Finance Business Partner

Reporting to the Finance Director we seek a CIMA/ACCA/ACA qualified Finance Business Partner to support integration of financial insights into business decisions.

Reporting to the Finance Director we seek a CIMA/ACCA/ACA qualified Finance Business Partner to support integration of financial insights into business decisions.

Working closely with the Finance Director candidates will possess a solid business and commercial acumen from experience in medium to large organisations, working in industry, or within client-based practice and the ability to communicate financial insights clearly to non-financial colleagues.

Highly experienced in the analysis of financial data, you will have the ability to identify trends and draw conclusions to support strategic decision making together with the ability to identify and resolve financial issues.

Naturally a self-starter, highly motivated and with a proactive forward-thinking approach you will possess an inquisitive mind and an ability to think outside the box demonstrating a strong understanding of the drivers behind the numbers. Attention to detail and commitment to accuracy are critical, while retaining the wider business perspective.

Leveraging proven experience, you will influence decision makers effectively and support budget holders in developing practical solutions through detailed analytical reviews.

Excellent communication skills, you will need to effectively communicate financial information to non-financial stakeholders, building relationships and influencing key decision makers and be a key team player.

Objectives:

• Work closely with the Finance Director to support strategic financial objectives across the business, understanding the key drivers for success
• Installing a continuous improvement approach to all reporting, analysis and planning, improving methodology and optimising processes to improve resilience, consistency and efficiency of information production
• Using Excel and working with IT development to utilise other tools such as Qlik sense and Power BI to deliver clear, actionable financial analysis for the business
• Support decision making with data and insight
• Produce timely and accurate finance information
• Working with the Finance Director to enhance key commercial finance activities such as pricing strategy, margin management, commission reporting and structuring, forecasting and budgeting
• Support business planning by providing financial analysis and modelling
• Contribute to ad hoc financial projects as required as part of the overall Finance function
• Manage stakeholder requirements with high level of integrity and professionalism upholding the standards of the Finance function

Outline of main responsibilities:

Reporting, analysis and planning:

• Identify reporting needs and work within business areas to understand reporting and analytical requirements working in conjunction with IT stakeholders where required
• Working within the business to ensure reporting and analysis requirements are met utilising excel or working with IT to develop applications in Qlik / Power BI, providing the financial knowledge and ongoing ownership of these reports
• Take financial ownership for existing suite of financial reports within Qlik, working with IT stakeholders to maintain accuracy, and usefulness of information
• Introduce regular reporting and analysis of overhead spends by department, working with department heads. Take a proactive approach to understanding all areas of company spend and crucially the business context
• Work with the sales team to obtain quarterly sales forecasts, providing templates and consolidating to give a company forecast
• Work with non-finance managers to drive the annual budgeting process for their areas, developing an in depth understanding of spend within the business
• Modelling salary costs and headcount changes to aid decision making for annual reviews, and for budgeting and planning purposes working closely with the Finance Director and HR
• Working with Finance Director and HR Director to analyse the structure of commissions and financial impact of decisions being taken each year as part of the annual review process (including providing templates for completion to the business)
• Maintain and develop the company budgeting model, ensuring changes in costs and revenue are reflected accurately, and the required outputs from the process can be obtained easily in terms of a final budget result, and departmental spend budgets
• Take ownership of the calculation of monthly commissions for provision to HR for payroll purposes, including, once up and running the automated app which is currently being developed, ensuring information being provided is accurate, and changes are managed through a process with IT and HR

Responsibilities - Margin and costing:

• Take responsibility for understanding and reviewing the gross profit for the business, and all inputs into it, ensuring that discrepancies in margin are fully investigated and understood
• Review and update monthly product costings, reviewing and checking prior to upload into our ERP system for calculation of statistical margins
• Work with our sales and logistics departments to understand the impact of cost changes on product pricing and regularly analyse our actual warehousing and carriage spend against costings
• Calculate month end stock valuations by warehouse and product line, reviewing and investigating anomalies. Post monthly stock adjustments into monthly accounts
• Review free of charge and low margin product supplies and credit notes raised, understanding the background, reallocating associated costs to the correct account for repairs or charitable donations as appropriate
• Ensure supply chain arrangement rebates are properly accounted for and tracked within the accounts and develop processes to maximise efficiency and accuracy as key account arrangements develop over time

Key Skills/Qualifications/Criteria:

• ACCA/CIMA qualified with 3 years experience at this level
• Strong financial modelling and Excel skills
• Highly IT literate
• Excellent verbal and written communication skills
• Strong people skills - to support and work with the team where needed and wider business stakeholders
• Helicopter view and pro-active thinking
• Motivated by the opportunity to support and drive tangible business improvement
• High level of integrity and professionalism
• Team focussed approach and example to support cultural ethos