Finance Accountant

Job Description

An exciting opportunity has arisen for a qualified financial accountant to join our Cash Accounting team supporting the Next UK online and retail businesses. Based at our Leicestershire Head Office, our UK Cash Accounting team is responsible for delivering finance support to key stakeholders across the business for a variety of purposes including;

• Producing insightful reporting for key Business Stakeholders
• Cash flow monitoring and 3rd party management
• Supporting systems projects to deliver customer improvements
• Analysis of new payment options performance
• Supporting the onboarding of new Next Total Platform partners

In this role you will be responsible for a team of 2 Assistant Accountants and 2 team members who are based in Pune. As a team you are responsible for all the cash accounting for the UK side of the business and you will be the lead the day to day management of this team to ensure effectiveness and efficiency.

Next is a dynamic and fast growing business, to succeed in this role you must be happy in a fast-moving, fluid, ever-changing environment. You will need a mixture of solid financial / management accounting skills, coupled with financial analysis to maintain core financial controls, support Key Stakeholders and business initiatives.

You are ideally someone who thinks about the impact on the Customer and wider Business, a person that above all values the need for procedure, control and auditability.

This role is definitely for someone with a Finance Operations background rather than commercial as it is more of an operational management role and we are also looking for someone with strong people management skills.

The role is based at our head office in Enderby, Leicestershire and initially it will be predominantly office based but once you are trained up you will have the opportunity to work in a hybrid capacity.

About the role

1. Team Management

• Responsibility for the management and development of a team of 4 (2 UK and 2 Pune heads)

2. Financial Management

• Day to Day Management of UK Cash inflows (Online and Retail) c. £14m per day / £5bn p.a across c. 140m transactions.
• Responsibility over the bank charges and commission p/l line c. £15m p.a.
• Ownership and review of 70+ balance sheet reconciliations.
• Preparation of accurate and timely P&L and balance sheet budgets / forecasts.
• Management of daily and weekly cash flow reporting.
• Responsible for the investigation into both P&L and Balance Sheet variances

3. Business Information

• Lead on the development of new reporting required to support the information provided to new TP partners.
• Manage the reporting of branch transactions and online models through the Branch and directory reconciliation tools.
• Management of relationships with third party payment providers e.g. Worldpay and Paypal.
• Ownership of the teams’ relationship with external auditors to ensure the audit process is streamlined and efficient.

4. Projects

• Identify changes in existing processes to streamline and improve the controls framework underpinning the UK cash accounting team.
• Support with the onboarding of new Total Platform partners.
• Provide post implementation analysis using complex excel models or SQL.
• A broad role which will encompass a wide range of financial, operational and management duties
• Ensure all Debtor and Cash movements are correctly accounted for
• Maintain control over VAT records and routinely review in light of new projects
• Identification and evaluation of FX charges
• Budgeting and forecasting both P&L and Balance Sheet impacts
• Responsible for the investigation into both P&L and Balance Sheet variances
• Liaison with external auditors to ensure a smooth and efficient audit process
• Provide Ad Hoc analysis as required to support business initiatives or payment incident resolution
• Mentor and support a part qualified accountant and also our extended team in India
• Support project delivery and post implementation analysis

What we are looking for:

• A pro-active and hands on qualified Accountant (ACCA/CIMA or equivalent) with proven experience in a large company, working cross functionally with proven ability to deliver to strict deadlines.
• Experience leading and developing teams.
• The ability to work productively, efficiently and effectively, maintaining attention to detail and quality
• Excellent planning & organisation skills
• Demonstrates self motivation and an ability to work on own initiative and is confident making decisions
• Excellent written and verbal skills, coupled with the ability to comfortably present to all levels
• Strong influencing and negotiation skills.
• The willingness to learn, improve and adapt to changing business needs.
• Strong analytical and problem solving skills with the ability to think outside the box.
• Exceptional working knowledge of MS Office (esp. MS Excel) suite of products, Google Gsuite is desirable
• SQL & Microsoft SSMS is experience is desirable

Benefits:

• 25 days holiday plus BH (from 1st April 2022), can buy up to 3 days from 2022. Holiday calendar runs 1st April-31st March
• Bonus - company performance dependent
• Sharesave scheme
• Pension 3% Employer/ 5% Employee (you can top up)
• 25% staff discount and free next day delivery to desk for online purchases
• Gympass
• Subsidised restaurant, bar, coffee shops and Starbuck stations, all onsite
• Free car parking
• Simplyhealth - discounted health care plan on dental/optical
• Outstanding parking subsidised Nursery onsite
• Staff shop onsite

ABOUT US

You know Next, but did you know we’re a FTSE-100 retail company employing over 35,000 people across the UK and Ireland. We’re the UK’s 2nd largest fashion retailer and for Kidswear we’re the market leader. At the last count we have over 500 stores, plus the Next Online and it’s now possible to buy on-line from over 70 countries around the world! So we’ve gone global!

• ​25% off a huge selection of Next, Lipsy & Victoria's Secret products
• Company performance based bonus
• Sharesave scheme
• On-site Nursery available; OFSTED outstanding in all areas
• 10% off most partner brands & up to 15% off Branded Beauty
• Early VIP access to sale stock
• Access to fantastic discounts at our Staff Shops
• Subsidised restaurant, coffee shop and juice bar
• Access a 24/7 digital GP and other free health and wellbeing services
• Free on-site parking

Our aim is to support all applicants during the application process and to provide reasonable adjustments when ​​necessary and requested. If you would like to request support with your application due to any health condition, feel free to get in touch with us by calling us on 0116 284 6858 and leave a voicemail.

For further information, and to apply, please visit our website via the “Apply” button below.