Financial Controls Manager (Initially - 2yr Contract) in Edinburgh

In this role, you will play a key part in strengthening the financial integrity of the organisation by leading and managing the monthly Balance Sheet reconciliation process and providing assurance on the internal control environment, which includes:

• Working as a manager within the Compliance and Accounting Control team with responsibility for managing monthly reconciliations.
• Providing additional leadership capacity to the team to oversee the monthly balance sheet reconciliation process, ensuring timely and robust financial control.
• Responsible for addressing reconciliation issues, specifically to be able to undertake root cause diagnostics, implement permanent fixes in the underlying process that improve the efficiency and effectiveness of the reconciliation process but which also increases the level of internal control assurance on an ongoing basis.
• Identify and resolve aged items and ensure errors or misstatements are cleared promptly.
• Review, recommend and implement bespoke reconciliation software solutions to improve the automation and timeliness of reconciliations.
• Collaborating with colleagues at all levels and across all areas, offering guidance on financial accounting and control matters, and fostering strong relationships with both internal and external stakeholders.
• Promoting the consistent application of financial policies and procedures to ensure alignment with external standards and internal institutional policies.

Main responsibilities:

• Balance Sheet Reconciliations: in the preparation and review of monthly reconciliations, ensuring all reconciliations have supporting documentation, investigate and resolve reconciling items and aged balances, clear historic unreconciled differences, maintain audit schedules and audit trails.
• Financial Control: Ensure integrity and accuracy of the general ledger, support month-end and year-end close processes, monitor suspense, accrual, prepayment, and control accounts, identify control weaknesses and recommend improvements, ensure compliance with accounting policies and procedures.
• Analysis and Investigation: Analyse unusual movements or variances in accounts, review trends and identify risks or errors, perform root-cause analysis on discrepancies, work with operational teams to resolve underlying issues.
• Audit and Compliance: Provide supporting evidence for internal and external auditors, ensure reconciliations meet audit standards, support statutory accounts preparation, assist with compliance around VAT, payroll, treasury, or tax reconciliations where relevant.
• Stakeholder Engagement: Liaise with AP, AR, payroll, treasury, tax, and operational teams, communicate outstanding issues and actions clearly, escalate material risks or unresolved items.

Planning & Organising: Organise and manage your own workload and that of direct reports on a daily, weekly, and monthly basis to ensure that period-end and year-end deadlines are consistently met. Balance competing demands from various areas, including Compliance and Accounting, finance business partners, and other finance teams, while also addressing external demands such as audits and investment custodians. Lead or actively participate in cross-team projects and initiatives, representing Compliance and Accounting and advocating for robust financial accounting processes and controls.

Decision Making: Contribute to setting financial priorities in alignment with the team's overall objectives, considering the impact on both the team and the broader organisation. Apply a thorough understanding of relevant financial policies and processes, and effectively communicate these to both technical and non-technical colleagues across the organisation. Evaluate potential risks associated with financial decisions and implement strategies to mitigate them.

Education, Qualifications & Training:

• Essential: CCAB (or equivalent) professionally qualified accountant with a minimum of five years post qualified experience.
• Desirable: High proficiency in Excel, including ability to create functions and formulas.

Knowledge and Experience:

• Essential: Significant senior level experience of Balance Sheet reconciliations in a high value, high volume organisation. Experience and understanding of financial controls and audit requirements in large and complex organisations. Financial and statutory accounting experience, in particular reporting under FRS 102 and Charities SORP. Excellent communication and relationship-building skills to effectively partner with stakeholders and promote collaboration.
• Desirable: Background in external audit or experience managing external auditor relationships. Experience with large accounting systems (e.g., Oracle Fusion).