Financial Controller in Leicester

About us

Business Savings Guru is an energy and utilities consultancy using technology and people to find meaningful savings for UK businesses. We are scaling quickly and investing heavily in AI and automation — and we need a pragmatic, technically strong finance professional to own commissions, reconciliations and the financial controls that make growth sustainable.

Role summary

We’re hiring a detail‑obsessed Financial Controller (part‑time) with energy sector experience who can run the end‑to‑end commission and supplier reconciliation engine, produce clear P&L and forecasting, manage clawbacks, and provide the commercial reporting that enables data‑driven sales decisions. This person will be the financial backbone of our sales operations — turning messy data into accurate pay runs, forecasts and actionable insights.

Key responsibilities

• Commission accounting & reconciliation: reconcile supplier commission statements against Zoho deals and internal records; calculate sales agent commissions, apply clawbacks/adjustments, and prepare commission runs; implement and maintain commission rules, tiers and point systems with clear audit trails.
• Clawbacks & disputes: identify returns/voids and trigger clawback processes; reconcile recoveries and adjust agent payments; liaise with sales, operations and suppliers to resolve commission discrepancies.
• Supplier & partner payments: verify supplier commission invoices and manage timely payments and receivables where applicable; check commission splits and margins on each deal; flag shortfalls or unexpected deductions.
• Financial reporting & controls: own month‑end P&L, variance analysis and monthly management accounts for commercial lines; produce weekly cashflow snapshots and scenario forecasts tied to pipeline assumptions; build and maintain dashboards / reporting for leadership showing commission run‑rate, AR, AP, margins, ROI metrics.
• Forecasting & commercial analysis: produce sales‑driven forecasts (commissions, gross profit, churn, LTV / CAC); run ROI analyses on lead providers, campaigns and AI agent deployments.
• Process & systems: improve finance processes: reduce manual Excel work, automate reconciliations where possible; ensure CRM (Zoho) finance fields are accurate; suggest schema improvements for cleaner data.
• Compliance & controls: ensure VAT, payroll interfaces and general ledger treatments are correct for commission payments; keep audit‑ready records and support year‑end and any external audits.
• Cross‑functional collaboration: work closely with Sales, Operation, and the AI/product team to translate deals into accurate financial entries and to design sensible attribution logic; provide clear guidance to non‑finance stakeholders on commission impacts and timing.

Must‑have experience & skills

• Qualified accountant (ACCA / ACA / CIMA) or demonstrable commercial finance experience (~3+ years) with ownership of month‑end and forecasting.
• Direct experience in energy, utilities, brokerage or B2B supplier commission environments (or equivalent marketplace commission experience).
• Proven track record reconciling supplier commission statements and running commission calculations / clawbacks.
• Strong Excel skills (pivot tables, lookups), confident with financial modelling and scenario analysis.
• Practical knowledge of accounting software (Xero / QuickBooks / Sage) and CRMs (Zoho experience advantageous).
• Excellent attention to detail, process orientation and ability to explain financial issues simply to non‑finance colleagues.
• Strong verbal and written communication skills — comfortable escalating issues and resolving disputes.

Desirable

• Experience with Zoho CRM or previous work integrating CRM ► accounting workflows.
• Familiarity with automation tools to reduce manual reconciliations.
• Understanding of supplier billing portals and energy‑specific data (e.g. MPAN/MPRN handling) is a plus.
• Prior experience setting up commission schemes and pay runs in fast‑growing sales teams.

KPIs / success measures (first 3–6 months)

• Accurate, on‑time commission runs with zero critical errors.
• Reduction in manual reconciliation time (target >30% automation).
• Clear monthly management accounts and a rolling 3‑month commercial forecast delivered reliably.
• Fast resolution of supplier commission discrepancies (SLA target e.g.