Commercial Accountant in Stevenage

The Commercial Accountant plays a key role in driving financial insight, supporting commercial decision making and monitoring and reporting on the financial health of the commercial entities. The postholder will be the financial point of contact for the business functions of the commercial business within Ongo’s group of companies, which currently consists of Ongo Roofing Limited, Ongo Heating and Plumbing Limited and Trent Valley Electrical Services Limited.

The postholder will lead on all finance matters including financial reporting and financial control for each entity. The role will require the postholder to provide well-informed and considered financial and business advice around strategic decision making to support the organisation in making financially sound choices. The Commercial Accountant will lead on identifying process and system improvements and will collaborate with colleagues across Ongo to introduce any enhancements identified.

Main Responsibilities:

• Commercial insight and decision making

• Through regular contact, and site visits where necessary, develop a strong working relationship with relevant stakeholders within each entity.
• Partner with relevant stakeholders to gain a full understanding of how the component parts of each entity operate in order that accurate financial advice and support can be offered to all.
• Familiarise yourself with the commercial five-year business plans and support the commercial managers to deliver against this plan.
• Effectively communicate financial information in a way that is concise and comprehensible that allows for better decision making.
• Provide accurate and informative financial information to enable strategic decisions to be taken.
• Offer guidance and business acumen to assist in decision making.
• Review financial information, offer an appropriate interpretation and provide critical analysis.
• Recognise where further analysis is required and produce the necessary data and commentary to enable business decisions to be taken.
• Ensure the commercial staff feel supported and challenged on financial matters.

• Identify any areas where systems or processes could be improved.
• Strengthen the effectiveness of existing systems, improve quality and consistency of outputs, introduce efficiencies, obtain best value and reduce unnecessary workload.
• Work with the commercial managers to maximise the amount of relevant and accurate financial information that can be produced from the software packages in operation.
• Improve the information provided to colleagues, reduce complexity and ensure processes, information and reports are understood by all stakeholders.

• Gain a full understanding of the drivers of income and expenditure to ensure actual results, year-end forecasts and future years’ budgets are prepared accurately.
• Produce, with the support of a Management Accountant, within ten working days of each month end, accurate monthly management accounts.
• Review inter-group trading and ensure the management accounts reflect an accurate position.
• Hold monthly meetings with the commercial managers to discuss the value of work done, costs incurred and resultant profitability on contracts.
• Maintain knowledge of current contracts and tenders and their expected outcomes.
• Provide training and guidance to non-finance colleagues to ensure they are aware of and are supported to perform the financial requirements of their roles.

• Produce, with the support of the Management Accountant, monthly reforecasts and annual budgets.
• Work with the operation teams to challenge assumptions and improve forecast accuracy and improved business decisions.
• Produce cash flow forecasts for the current and following year.

• Assist the Financial Accountant in the preparation of the annual statutory accounts.

• Ensure tasks are completed effectively, using the minimum amount of manual processing to achieve the result required by the business.
• Support the team in educating and helping budget owners acquire knowledge and skills to understand financial processes, budgets and deliverables.

Skills, competence, experience required:

• Qualified accountant or exceptional qualified by experience, with a high level of understanding of the responsibilities fundamental to the role.
• A minimum of two years’ experience of working within a finance department in the construction sector.
• Demonstrable experience on dealing with medium to long-term contracts, work-in-progress, reporting on cost-plus contracts, and gross profit analysis.
• Ability to manage stakeholders in specialist areas.
• Good interpersonal and communication skills, with ability to communicate effectively with stakeholders at a variety of levels, orally and in writing.
• Highly IT literate, specifically in relation to finance systems and their efficient use and development.

For more about us, visit www.ongo.co.uk. We want our organisation to reflect the communities we serve, and we actively encourage applications from candidates of all backgrounds, particularly those from groups currently under-represented in our workforce. As a Disability Confident Employer, we are committed to creating an inclusive and accessible recruitment process.