Senior Finance Manager

About our Charity

As one of the UK’s leading charities providing essential specialist equipment to children with disabilities, Newlife is dedicated to making life better – for the families we serve, and for the people who help us to make that happen. Through grants and emergency equipment loans, we ensure children get the vital equipment they need, when they need it, while our free nurse helpline offers crucial support and information – as well as a listening ear. Our campaigns help to give children with disabilities and their families a voice, advocating for change to benefit the families we serve. And we support adults with additional needs with volunteering and employment opportunities, providing an introduction to the workplace and a means for career development. Across the whole of Newlife, our teams are crucial to our success – it’s not just a job; here you’ll be helping us to change lives every day.

Key Responsibilities

• The role is responsible for the day-to‑day financial operations of the organisation, including month‑end and year‑end processes.
• This includes managing the finance team and workload, overseeing weekly income reporting across store sales, online sales, commercial income, and charity income, and ensuring all income is accurately reconciled from EPOS systems to the accounting system.
• The postholder will ensure timely and accurate month‑end close processes, including the posting of utilities, payroll, PDQ transactions, and various accruals such as payroll, utilities, and sundry costs.
• Responsibilities also include reconciliation of commercial income, sales and purchase ledgers, and online income including PayPal, as well as preparing supporting schedules for management accounts and board reporting.
• The role has responsibility for financial reporting and compliance, including preparing accurate and timely statutory accounts in line with Charity Commission and Companies House requirements, ensuring compliance with audit standards, tax regulations, and nonprofit accounting principles, and overseeing the preparation of donor reports.
• The postholder will maintain strong internal controls and governance, involving maintaining and enforcing financial policies and procedures, ensuring robust internal controls to safeguard organisational assets, leading audit preparation, and liaising with external auditors.
• The role also includes setting up weekly and monthly reporting, including uploading budgets into SAGE, managing restricted and unrestricted fund accounting, overseeing bank reconciliations and balance sheet control account reconciliations, and managing cash flow.
• Leadership and collaboration are central to the role, with the postholder managing and developing finance team members, including oversight of timesheets, holiday and sickness reporting, and performance management.
• They will work closely with the Finance Director and programme managers to ensure financial sustainability and will be a member of the Senior Management Team, contributing to guiding and shaping the future of the charity.
• In addition, the role includes a range of ad hoc duties, such as completing all government statistical returns, handling valuation office and rates enquiries, acting as the finance contact on the transformation programme, managing the upload of payments to the bank, and deputising for the Finance Director as required.

Requirements

• The successful candidate will be professionally qualified (ACA, ACCA, CIMA, or CIPFA).
• They will have a minimum of three to five years’ experience in a similar role, ideally within a charity environment, along with at least two years of management experience.
• Experience using SAGE or a similar accounting system is essential.
• The role requires strong practical skills, including the ability to work hands‑on within a small finance team, largely made up of part‑qualified or unqualified staff.
• The postholder must be able to prioritise effectively in a demanding environment while maintaining a customer‑first approach, and be capable of delegating tasks and training or mentoring team members where needed.
• The ideal candidate will be confident, proactive, and highly organised, with the ability to translate complex technical financial concepts into language suitable for a wide range of audiences.
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills are essential.