Finance Manager (Part-Time)

Winlight Recruitment is an established London-based recruitment agency supplying social care, housing and qualified social work professionals to local authorities and public-sector clients across the UK. We run a weekly temporary payroll of around 250 contractors across two divisions, supported by an outsourced payroll and back-office partner.

We sit within a small, privately owned and growing group of companies, including a holding company, a sister recruitment company, an international healthcare recruitment business, an interiors and design business and a number of smaller companies. The group is expanding, and this role will grow with it.

The role

We are bringing our core accounting and financial reporting in-house, and we are looking for a Finance Manager to own it. You will be the finance lead the directors turn to week to week, working alongside our Fractional CFO. Transactional payroll, invoicing, credit control and other time-sensitive elements stay with our outsourced partner, and routine finance admin (data pulls, journals, reconciliations and report building) is automated wherever possible, so your time goes on review, insight and advising the directors. Automations are already in place across the group; we are looking for someone with the curiosity and drive to keep making improvements that increase business insight and efficiency.

Key responsibilities

• Prepare monthly management accounts for each group company, with a consolidated group view, and produce the monthly board pack (KPIs, results against budget and prior year, full-year outlook and normalised EBITDA).
• Post payroll and overhead journals in Xero, and complete the monthly debtors reconciliation, including invoice-finance and client self-billing positions.
• Account for and reconcile intercompany recharges and balances and keep directors’ loan account and dividend records across the group.
• Maintain the weekly group cash-flow forecast with commentary for the CEO, lead the annual budget and keep a rolling forecast.
• Act as the main contact for our invoice-finance provider and support funding discussions as the group grows.
• Prepare quarterly MTD VAT returns, P11Ds, the PAYE Settlement Agreement and the ERS return, and keep a group compliance calendar.
• Review the group's tax position and own the relationship with HMRC.
• Prepare year-end packs for each company and work with the external accountants through to signed statutory accounts.
• Be the day-to-day finance contact for our outsourced payroll and back-office provider, reviewing their outputs and holding them to agreed service levels.
• Proactively review commission schemes and their alignment with business goals.
• Build and challenge business cases for investment (company or technology), including the return on investment of technology spend.
• Set up finance for businesses joining the group and bring them into group reporting, including those on other ledgers such as QuickBooks.

About you

• ACCA, CIMA or ACA qualified or part-qualified, or qualified by experience.
• At least 3-5 years producing management accounts in an SME and owning month-end.
• Experience across more than one company, including intercompany and consolidated reporting.
• Strong Xero experience and advanced Excel skills.
• Hands‑on VAT (MTD) and year-end experience, including working with external accountants.
• Confident presenting numbers to non-finance directors and challenging where needed.
• Open to working with automated processes and AI tools. Experience is desirable.
• Recruitment or staffing sector experience (temporary payroll, margin reporting, self-billing, umbrella and limited‑company contractors), or experience in another people-based service business.
• Experience with invoice finance or factoring.
• Experience managing an outsourced finance or payroll provider.
• QuickBooks experience, or bringing newly acquired businesses into group reporting.

What we offer

• Salary: £60,000-£70,000 per annum, pro rata (full-time equivalent). For 25 hours a week that is c. £38,000-£44,000 actual, based on our 39.5‑hour full-time week.
• Hours: part‑time, 25 hours a week across five days, typically 11am to 4pm (Thursday 9am to 2pm), with flexibility on timings. Workload varies week to week and is busier around month‑end and year‑end. Scope to increase hours as the group grows. Some hours are worked each day so weekly tasks are always covered, and holiday is planned around month‑end deadlines.
• Permanent, fully remote.

#J-18808-Ljbffr