Head of Financial Reporting - Wiltshire College
- Recruiter
- Michael Page
- Location
- Wiltshire, Trowbridge
- Salary
- £40000 - £42000 per annum
- Posted
- 16 Oct 2017
- Closes
- 26 Oct 2017
- Ref
- 13847025/001
- Contact
- Sophie Willis
- Job role
- Accountant, Chief accountant, Finance manager, Financial accountant, Financial controller, Group accountant, Head of finance
- Sector
- Public sector
- Contract type
- Permanent
- Hours
- Part time
- Experience level
- Director
The Head of Financial Reporting will be a competent qualified accountant, with a demonstrable track record of managing relationships with senior non-finance budget holders.
Client Details
Wiltshire College is the main provider of further and higher education in Wiltshire and is fast on its way to becoming outstanding having achieved a 'good' Ofsted grade in June 2015. Based across the county on 4 main campuses, Trowbridge, Chippenham, Salisbury and Lackham, and with 4 smaller centres. The College offers an extensive range of courses at all levels and has ambitious plans for growth in a region with exciting potential.
As part of these ambitious growth plans, the college has recently secured over £20 million to develop Salisbury and Lackham campuses, the new developments will provide students with world-class environments and enable greater involvement and engagement with local employers.
The funding will enable the building of a Construction, Life Sciences and Engineering Centre, as well as a higher education centre in Salisbury. The funding will also aim to boost the rural economy near the Lackham Campus, by the investment in an Agricultural Technology Centre and a higher education centre which will also house incubation space for land-based businesses. These additions will allow the college to introduce new curriculum and accommodate more learners.
Wiltshire College are now looking to appoint a strong leader as Head of Financial Reporting to support the growth of the business moving forward.
Description
Key responsibilities:
- Lead the preparation of the College's financial reporting, including its management accounts, forecasts, and annual financial statements.
- Build long lasting and successful relationships with non-finance stakeholders at all levels; with an emphasis on professional confidence and the ability to challenge and advise budget holders.
- Play a key role in preparing the annual budget and medium-term financial plans.
- Lead, development and review systems within the Finance Team to improve effectiveness, efficiency, and value for money.
- Contribute to quality improvement within the Finance Team by providing advice and support to two Management Accountants.
- Continuous development and reviews of systems and procedures.
- Development of staff
Detailed Responsibilities:
- Produce fully reviewed drafts of the management accounts, forecasts, budgets, and annual financial statements, undertaking variance analysis, analytical reviews and discussions with Managers, as appropriate.
- Devise and publish the monthly timetable for the production of the management accounts, ensuring that the Finance Team are aware of their contributing requirements.
- Assist with developing monitoring systems to improve the quality and timeliness of the College's management accounts, budgeting, forecasting and financial statements preparation.
- Manage the preparation of the audit evidence files within agreed deadlines.
- Manage the Payroll Team and their interaction with the HR Team on all payroll and pension matters, ensuring appropriate internal segregation of duties, compliance with HMRC legislation and reporting requirements and that the College's payroll costs are accurately recorded, forecast and budgeted, and that the payroll is processed in line with agreed internal and external deadlines.
- Improve the timeliness and accuracy of the College's financial reporting to its stakeholders, delivering training to Non-Financial staff, where appropriate.
- Lead, as directed, on reviews of the Finance Team's operations, ensuring that financial and management accounting reporting procedures are documented, authorised and regularly reviewed.
- Manage the financial reporting of all externally funded projects to ensure the regularity of expenditure and timeliness of claiming grant funding.
- Keep up to date with changes in accounting policies, and ensure that Finance systems are updated as appropriate, to ensure full and timely compliance.
Profile
Qualifications:
- Fully qualified accountant: ACA/ACCA/ACMA.
- To hold or be willing to work towards a Degree level qualification relevant to the role.
Experience and skills:
- Proven financial leadership skills with an emphasis on building effective working relationships, at all levels within an organisation will be key to the success of this role.
- Experience of large scale accounting packages.
- Advanced Excel skills (skilled in pivot tables and charts), Word intermediate (creating tables and professional formatting of reports.)
- Proven experience in liaising with internal and external auditors, HRMC, bankers and professional advisers.
- Experience in the education sector (desirable.)
- Have experience of supporting individuals to meet agreed objectives and milestones.
Job Offer
- A basic salary of £40,000-£42,000
- 30 days annual leave, exclusive of bank holidays and up to 5 discretionary College closure days.
- Access to the Local Government Pension Scheme.