Finance Manager in Portishead

Primary location: Portishead
Working hours: Full-time
Hybrid working available: Yes
Salary : Competitive

• Ready for an opportunity to lead and develop a finance team of three?
• Do you want to own the month-end close, the year-end and the annual audit end to end?
• Could you help build and automate a finance function ready to scale with the business?

Viper Innovations is a King’s Award-winning engineering technology company partnered with The Institution of Engineering and Technology (IET). We deliver advanced monitoring and asset integrity solutions that protect mission-critical electrical systems in subsea energy, rail, and industrial sectors worldwide.

The Role

This is a hands-on Finance Manager role with real ownership. You will run the day-to-day financial operations of the business, deliver the month-end close to working day 8, lead the year-end and the annual audit, and coordinate and develop a transactional finance team of three.

You will report to the Financial Controller and also work closely with the Finance Director and Tax Manager. Alongside the core reporting cycle, you will lead the adoption of technology across the transactional team — identifying what can be automated, improved or customised within Dynamics 365 Business Central rather than worked around. If you want a management role with genuine scope to change how the work gets done, this is the one.

Key Responsibilities Include

• Ensure all transactions are properly recorded in Dynamics 365 Business Central, with accuracy and completeness of data at source for onward reporting.
• Prepare the consolidated monthly group management accounts and analysis for review by the Financial Controller and Finance Director, and coordinate and review the standalone monthly accounts.
• Manage the month-end process to working day 8, explaining significant variances to budget and forecast and reporting on agreed KPIs.
• Own the integrity of the balance sheet, strengthening controls, reconciliations and processes to keep financial reporting accurate and robust.
• Provide financial oversight of the end-to-end sales process, ensuring strong controls, accurate revenue recognition and timely cash collection.
• Ensure VAT, payroll and foreign taxes are properly recorded and reported, and monitor stock movements so sub-ledger to general ledger reconciliations are completed and variances resolved.
• Lead and supervise the monthly payroll process, with the ability to cover for the payroll assistant where required.
• Lead the financial year-end: audit preparation, coordination of statutory accounts and liaison with external advisers, and support for the year-end tax, R&D and Patent Box process alongside the Tax Manager.
• Support and improve treasury processes, maintaining accurate visibility of cash balances and deposits and proactively managing surplus cash within covenant boundaries.
• Coordinate, develop and lead a transactional finance team of three — setting performance goals, running appraisals, and mentoring and coaching the team’s skills development.
• Lead the adoption of technology across the finance transaction team, identifying opportunities to automate and improve processes, and build the Business Central knowledge and supplier relationship needed to resolve finance and wider business queries.

What We Are Looking For

• Qualified member of an accountancy body (e.g. ACA, ACCA, CIMA) with 1–2 years’ post-qualification experience.
• Honours degree or equivalent in a suitable discipline, and/or proven work experience in line with the skills and knowledge required for the role.
• Preparation, completion and presentation of financial and management accounts, with a working knowledge of statutory accounts and tax.
• Experience of group accounting and accounts consolidation.
• Experience of developing and mentoring junior staff.
• Technology-curious, with a demonstrable interest in ERP, BI, automation and AI-enabled ways of working, and the appetite to drive best practice into the team.

– Desirable, but not essential

• Experience of Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central, or a comparable ERP.
• Experience of running or supervising a monthly payroll process.
• Exposure to treasury, cash management or covenant reporting.
• Experience in a group with overseas operations or foreign taxes.

What’s in it for you?

• 26 days holiday plus bank holidays (with the option to buy or sell 5 additional days)
• Life assurance
• Critical illness insurance
• Attractive contributory pension scheme
• Cycle to work scheme/volunteering scheme/electric car scheme available
• Hybrid & flexible working arrangements: We offer a balanced hybrid working model, with three days based in the office and two days working remotely. Our flexible working hours include core hours from 10am to 3pm, allowing employees to structure their start and finish times.
• Bonus Scheme to celebrate the company’s successes

If you are ready to step into a management role where you own the numbers, lead the team and get to change how the work is done, we’d love to hear from you!

Note on Sponsorship: We regret to inform you that at this time, we are unable to offer sponsorship for work authorisation for this role. Therefore, candidates must possess valid authorisation to work in the UK without requiring visa sponsorship.

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