Transactional Services Finance Team Lead in Newtownabbey

Transactional Finance Team Lead for CTNI, CTC, TBIT, BCM & TBP DIVISIONS (part of Roads and Construction Division of Tennants Group)

Status: Permanent Full Time

Location: Belfast (Office based / flexible working available), Suite C Victoria Business Park, 9 West Bank Road, Belfast. Travel to other sites may be required with plenty of advanced notice.

Reporting to: FPA Road and Construction & Transactional Services Finance Manager.

Key Deliverables:

• Lead the transactional finance team for 5 legal entities within the Road and Construction division, ensuring a best-in-class service.
• Ensure timely and accurate processing of financial transactions.
• Manage 2 direct reports.

Role Overview:

The Transaction Finance Team Lead is responsible for leading and overseeing a transactional finance team managing key financial processes, including bank processing, purchase ledger (accounts payable), sales ledger (accounts receivable) & employee expenses. The role ensures accurate, timely and controlled processing of financial transactions while driving process improvement, maintaining strong financial controls & supporting the wider finance function.

Job Description:

• Team Leadership & Management: Manage, support and develop a small finance team responsible for transaction processing. Allocate workloads and ensure tasks are completed accurately and within deadlines. Set team objectives and ensure regular review mechanisms are in place to drive accountability. Mentor & develop the transactional finance team to foster a culture of continuous improvement and high performance.
• Bank & Cash Management: Oversee daily bank postings, reconciliations and cash allocation. Ensure timely resolution of reconciling items and discrepancies. Monitor cash movements and support cash flow reporting when required. Maintain strong controls over banking processes and authorisations.
• Purchase Ledger (Accounts Payable): Manage end-to-end purchase ledger processes, including invoice processing, approvals and payment runs. Ensure supplier invoices are processed accurately and in line with company policies and procedures. Oversee supplier statement reconciliations and resolve queries promptly. Maintain strong internal (operations team) and supplier relationships and ensure timely payments.
• Sales Ledger (Accounts Receivable): Supervise invoicing, cash allocation and support credit control activities. Ensure timely and accurate billing of customers. Monitor aged debt and support credit controller to minimise overdue balances. Resolve customer queries relating to invoices and payments.
• Employee Expenses: Manage the employee expenses process to ensure payments are made in line with the company expense policy. Ensure expenses are posted to the general ledger in a timely fashion.
• Controls, Compliance & Process Improvement: Ensure adherence to financial controls across all transactional processes. Support audit requirements by maintaining accurate documentation and process records. Identify and implement process improvements to enhance efficiency and accuracy.
• Reporting & Support: Provide regular reporting on key transactional KPIs (aged debt, creditor balances etc.). Work with the wider finance team to support financial reporting.

Candidate Criteria:

• Essential: Significant experience (min 3 years) in a similar finance role managing purchase ledger, sales ledger and expenses processes. Experience of managing and leading a small transactional finance team. Strong understanding of financial controls and transactional processes. Good working knowledge of accounting systems and Excel. High attention to detail and commitment to accuracy. Strong organisational and time management skills. Ability to use own initiative but also work well within a team. Has a can-do attitude.
• Desirable: Working towards or open to working towards an accounting qualification (AAT, ACCA, CIMA). Experience in process improvement or involvement in system implementation.