A rare opportunity to make this role your own... After 16 wonderful years with us, our current Finance Manager is retiring. We are a close-knit, friendly team of roughly 20 people looking for our next finance champion. If you want a relaxed, supportive atmosphere where your ideas are valued and you can see the direct impact of your work, we’d love to meet you.
Finance Manager
Location: Nursling, Southampton
Position: Full-time, Permanent
Start: September
The Company
Having been trading in the UK for 22 years, we have built a very loyal customer base within the UK Pet and Aquatics industry, from small independent businesses to the UK’s largest pet chains. We pride ourselves on friendly and personal relationships with many of our customers, nurtured over many years of successful business.
We value our staff greatly and are proud to say that most of the team are long standing employees of 10+ years. Our parent company, still family owned in Australia, was founded by the current owner 35 years ago and is a real success story, from a solo start up to now having bases in UK, New Zealand, Australia and Hong Kong.
The Role
As our Finance Manager, you will take ownership of the UK division’s day-to-day financial operations. You won't be doing it alone—you’ll work closely with our fantastic, highly experienced bookkeeper. Together, you will keep our financial operations running smoothly.
Because we are a small business, you will wear a few different hats. You will report directly to our UK-based Managing Director, while also keeping our overseas CEO and Financial Director in Australia updated with clear, accurate reports.
Key Responsibilities
- Financial Strategy & Execution: Implement the financial decisions of the Managing Director, CEO, and Financial Director, and provide insights to support long-term business growth and cash flow planning.
- Budgeting & Forecasting: Create and manage the detailed annual budget for the UK business alongside the UK Management team and support the Group Financial Director in Australia with multi-year forecasting.
- Management Accounts: Produce accurate monthly management accounts and variance reports for the MD and overseas leadership team, highlighting areas of overspend or opportunity.
- Day-to-Day Operations: Oversee purchasing, invoicing, and payment arrangements, including the final authorization of the supplier payment runs via BACS. Speaking to our customer base to help manage credit control with debtors when required.
- Reconciliations & Control: Ensure the monthly reconciliation of all bank accounts, control accounts, and the trial balance, while maintaining the company’s fixed asset register.
- Tax Compliance: Prepare and submit the quarterly VAT returns in line with HMRC's Making Tax Digital (MTD) requirements.
- Payroll Oversight: Support and oversee the processing of the monthly payroll, including pension contributions (Auto-Enrolment) and HMRC submissions.
- Year-End Audits: Liaise with external accountants/auditors and support the Financial Director in preparing the annual audited accounts and tax packs.
- Continuous Improvement: Actively look for ways to upgrade our internal accounting software, automate manual tasks, and identify cost-saving opportunities across our daily operations.
About You
- Qualifications: We are looking for someone with a modern accounting education who understands business performance, not just compliance. You could be working towards a CIMA or ACCA qualification or have hands-on experience of a similar role.
- Excel & Systems Champion: You are highly computer literate. You don’t just "use" Excel; you know how to use formulas, lookups, and pivot tables to make data work for you. You are excited about the prospect of reviewing our current systems and introducing smarter, modern ways of working.
- Commercial Mindset: You don't just report on what happened last month. You think on your feet, enjoy digging into the details to spot trends, and will proactively suggest ways we can reduce overheads and save money.
- Strong Communicator: You can translate complex financial data into plain English for our UK Management team and overseas leadership team.
What we offer
Salary: £35,000 – £45,000 (depending on experience).
Generous Holiday: 25 days annual leave plus bank holidays
Perks:
- Company pension scheme
- Sick pay
- Health & Wellbeing programme
- Increasing number of annual leave days after 5 years of service
- Employee discounts
- Free on-site parking
- Casual Dress
- Early (2.30p.m.) finish on Fridays
- Endless tea, coffee, cold drinks, biscuits and ice creams
- Fun company events
- A genuinely friendly, relaxed, and stable working environment with a supportive team.
