Summary

• Management Accountant
• Edinburgh
• February 2020 Start
• Temp 6 month
• £40-£45k

Background to the Opportunity

The opportunity has arisen for a Management Accountant to join our client’s Finance Team. It is a temporary role working with the a leading University the city centre of Edinburgh. Interviews to be held in the first week in February.

The Role:

Reporting to the Senior Finance Manager and based full-time on the Edinburgh campus, the role holder will have the core responsibility for the management and delivery of various planning, budgeting and reporting exercises required by the University for the Professional Services area. These include:

• The rolling 5-Year Professional Services Financial Plan
• Ongoing Financial budgeting and monitoring timetable and outputs
• Monthly management accounts
• Quarterly year end forecasting

Additionally the role-holder has line management responsibility for a team of management accountants.

 Key Duties and Responsibilities:

Financial management and business development

Provide support to the University Secretary in financial management of the University’s Professional Services, providing insightful, timely and understandable information to the Secretary which identifies key cost drivers and control measures.

Support the University Secretary and the Directors of individual Professional Services (‘PS’) units to perform within agreed budget envelopes.

Financial budgeting and planning 

Support the University Secretary in the development of a rolling five-year financial plan for Professional Services as a whole:

• Consolidation of individual plans for each of the Services areas into a coherent single Professional Service plan.
• Undertake analytical review and trend analysis to advise the University Secretary on the alignment/compliance of individual Directorate plans with the objective of a compliant coherent, consolidated PS plan.
• Support and challenge assumptions, using professional judgement and experience
• Take the leading role in pre-planning and Planning Round meetings for Professional Services, adhering to the timetable and process defined by the Finance Manager (Planning).
• Ensure that action points flowing from planning rounds meetings are followed up and resolved timeously with relevant Management Accountants/Directors of Professional Services ahead of the University Planning Round.

Management Accounting, Analysis and Reporting  

Manage the production of timely monthly management accounting information for Professional Services including:

• Management of the team responsible for preparation, ensuring consistent standard
• identification and analysis of key financial trends, including quarterly reforecasts of year-end outturn
• identification and analysis of material variances against budget.
• creation of a value-add commentary on the financial performance of Professional Services for inclusion in the University’s consolidated monthly management accounting pack,
• creation, analysis and reconciliation of certain local balance sheet items

Continuous Improvement 

The role-holder will be expected to optimise the service that the finance function provides to the University Secretary and Directors of Professional Services and to drive efficiency improvements by removing duplication and wasted effort. With a clear understanding of the needs of customers, the role-holder will work to provide an effective service level delivery. In doing so the role-holder will be expected to work closely with other Finance colleagues to ensure that transactional support is delivered in a controlled, effective and efficient manner utilising the University’s corporate accounting system (Oracle) and agreed processes within the Services.

The role-holder must also keep up to date with trends in reporting and performance management, propose improvements to their line manager, and deliver process or reporting improvements as agreed.

Financial Analysis and Data

Preparation of University’s Financial Statements:

• Assign responsibilities among the Management Accounting team for production of elements of the notes, and drive delivery within deadlines.

Leadership of professional services finance team

Manage the team of management accountants who support individual service functions within Professional Services:

• ensuring that they operate to a uniform, consistent standard, with appropriate distribution of workload;
• continually reviewing the team’s organisational structure and capability set to ensure they are maintained at optimum efficiency and effectiveness; and
• addressing all aspects of people management, objective setting, development and review across the team.

Relationship management

The role-holder influences and challenges the decision-making of the Secretary and senior colleagues by providing persuasive professional financial expertise and challenge.  They resolve issues and facilitate solutions where disagreement exists across a range of stakeholders.They may be required to liaise with a broad range of external parties, including internal and external auditors.

Internal/External Relationships

The role holder will have frequent interaction with staff at all levels, including:

• University Secretary
• Director of Finance, Deputy Director of Finance
• Heads of Finance on overseas campuses
• Finance Managers across the University
• Management Accountants
• Key Finance Office staff (Financial Accountants, Systems Accountants,)

 Education & Qualifications

• Nationally recognised accountancy qualification e.g. CA, ACA, CPFA, CIMA, ACCA
• Qualified to degree standard.

Experience

• At least five years of post-qualification financial and management accounting experience within a large, complex organisation.
• Has managed budgeting and strategic planning within a complex environment.
• Has developed business cases with non-finance professionals and presented these at senior level.
• Has managed a team including both qualified and non-qualified finance professionals.
• Proven experience of working as part of a multidisciplinary team.
• Has extensive experience of working with and influencing senior management.

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