Client Accountant Biller in London

VCCP is the global challenger network for challenger brands. With more than 1,500 people across 13 offices in North America, EMEA and APAC, we challenge convention to deliver value for the world’s most ambitious organisations. We believe transformation happens when everything works together. That’s why we bring specialists from every discipline into one fully integrated network.

Today, our clients include some of the world’s most recognisable and progressive brands, such as Virgin Media O2, Barclays, Cadbury, Compare the Market, Domino’s, White Claw, easyJet, Primark and Co-op. VCCP has topped the AAR’s annual new business ranking in 13 of the last 14 years and holds multiple Agency of the Year titles.

THE ROLE

Reporting to the Head of Sales, the position will be working in the Sales Ledger team which consists of the Sales Ledger Manager, three client finance managers and five client accountants. The purpose of the role is both to support the business with the management of client finances and to ensure finance processes and controls are adhered to. You will be given ownership of a portfolio of clients across the partnership and will be responsible for all of the jobs going through these clients. This role is essential in helping the business manage its working capital and reduce its risk, so a big focus of the role will be ensuring that billing is completed accurately and on a timely basis, accrued income is minimal, and that all third party costs are recoverable and promptly billed onto clients.

This is a diverse role that gives real responsibility and autonomy whilst also offering support of a very experienced finance community. It is an ideal position for someone looking for a highly dynamic and busy environment, with a broad remit supporting the business from a finance perspective.

DUTIES AND RESPONSIBILITIES

• Billing: For clients in the portfolio, ensure that all production and fee billing is completed accurately, on a timely basis and in-line with agreed billing schedules and contractual agreements. Assisting the credit controller in resolving aged debtor issues. Support to the wider billing team to cover holidays and absences and with any ad hoc tasks.
• WIP & Job Management: Reconciling all production costs and job related expenses, ensuring all costs are recoverable from clients. Ensuring all jobs have client PO cover before being made fully approved and work commencing. Managing the accrued income to keep to a minimum with close involvement and regular meetings with the Finance business Partners/MA teams + the Commercial team. Tracking production spend against agreed budgets highlighting potential overspends to the relevant production teams. Promptly reconciling completed jobs with the production teams, ensuring jobs are closed and any outstanding balances are correctly dealt with. Ownership of all jobs in your client portfolio, ensuring all jobs are progressing through the job lifecycle, being billed, reconciled and closed. Setting up and running regular and ad-hoc meetings with account management and production to ensure WIP issues are addressed, job statuses are clarified, final reconciliations are promptly authorised and jobs are duly closed.
• Reporting & Forecasting: Review new jobs in the finance system (Paprika) to ensure they are correctly set up as per the agreed methodology to enable accurate reporting across different retainers, brands etc.

ROLE SPECIFIC SKILLS REQUIRED

• Must be passionate and take pride in their work and be able to demonstrate excellent levels of ownership in order to effectively manage all jobs and billings across their client portfolio.
• They should thrive in a lively, dynamic and pressurised environment and have excellent workload management with the ability to prioritise and meet tight deadlines.
• Must be able to work using own initiative but also be committed to working as a team player.
• They will learn how to chair regular meetings with staff across the business and finance and so must have excellent verbal and written communication skills and be confident in order to command respect and hold the wider business to account.
• PC literate, including knowledge of Microsoft Office (Excel, Outlook & Word) + Google docs.

ABOUT YOU

• A passion for all things creative and advertising.
• Resilience to keep going in a fast paced environment.
• Thrive on working in a high energy and fast paced environment, where no two days are the same.
• Be proactive with a can-do attitude - be eager to get your sleeves rolled up and learn.
• Strive for excellence - be proud of your work and have meticulous attention to detail.
• Friendly and approachable.
• Build rapport and able to quickly establish excellent working relationships.
• Live and breathe the agency’s values.

VCCP DE&I STATEMENT

We believe that DE&I is about creating a strong culture of inclusion within our agency, where everyone can thrive and be their authentic self. VCCP is an equal opportunity employer and does not discriminate on the basis of gender, age, disability, religion, belief, sexual orientation, marital status, or ethnicity. If you require any adjustments during the application or interview process, please let us know via joinus@vccp.com.

CRIMINAL RECORDS INFORMATION

As part of our onboarding process, you will be required to complete a Criminal Records Declaration regarding any unspent convictions. For roles in finance, HR, Legal, IT or senior management, we may be required to verify your declaration with a basic DBS check, as well as an Adverse Finance and ID check.

Please note, we try to respond to as many applications as possible but, if you do not hear from us within two weeks of submitting your application, please assume we are unable to proceed with your application for this specific role. Thank you for your interest in VCCP.