in paid pack; sample uses “the ledger” |
| Challenging overspend | DSG-style ringfence tracker, dated owners |
| Working to a close timetable | Forecast signed on day 4 of a 5-day window |
5. Supporting statement (full fictional draft)
I am applying because the person specification asks for a partner who will sit with budget holders, not a reporter who emails a pack and leaves. In my current desk I own the monthly conversation for eleven managers. The evidence is in the two numbers they now look at first: forecast variance, and overdue recovery actions.
On qualification: I am FCCA. Membership is current. I use that as a licence to challenge, not as a badge on a slide.
On partnering: I rebuilt a 14-page pack into two pages. The service lead who had refused to sign then sat with me for 25 minutes on the three lines they owned. The forecast was signed on day 4. That format is now the local standard for the directorate.
On written challenge: I keep a recovery tracker with dated actions and named owners. A director used it, without extra slides, in a budget meeting. That is the standard I would bring to this council’s DSG conversation: one sheet, owners, dates, no theatre.
On systems: the paid pack names the ledger and the Excel model. This dummy does not, so nobody can paste it into a live form.
I can start after my notice. I will not invent schools-forum papers I have not written. Where the advert asks for that, the statement uses budget challenge and recovery instead.
6. Eight STAR answers (fictional)
1. Leading and communicating. Situation: a service lead refused to sign a Q2 forecast because the pack was 14 pages. Task: signed forecast in 5 working days. Action: two-page pack, 25-minute sit-down. Result: signed on day 4; format adopted.
2. Seeing the big picture. Situation: three cost centres hid the same agency overspend. Task: one view for DLT. Action: combined tracker, ringfence column. Result: the overspend was visible in one meeting, not three.
3. Changing and improving. Situation: late forecasts every month. Task: on-time close. Action: coached 11 managers through the first return. Result: no late return that quarter.
4. Making effective decisions. Situation: a virement looked tidy but broke a ringfence. Task: stop it or document the risk. Action: one-page note, options, owner. Result: virement rewritten before it reached DLT.
5. Delivering at pace. Situation: five-day forecast window after a system outage. Task: still close. Action: paper pack for the three largest services first. Result: those three signed; the rest followed the next day.
6. Managing a quality service. Situation: unexplained variance at 6.4%. Task: get it under 2%. Action: line-by-line with each holder. Result: 1.9% in two quarters.
7. Developing self and others. Situation: new managers feared the forecast. Task: they complete it themselves. Action: 30-minute walkthrough, then they drove. Result: eleven first forecasts without a late return.
8. Working together. Situation: finance and a service argued about ownership of a recovery line. Task: one owner. Action: named the service lead, finance as support. Result: the action dated and done.
7. LinkedIn rewrite (headline + About)
Headline. Finance Business Partner | forecast packs budget holders will sign | FCCA
About. I sit with managers, cut the pack to two pages, and leave a tracker with owners and dates. I do not send 14-page packs and hope. Open to local-government and housing FP roles, South East or remote.
8. Two interview reports (shape of the paid aftersales file)
Report 1 — likely first board. Questions: how you challenge a head of service; a DSG overspend; a time a forecast was wrong. Open with the two-page pack story. Do not claim a schools-forum paper. Ask them how they want challenge minuted.
Report 2 — if a second board is booked. Questions: working with schools finance; hybrid days; a failed recovery. Use the ringfence virement story. Take one page of numbers, not a slide deck.
A paid pack writes eight full answers into each report when you send a real invite, within 90 days.