Theoretically speaking, financial consultation is a kind of management consultation. To analyze the connotation of financial consulting, we must first understand the meaning of management consulting. Consultation, in the traditional sense, refers to soliciting opinions, seeking help or giving suggestions, making suggestions and making plans. Management consulting can be regarded as both a professional service and a way to provide practical advice and help. The authoritative definition of management consulting is: "independent professional consulting service that helps managers and organizations identify and seize new opportunities, strengthen learning and implement changes, and achieve organizational goals and objectives by solving management and operation problems."

At present, the concept of financial consultation clearly put forward by the financial theory circle is: "Financial consultation refers to the act of a natural person or legal person with financial accounting and related professional knowledge, accepting entrustment to provide services such as business answers, planning and guidance to clients." The author believes that the meaning of financial consultation should be very broad, whether it is entrusted to provide professional services or financial consultation of subsidiaries affiliated to comprehensive management to provide consulting services, it should be indispensable. Therefore, financial consulting can be roughly defined as: consulting companies, securities companies, investment banks and other professional institutions and their professionals provide financial management consulting services related to asset management and securities investment for clients such as clients and investors, that is, all financial consulting services are financial consulting in a broad sense.

Second, the theoretical position and role of financial consultation

Theoretically, finance is the investment and income activity of principal. Under the framework of "big finance", the financial theoretical system can be divided into national finance, enterprise finance and family finance, which is mainly based on the different division of financial subjects and their characteristics. From another perspective, the financial activities of financial entities (countries, enterprises and families) can be divided into independent financing and entrusted financing according to the nature of business. Among them, independent financial management can be divided into independent decision-making financial management and consulting decision-making financial management. At the same time, independent decision-making financial management does not really rely on its own ability to make financial decisions alone, and financial consultation often exerts a subtle influence on and cultivates the independent decision-making ability of financial management subjects. Therefore, financial consultation plays an important role in financial theory. Especially with the independent development of management consulting industry and gradually becoming a new industry, and the continuous emergence of a large number of professional financial consulting companies, the important position of financial consulting in practice is more prominent.

Financial consultation is of great significance to both macro-economic operation and financial activities of enterprises and individuals. It has the following functions:

Macroscopically, financial consultation can guide rational investment and optimize the allocation of social and economic resources. In the process of market economy operation, financial subjects strive to maximize financial benefits under the control of "invisible hand". However, due to the limitation of information and ability, their financial behavior is bound to be blind and lagging, which will not only harm the interests of financial subjects, but also be very unfavorable to the overall coordinated development of national economy and industry. Financial consultation serves microeconomic entities, makes up for their lack of ability, reduces their mistakes in decision-making, objectively reduces the blindness of investors, corrects the lagging deviation of market response, and is conducive to the optimal allocation of resources in the whole society. Moreover, under the current circumstances, domestic enterprises will face global competition. Under the conditions of low management level and limited human resources, financial consultation will be an effective means for enterprises to improve their financial operation ability, comprehensive management ability and comprehensive competitiveness, which has important practical significance.

At the micro level, financial consultation can make up for the lack of knowledge structure and operational ability of financial subjects such as enterprises and individuals, and help solve problems encountered in business management. Financial consulting professionals can identify, diagnose and solve various financial-related problems for customers, and can also help customers identify and seize various new opportunities through objective and professional analysis. More importantly, financial consultation provides customers with an opportunity to understand and learn financial knowledge and skills, which is of great significance to improving customers' ability and promoting their development.

Third, the business orientation and basic classification of financial consulting

The business scope of financial consulting is very wide, including physical assets consulting, securities assets consulting, and business consulting of financial entities such as financing, investment and daily management. Specifically, in foreign countries, financial consulting business usually includes financial valuation, operating capital and liquidity management, mergers and acquisitions, investment project analysis, accounting system design, budget control, foreign exchange management and so on. In China, financial consulting business usually includes designing enterprise internal control system, designing accounting computerization implementation strategy, financial analysis, drafting economic documents, training financial accounting, bookkeeping, tax agency services, personal financial assistance, asset evaluation, investment consulting services, etc.

The different nature of consulting business required by customers determines that the service objectives and service methods of various financial consulting are bound to be different, which also leads to different types of financial consulting. As far as the current financial consulting business is concerned, financial consulting can be roughly divided into the following three categories according to the nature of business and service objectives:

1. Type of industry investment evaluation. This kind of financial consultation is similar to the social authentication business provided by accounting firms. The purpose of consulting service is to provide objective and constructive views, and there is no interest relationship. Professional consultants conduct in-depth analysis based on the data collected by the survey, and predict the future according to the existing analysis. And based on integrity and professional services, we will abide by the principle of "three publics", that is, we will not promote products and deployment, but only provide independent analysis. This kind of financial consulting business is generally carried out by professional financial consulting companies. Step four, complete the task.