Senior Project Accountant (London Area)

Cobalt Recruitment are excited to be supporting a world-renowned and award-winning architectural design consultancy with a global presence to secure a Senior Project Accountant for their London office. The role is newly created and will play a leading part in the revenue accounting, WIP reporting and budget management of the business.

Key Responsibilities:

• Review project WIP, revenue, backlog, budget variances, and profitability, and ensures all billable expenses are billed; tracks latest comments on project and WIP status.
• Lead project health reviews with PMs and SLs.
• Review weekly Net Service Revenue (NSR) reports to ensure revenue is captured by the correct projects/phases and makes revenue adjustments and/or transfer efforts.
• Perform quarterly internal spot audits of select projects, reviews project setup for accuracy, analyzes project costs in relation to contract budgets and contract terms.
• Provide end‐to‐end project accounting management from project creation to close‐out contracts.
• Review project contracts for financial details to ensure compliance with the project.
• Set up projects in the accounting system, liaising with Project Managers (PM) and Senior Leaders (SL) regarding budgets (fee flows); phase set up to assist with project monitoring for the life of the project.
• Maintain contract paperwork and files, invoices, aging A/R, change orders, vendor and sub-contractor documents, and other specified logs for project tracking.
• Prepare client fees, expenses, consultant invoices, account statements, reports, and other records.
• Post cash receipts and sends notifications to relevant parties, logging and reporting details daily.
• Responsible for billing and cash flow projections.
• Lead and coordinate collection efforts with PMs and SLs; initiates stop‐work procedures and third‐party collections efforts to minimize company exposure.
• Prepare and send weekly collections reports to Managing Director, Project Managers, and Senior Leaders.
• Perform Accounts Payable (AP) duties, including coding and posting vouchers, coordinating reviews and approvals, researching vendor payment inquiries, and updating tracking file for Pay‐When‐Paid (PWP) consultants.
• Pull vouchers for weekly PWPs and updates PWP tracking.
• Notify PWP consultants of their invoice payments.
• Bi‐monthly, update PWP status report on SharePoint after payments have been paid and posted in the accounting system.
• Reconcile month‐end PWP tracking versus PWP disbursed files.
• Review phases in Power‐Bi to make sure backlog is available for phases being coded to prior posting vouchers in the accounting system.
• Enter ICs timecards when treated as labour.

Ad‐Hoc Tasks:

• Implement and execute proper controls to proactively support, monitor and communicate budget, actual status, and labor hours, consultants, and expenses for projects; develops and issues timely reports.
• Identify opportunities and areas for improvement, offers suggestions, and implements procedures, processes or tools to improve efficiency and productivity.
• Perform additional accounting responsibilities and supports special projects and ad‐hoc analyses.

Required Experience:

• Minimum of 5 years in a mid‐sized professional services organization with project (revenue) accounting duties.
• Proficient in Microsoft Office, accounting software, order processing, databases.
• Experience with using ERP systems is a must.
• Proficient in general ledger, accounts receivable, and accounts payable.
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills.
• Strong interpersonal skills and diplomacy.
• Must handle confidential information in a highly sensitive manner.