Finance Business Partner in Luton

To lead the finance team, managing all internal and external financial reporting, providing value adding management information and analysis, to challenge the business to drive improvement, and ultimately support the business in delivering its strategy and achieving its objectives.

Key Responsibilities

• Business Partner
  • Act as a business partner to the Managing Director and Regional Sales Managers, providing them with the information and analysis required to support strategic business decisions and challenge them to drive business improvements.
  • Assist RSM and depots with compiling the monthly rolling forecast and consolidate into an overall rolling forecast for the business prior to sending to the wider group.
  • Prepare a monthly variance analysis to explain changes in the monthly rolling forecast vs Budget (monthly & Full Year).
  • Identify opportunities for efficiency savings across the business.
  • Attend quarterly regional meetings and present financial results by region.
  • Work closely with the Assistant Accountant to manage all day-to-day bookkeeping requirements and full month end procedures, including bank reconciliations, accruals, prepayments, payroll, balance sheet reconciliations, etc.
  • Oversee the Purchase Ledger and Credit Control functions, managing the performance of the team members responsible for these areas.
  • Manage all inventory control procedures and related analysis and reconciliations.
• Lead FP&A activity
  • Lead all FP&A activity including but not limited to: Cash flow forecasting, Rolling P&L forecast, Annual Budget, 3 Year Planning, Capital Expenditure Budgets and Forecasts.
• Internal reporting
  • Manage all UK and Group reporting requirements, ensuring timely and accurate submissions, including but not limited to: Daily sales and order intake, Monthly P&L by depot/region, Monthly reporting of key customers/sales/profitability, Monthly & Quarterly P&L reporting, Quarterly Capex and IFRS16 Lease reporting, Ad hoc reporting as required by customers/key accounts.
• External reporting
  • Manage all external reporting requirements, ensuring timely and accurate submissions, including but not limited to: VAT returns, Corporation Tax returns, CIS returns, National Statistics surveys and returns, Annual statutory financial statements, Insurance requests.
• Audit
  • Build a relationship with both internal and external auditors, providing all necessary information required by them and working with them to implement any control recommendations that may arise.
• Stakeholder reporting
  • Lead the reporting to key stakeholders, including monthly P&L reviews with Regional Managers, monthly business reviews with Group MD/Group FD, quarterly Controlling meetings with the wider group.
• Systems
  • Work closely with the Business Systems Manager to ensure that the IT systems in place provide the appropriate support to the business.
• Direct Reports
  • Assistant Accountant/Credit Controller, Senior Credit Controller, develop Assistant Accountant to Management Accountant.
• Travel
  • All depots to be visited at least once a year. Attend the quarterly regional meetings which rotate across the UK.

Key Requirements for Role

• Qualified Accountant
• Self-motivated and driven to succeed
• Able to manage own workload and deliver to tight deadlines
• Experience of people management
• Passion for driving business improvements
• Able to challenge the status quo
• Aptitude for problem solving
• Strong Excel skills and highly numerate
• Strong relationship building skills
• Willing and able to present reports and analysis to key stakeholders
• Experience of working in a multi-site environment would be beneficial