Finance Analyst - 6M Fixed Term Contract in Leicester

Please note: This position is a 6-month Fixed-Term Contract (FTC) and is therefore best suited to candidates who are available to start immediately or at short notice. Due to the nature of the requirement, we are particularly interested in speaking with candidates who can commence employment as soon as possible.

There's plenty about Topps Tiles that might surprise you. Like the scale of our Support Office in Leicester. We have Finance, Marketing, Buying, Central Operations, HR, Property, Customer Service and IT all under one roof. Tight-knit teams of talented people working together and working hard to get things done and drive results. But then, would you expect anything less from an ambitious, dynamic, market-leading, multi-million-pound retail business? After delivering our 20% market share goal of "one in five" in 2023, we have launched our new goal – Mission 365 – targeting £365 million of sales.

Purpose:

• To support various financial planning activities for Topps Tiles, e.g. store/company budgeting cycle, forecasting, central functions budgeting and forecasting etc.
• To support the team in completion of monthly management accounts, reporting, performance reporting, and in particular support central functions leaders in understanding monthly costs and impacts on future plans.
• To ensure that appropriate analysis of business performance is available in an accurate and timely fashion and that sufficient information exists to allow key business users to take appropriate action to ensure performance is maintained in line with plans agreed.
• To support the business in understanding the financial impact of new initiatives and put in place mechanisms to track and monitor performance against targets.

Key Accountabilities:

• Customer / Strategy / Plan: To ensure there is timely and accurate reporting and analysis to business managers, ensuring accuracy and relevancy of insight.
• To work with the finance team to ensure that key aspects of the monthly management accounting and financial accounting processes are appropriately administered and information is available in a timely fashion.
• Ensure there is open communication within the finance team around the period end accounts preparation – including any areas of judgement.
• Communication with other departments who either feed information to the accounts or utilise information generated.
• Close off the ledgers within agreed timescales and ensure that all key balance sheet control accounts have been reconciled and approved on a monthly basis.
• Supporting the wider Finance team to deliver budget and annual reforecasting which will help the business deliver its strategy and goal.
• Supporting with various other financial activities as required, e.g. financial analysis, commercial opportunities that may drive performance, reviewing performance against plan, etc.
• Supporting Topps Tiles stores with queries in relation to their P&Ls.

People/Leadership:

• Develop close and effective working relationships within Finance.
• Ability to communicate confidently and concisely to a range of stakeholders across the business.

Financial / Commercials:

• Support in the preparation of month end management accounts and presentation to key stakeholders on a monthly basis.
• Ensure that the Finance Business Partner is well appraised of the financial performance (e.g. variances vs budget) and emerging long-term trends.
• Supporting in the preparation of information for presentations across the business, for example weekly reporting (including KPIs, etc.), Board reporting, etc.
• Support financial control and ensure that key balance sheet control accounts have been reconciled on a monthly basis.

Risk and process:

• To ensure appropriate processes exist both within finance and across the organisation and to identify key areas of risk, and agree with the Finance Business Partner and Senior FP&A Manager appropriate plans to manage those risks.
• To ensure that appropriate controls exist across the businesses (e.g. Balance Sheet reconciliation, analysis of key control accounts), including compliance with key regulatory areas.
• Look to drive improvements where possible to increase the reliability and robustness of information and controls. This will include process simplification and automation initiatives across the finance function.

Decision Making/Freedom to Act:

• Freedom to liaise with other departments outside of finance to obtain all necessary information as required.
• Day to day responsibility covering the activities listed above and controlling/administering the company's financial processes, with flexibility to drive improvement.
• Communication with key business teams to support the creation of monthly accounts and provide reporting and analysis to support the business.

Stakeholders:

• Finance Business Partner
• Senior FP&A Manager
• Head of FP&A
• Financial Controller
• Rest of finance team
• Topps Tiles business functions

Knowledge, Skills and Experience Required:

• Part qualified accountant – we offer a comprehensive study package to support your accountancy development.
• Good working knowledge of core finance processes – monthly management accounts (including commentary on variances), weekly reporting, budgeting & planning, decision/commercial support.
• Good working knowledge of accounting systems – general ledger, purchase ledgers.