UK Finance Manager: Payroll, Compliance & Global Controls

Salary: Excellent basic salary. Additional benefits include Private healthcare, Health Cash Plan, Group Income Protection, Critical Illness Cover, Life Assurance, Access to Perkbox Platform, Cycle to Work Scheme.

A bit about us: We’re Applexus Limited, a global IT Consultancy with a people-centric and collaborative culture focused on employee well-being, learning and development and creating an excellent place for our people to work. As an SAP Partner with over 30 years’ SAP experience, we provide wall-to-wall SAP advisory, implementation, development and support services. Our mission is to deliver business process solutions of enduring value to our customers, through a combination of technical expertise, best practice and innovation.

A bit about the role: We are looking for a proactive and detail-oriented Finance Manager to act as the UK-based point of contact for day-to-day finance activities. This is a hands-on role focused on ensuring financial control, accuracy, and coordination across our UK operations. You will work closely with our global Finance team, who manage the majority of transactional processing and reporting, acting as the bridge between the UK business and offshore teams. The role is ideally suited to someone early in their Finance career (e.g. part-qualified or newly qualified accountant) who is looking to broaden their experience across finance operations, compliance, and stakeholder management within a growing, international business.

What you’ll be doing:

• Acting as the primary point of contact for finance-related queries across the UK business, providing clear guidance and support to internal stakeholders.
• Providing local oversight and control of finance activities, ensuring accuracy, completeness, and compliance with internal processes and external requirements.
• Supporting accounts payable processes, including supplier validation, invoice review and sense-checking, and ensuring appropriate approvals and coding are in place.
• Coordinating with stakeholders to confirm receipt of goods and services, supporting robust controls around invoice processing.
• Validating that accounts payable and receivable transactions are accurately recorded within accounting systems.
• Acting as a local contact for accounts receivable queries, supporting the resolution of billing issues and following up on outstanding invoices where required.
• Reviewing and validating credit card statements and expense submissions, ensuring appropriate documentation and policy adherence.
• Providing overall ownership for payroll activities in the UK and supporting employees with payroll-related queries.
• Acting as a point of contact for HMRC and other regulatory bodies, supporting information requests and coordinating responses to audits or inspections.
• Managing internal and external audit processes by providing documentation, coordinating evidence, and maintaining clear audit trails.
• Maintaining accurate, organised financial records and ensuring documentation is accessible and audit-ready.
• Working closely with global Finance teams to ensure alignment, timely processing, and visibility of any risks, issues, or delays.

What we want from you:

• Experience in a finance or accounting role.
• Part-qualified or newly qualified accountant (ACCA, CIMA, CA or equivalent), or working towards qualification.
• Experience supporting core finance processes (e.g. accounts payable, accounts receivable, payroll or general finance operations).
• Strong Excel skills, with the ability to analyse, validate and interpret financial data.
• Experience using accounting software or finance systems.
• High attention to detail with a strong focus on accuracy and financial control.
• Strong organisational skills, with the ability to manage multiple priorities.
• Confident communicator, able to liaise effectively with stakeholders across different teams and locations.
• Proactive mindset, with the ability to take ownership and identify improvements.
• Experience working within a shared service or global finance model.
• Exposure to audit processes or regulatory interactions (e.g. HMRC).
• Experience supporting financial controls and compliance activities.
• Familiarity with expense management tools and processes.