Qualified Accountant french speaker

Effigest is a French accountancy firm with 5 offices (France, UK, Portugal), 900 clients and 60+ staff.

Our model is to provide our clients with a fully-outsourced accounting, tax and bookkeeping service using SAGE L50.

We are looking for an experienced Practice Manager to lead our office in a prime West End location. The successful candidate will be ACA or ACCA qualified with a minimum of 5 years experience in general practise and must be fluent (both spoken and written) in both French and English (a working knowledge of Portuguese would be “nice to have”).

In addition to communicating with the UK clients, it is a key requirement that the successful candidate will be able to talk and write -in French- to our French existing & prospective clients about their UK business and how UK tax and accounting practise and requirements will be applied thereto.

The London office currently has a promising client base. We are hiring a new team for September. 

The London office already offers a varied and exciting client base – property and construction, media, marketing & communications and consultants.

Job Content

• As a result of the French HQ’s sales & marketing activities, lead the new business locally from these referrals and foster client development activities for French, Portuguese and UK clients
• Manage all output to ensure all client tax and statutory filings are done in an accurate and timely manner

That would include, inter alia:

• Advising & servicing of clients on a daily basis
• Attendance at monthly and other ad-hoc finance meetings with clients
• Management of in-house team and junior apprentices
• Preparation / review of quarterly management and annual statutory accounts (both limited company and charity formats)
• Preparation / review of management accounts
• Preparation / review of quarterly VAT returns
• Preparation / review of Self Assessment Tax Returns including CGT, IHT and CIS.

Skills, Knowledge and Experience

• Broad general practise experience needed of limited companies, sole traders, SATR’s, VAT, CIS
• Working knowledge of Payroll process and establishment
• Working knowledge of Sage L50 preferred  (or equivalent) to produce client management accounts and maintain their books on a fully outsourced basis
• Ability to communicate professionally and efficiently face to face and by email and spoken word with all types of clients in both French and English (Portuguese “nice to have”)
• Patient and thorough approach to training and developing apprentices and more junior staff on all aspects of client work

The ideal applicant will realise the potential of this role. The goal is to drive the growth of the client base quickly and profitably in a highly commercial marketing led environment.