Senior Finance Officer

Closing date: Sunday 26th January 2025 at 23:59pm

Full time, Permanent

Hybrid – Whitechapel, London (1-2 days per week in office)

Salary: £43,250 – 44,820 per annum per annum (Salaries are graded against our pay framework and are not negotiable)

The B Corp Movement

B Lab UK is part of the global B Corp movement with the mission to inspire and enable people to use business as a force for good. Certified B Corps seek to redefine success in business by putting social and environmental impact on a par with profit. The B Corp community is a global movement of businesses that provide leadership by demonstrating their commitment to people and planet. There are now over 9,000 B Corps spanning 102 countries and 160+ sectors. Some names you might have heard of include Patagonia, The Guardian, and Divine Chocolate.

Why this job?

As the demand for businesses to join the B Corp movement grows, this role will support the Finance Team in managing the expanding needs of the organization. While day-to-day bookkeeping is outsourced, however key oversight is required including using business knowledge to ensure accuracy e.g. Sales Ledger invoicing is maintained in-house.

The primary purpose of this role is to ensure the accuracy and completeness of financial records, particularly around month-end and year-end reporting, and advising budget-holders and staff on financial activities. Supporting the Finance Officer with monthly invoicing and carrying out analysis and reconciliation of the invoicing data, is another key responsibility.

The role will collaborate closely with the Head of Finance, Finance Officer and the Accounting Outsource Agent. You will bridge the gap between them, and contribute greatly to a smoother finance function.

As the organisation grows, we will bring more of the accounting work in-house and there will be opportunities to develop your expertise.

In this role you will:

• Assist with monthly invoicing and provide cover during leave.
• Ensure data integrity, adherence to documented procedures and support with resolving invoice queries.
• Liaise with outsourced service and staff to manage supplier invoices and ensure timely payments and accurate record-keeping.
• Ensure accurate coding of company debit card transactions, assisting cardholders.
• Check, approve and accurately code staff expenses in line with compliance.
• Prepare year-end schedules and audit documentation, addressing auditor queries.
• Take the lead on Balance Sheet Account Reconciliations.
• Ownership of the Fixed Asset Register, capitalise and depreciate assets in line with the organisation's procedure, liaising with staff to ensure accuracy.
• Update prepayment/accrual schedules and enter monthly adjustments.
• Update Cash Flow forecasting spreadsheet with actual transactions.
• Build strong and credible partnerships with stakeholders both internally and externally, ensuring efficiency and effectiveness of financial process and practice.
• Liaise with external providers to resolve queries and ensure cost effectiveness.
• Continuously look for ways to improve B Lab UK’s financial process and practice.

Please refer to the job description for full requirements for this role HERE .

What we're looking for:

• Remember no one has every skill or experience needed for this role and you’ll have the opportunity to learn a lot from the team. We believe someone who has a few of these is well suited to exceed in this role:
• Part-qualified ACCA or CIMA
• Sound knowledge and understanding of the month-end process including reverse journals, prepayment and accrual adjustments, depreciation calculations and deferred income.
• Sound understanding of balance sheet account reconciliation and the reason why this task is carried out.
• Knowledge of wider bookkeeping, year end and external audit management.
• Excellent stakeholder management and communication skills, both verbally and in writing.
• Strong organisational skills with ability to proactively use initiative to improve processes and solve complex issues.
• Good spreadsheet and systems skills with this the ability to sort, group, analyse and compare information.
• Experience of Salesforce or other CRM / Xero or Xledger accounting system (Desirable)
• You thrive in a small team within a fast-paced, growing organisation.
• Great attention to detail, with the ability to grasp information quickly.
• Self-motivated, proactive and approaches work in a structured and methodical way.
• Committed to personal development and expanding financial expertise.
• A keen collaborator who values the ability to work effectively with internal and external stakeholders.
• Passionate about the role that business can play in creating the future that benefits all people and the planet.

Candidates must be able to demonstrate their eligibility to work in the UK (we are not able to provide visa sponsorship).

What we give you:

• Purpose driven work enabling B Lab UK’s mission of redefining the role of business as a force for good
• Hybrid and flexible working, we have a high trust environment and are advocates for right place working
• Hybrid working (min 1/2 days per week in office)
• Flexible working hours (based around core working hours)
• Opportunity to work 4 days a week
• 25 days holiday plus bank holidays (pro rata for part-time staff)
• 1 additional annual leave day (pro-rata for part-time staff) for each complete annual year of service, up to a maximum of 30 days
• Our office is closed between Christmas and New Year, no need to take extra holiday!
• Private Medical and Dental cover
• £200 per annum tax free Annual Wellbeing allowance and Employee Assistance Programme
• 2 paid volunteer days per year
• Enhanced Parental Leave and family friendly policies, including carers leave
• Learning and Development opportunities
• Enhanced Pension and Life Assurance
• Cycle to Work Scheme
• Income Protection policy
• Working in a flexible office workspace

How to apply:

If you share our passion for sustainability and are excited to join us in this role and support a growing movement, we would love to hear from you!

Please note that all applications must be made through Beapplied. Please refer to the link below to be redirected to the application link and for the full job description for this role.

We are happy to support candidates with any adjustments that would make their recruitment experience at each stage more comfortable, please contact

We welcome everyone to apply for our positions. We understand that some candidates hesitate to apply unless they meet 100% of the criteria. However, we strongly encourage you to apply if you meet some of the key criteria for our roles.

To apply for this role, we ask that you provide your responses to 3 key questions, as well as uploading your CV. It is important that you ensure your answers to the questions are specific and that you provide examples which fully demonstrate your skills and experience relevant to the role. Additionally, you are asked to complete a short timed task relevant to the role. You are advised to ensure you have the space available to complete this.

At B Lab UK, we understand the benefits of using open AI tools (e.g. ChatGPT), however for the purpose of this application we are looking for answers that are tailored by candidates themselves and convey their financial skills, knowledge & understanding, without relying much on these tools. This enables us to make a clear assessment of your ability to meet the requirements of the role.

Please note that we use the system Beapplied to enable us to run a blind recruitment process, therefore reducing the risk of bias. The initial selection is based on applicant’s responses to the 3 key questions, which are scored independently by a panel against predefined criteria relevant to the role. The hiring panel does not see the applicant's CV or any other information about them until the interview stage.

All candidates will be contacted after the initial screening process with an update on the status of their application. Candidates selected to proceed to the next stage, may be invited to join a short initial screening call and if successful at this stage be invited to attend an in person interview. They may additionally be asked to prepare and present a task at this stage.

B Lab believes an equitable and inclusive work environment and a diverse, empowered team are key to achieving our mission. We’re not looking for candidates who are “culture fits.” We’re looking for candidates who can expand our culture and challenge business as usual. We strive to foster an environment where all staff can bring themselves to work by their own definition, and we strive to provide all candidates with an equitable and accessible recruitment process.