Financial Controller

The Global Wind Energy Council (GWEC) is a high-profile organisation and trade association leading the international clean energy transition as the world seeks to stay within 1.5c global warming target. Our mission is to ensure that wind power establishes itself as the answer to today’s energy challenges, providing substantial environmental and economic benefits. We have innovative programmes and collaborations promoting sustainable offshore wind development, mentoring women working in wind industry, education and energy access. We are a Belgium registered charity with subsidiary companies and offices in the UK, India, China, Portugal, Singapore, UAE and Vietnam and a global staff of around 70. We have grown our revenue five times in as many years and have bold growth plans over the next decade as we seek the urgent scale up of wind and clean energy in new and existing markets. We have over 20 live grants of up to $4m in value to support our work, particularly in the regional markets.

The HQ finance team is based in the UK Shoreham office with a team of five and additional staff in key locations and several outsourced arrangements for local accounting and compliance.

Overall purpose:

• To account for and report of the financial performance of GWEC as a whole, Belgium parent entities and other subsidiaries.
• To support the UK, Belgium Secretariat and international teams in all financial aspects relating to accounting.

Main duties and responsibilities:

Working closely with the Finance Team and outsourced local finance specialists:

• Prepare regular management accounts, budget performance and cashflow forecast for group and subsidiaries.
• Perform consolidation of the group.
• Lead GWEC parent company accounting.
• Monthly posting to and reconciliation of project fund accounts.
• Prepare monthly accounting close, perform the year end close.
• Work with the Head of Finance in preparation of the annual financial statements.
• Oversee weekly payment runs.
• Administer monthly payroll (including of overseas jurisdictions) in conjunction with local payroll bureau.
• Review or prepare VAT returns.
• Manage internal cash ensuring funds are available in the countries and accounts as required.
• Reconcile relevant Balance Sheet accounts.
• Manage 2-3 staff members.

Reporting the global financial performance:

• Report by account code a monthly P&L and YTD P&L and balance sheet with variance analysis from budget.
• Prepare the consolidation of the group and reconciliation/elimination of intercompany transactions.
• Prepare for review the restricted expenditure to project funds and transfer to the funds accounts.
• Provide short term cashflow reporting.
• Support the annual organization/entity budgeting process e.g. for certain companies.
• Assist in supporting information for the annual statutory audits and compliance audits.

Review or Perform the core book-keeping on accounting systems:

• Review the work of the HQ Finance team and perform where necessary, including:
• Posting of Accounts Payable – including coding of grant projects and events to the analytical plan.
• Posting of Accounts Receivable: recognition of corporate sponsorship, events income and membership income, grants installments receivable and grants release.
• Monthly reconciliations of bank, general ledger account balances to source systems.
• Accounting for Staff Payroll and Pensions and Consultants Fees.
• Oversight of Accruals & Prepayments (monthly) prepared by Finance Manager.
• Post monthly journals representing the movements in Project Fund Accounting.
• Provide review and oversight of the outsourced bookkeeping within the subsidiary companies (India, China, GWEC Asia, Portugal), propose or post journals.
• Review and complete the parent entity monthly accounting cycle with support of Finance Officer and Finance Manager.
• Review the VAT reports for UK, Portugal and Belgium parent entity, including analysis required by external advisors.

Administering Payroll and Staff Costs:

• Liaising with HR team to manage the payroll instructions to the national Payroll bureau.
• Manage the payment of the UK, Belgium, Portugal and German based consultant staff.

Project Accounting:

• Prepare project budgets, update the actuals and prepare quarterly project financial reports and funder reports to deadline working closely with the Grants team.

Global Cash Management:

• Payment processing for administrative and projects in accordance with policies, agreements and authorities.
• Process fund and cash transfers in accordance with fund instructions.
• Review/update the inter-company account with the UK and Belgium entities.

Compliance:

• Oversight of VAT position, reporting and supervision of local expert advisors.
• Support and liaise on trade registry/company filing with local expert advisors.
• Lead the annual audit process for GWEC ASBL alongside the Finance team.

Minimum Requirements:

• Right to work in the UK, fluency in written and spoken English.
• Qualified CCAB accountant (ACCA, ACA, CIPFA, or AAT (min. level 3 or equivalent) or Masters degree in Accounting.
• Strong knowledge of accounting principles, taxes, financial reporting, budgeting and forecasting.
• 7 or more years work experience in finance and administration management.
• Great IT skills – multiple Accounting Systems and advanced Excel skills (e.g. use of VLOOKUP’s, Pivot tables etc).
• Strong analytic skills and problem-solving abilities.
• Experience of working in finance in an international organisation.
• Project or fund accounting experience.
• Passion for renewable energies.

What we offer:

• Flexible working with genuine hybrid working arrangement (2 days per week in office).
• Part time – 4 day a week option (incumbent is part time).
• 25 days annual leave plus bank holidays.
• Private medical insurance.
• Fast growing, dynamic international organisation.
• Chance to be part of the green energy transition.
• Fantastic new offices at great Shoreham Harbour location, near Brighton.
• Mentoring from an experienced commercial Head of Finance.

Seniority level: Mid-Senior level

Employment type: Full-time

Job function: Accounting/Auditing and Finance

Industries: Services for Renewable Energy

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