Head of Finance

Salary range: £80,000 - £100,000 p.a. (depending on skills and experience)

Location: Manchester City Centre, with occasional travel to other sites in the North. Hybrid working available.

Hours: Monday to Friday, 8:30am – 5:30pm (1-hour unpaid lunch break)

Holidays: 32 per year plus Bank Holidays

Benefits: contributory pension scheme, private healthcare and cash plan, group life policy, enhanced maternity pay

Our client is one of the largest barristers’ chambers in the country with sites across the North of England and over 240 barristers practising across multiple disciplines. They pride themselves on excellent service and management and hold ISO9001 and ISO27001 accreditations as well as adhering to the regulatory requirements of the Bar Standards Board and Bar Council.

This is an exciting opportunity for an experienced Head of Finance to join Chambers in this vital senior leadership role, contributing to the strategy and professional management of their organisation.

In this role you will:

• Report directly to the Chief Executive;
• Lead an accounts and billing team of 10 people;
• Be an active member of Chambers’ Senior Management Team, providing strategic financial direction and oversight to achieve Chambers financial and operational goals;
• Manage Chambers’ relationships with the bank, our accountants and auditors amongst other third parties;
• Be responsible for financial governance and ensuring financial policies and processes are in place that are compliant, effective and efficient;
• Lead the preparation of monthly financial reporting, ensuring accurate and timely management accounts and regular reports, analysis and advice to the CEO, SMT and Board regarding financial position of members, groups and of Chambers, highlighting performance and key metrics;
• Prepare the annual budget in conjunction with the CEO and others for approval by the Board, utilising robust forecasting of income and expenditure;
• Review and implement changes to processes to streamline financial operations;
• Oversee all finance functions including:

• Billing of barristers’ client fees and management of aged debt;
• Fee charges to barrister members;
• Credit control and risk management;
• Payroll, pensions and benefits (working with the Head of HR);
• Share transactions (relevant to barrister members);
• Finance audits – co-ordinating these with our auditors;
• Financial software use, update, contracts;
• Ensuring barristers receive updated information regarding their income and status of billings and receipts;
• Invoice, purchase and account payments and authorisation;
• Monthly VAT returns and payments to HMRC.

The successful candidate will need to hold a professional accounting qualification (e.g. ACA, ACCA, CIMA) or be able to demonstrate equivalent level qualification by experience for this role. In addition they will:

• Have significant experience of leading a finance team with responsibility across the finance functions, ideally within the professional services or legal sector;
• Have strong IT skills and the knowledge of finance and related software systems (e.g. SAGE, Excel) to optimise their use for Chambers’ benefit;
• Have strong analytical and report writing skills to present accurate, useful and timely information in an audience-appropriate manner;
• Be a confident people manager, with experience of team motivation, appraisals, and day-to-day line management;
• Have excellent communication, problem-solving and diplomacy skills to effectively manage stakeholder relations;
• Understand how to get the best from third party providers, with knowledge of what should be expected and delivered and the ability to ensure that happens;
• Have a hands-on and flexible approach to support team and colleagues in providing an excellent service to their members and their clients.

To apply for this role, prompt applications are encouraged as they will close the job for applications as soon as they have a suitable shortlist of candidates for interview. They positively encourage applications from all sections of the community and operate an equal opportunities approach.