Client Reporting Analyst

Shoosmiths - UK Law Firm of the Year Winner at the Legal Week British Legal Awards 2015.

A leading UK law firm with a network of offices from the South Coast to Scotland, working together as one national team. An innovative practice and the first top 100 law firm to achieve “Gold Standard” Investors in People, our values and culture are not just words on our website but are the heartbeat of the firm. The lack of barriers between departments, a real lack of hierarchy, zero tolerance for arrogance and pomposity makes Shoosmiths a fantastic place to work.

Our finance team are committed to providing an efficient and accurate service to our legal advisors and to other support functions.  At the centre of this is ensuring that the client and office accounts are kept up to date and invoices are produced accurately and in a timely manner.

Shoosmiths’ Finance department are seeking a Client Reporting Analyst to join the Financial Planning & Analysis team. This is a brand new role which will be responsible for providing financial management support for commercial client relationships which are driving the firm's income and profitability. In addition, you will work closely with the relationship management team within Business Development and have regular liaison with the client partners and lead partners who manage the firm's client relationships.

Client Reporting

• Attend client team and account manager meetings to understand key clients (their structure, the work we do, their priorities etc.)
• Work with Client Partners/Relationship Managers to understand client reporting and financial requirements
• Circulate client matter status reports to the internal client team with clear instructions on how to update the report and deadlines
• Consider ways to improve the reporting process to minimise Legal Adviser input
• Identify areas to develop new report templates to offer clients
• Responsible for the production and delivery of
  • The quarterly Matrix report of all client billing by work type which drives the quarterly relationship statements for clients and the internal account updates which our client teams use to drive income growth. Time critical, short deadline after Q-end.
  • Mini matrix reports for individual clients which are sent to coincide with the client's financial year end. Time critical, short deadlines.
  • Regular bespoke client reports - e.g. Thomas Cook.
  • Detailed monthly relationship reports for the banks
  • Other intermittent / ad hoc reports to clients as required

Financial Support for client relationships via Client Partners and Relationship Managers

• Help to implement systems (such as level banding) to assist with internal rates management
• Speak to clients about the set-up and management of reports
• Provide MI and coaching advice to help assist client partners with responses to fee challenges and other pricing issues
• Client rebate management including regular reports on whether clients are paying within payment terms
• Assessment of profitability of segments of work
• Regular review of client relationships in the context of client life cycles and the predictability of income (with BD)

General

• To share client feedback and other ideas with the MI team and Finance management team to explore ways to improve how we provide financial information to clients
• To meet with clients on an ad hoc basis to look at best practice ways of working

The ideal candidate will hold an accountancy qualification (ACA, ACCA, CIMA, or ACMA) and have excellent reporting and analytical skills, with a strong proficiency in Excel (including Pivot Tables and Vlookup). Furthermore, you will have the ability to communicate with stakeholders at all levels and be able to develop reports that are understandable but presented in an interesting format. As this is a brand new role, you will have the drive and motivation to work to you own initiative and to make your mark. 

Essential skills:

• Part-Qualified / Finalist Accountancy Qualification (ACA, ACCA, CIMA, or ACMA)
• Strong analytical ability with a keen eye for detail
• High level of precision and accuracy
• Able to manipulate data
• Develop reports that are meaningful and understandable but are presented in an interesting / creative format
• Advanced excel (pivot tables / VLOOKUP)
• Strong communication skills to liaise with partners, clients and BD relationship managers
• Organised, able to prioritise and manage numerous tasks
• Able to work on own initiative but a team player

Desirable skills:

• Qualified Accountant
• Working knowledge and experience of report development using SAP and / or Business Explorer (BEx).
• Previous experience working within a law firm or professional services company

Benefits package

Shoosmiths has an outstanding benefits package; we believe that all staff should be rewarded for their commitment to the continued success of the firm. These can include:

• A pension scheme with employer contributions of up to 5.5%
• Generous life assurance cover for peace of mind, up to 8 times salary
• Up to 23 paid working days holiday per annum with the option to buy up to 8 additional days. You can choose to 'flex' twice a year - January and July
• 'Happy Birthday!' - have a free day off to celebrate and a £50 voucher to spend! (We won't take it from your annual entitlement)
• Childcare vouchers which are not subject to tax or NI
• Interest free season ticket loans
• Staff introduction bonus scheme
• Corporate discounts on a wide variety of products and services
• Discounted conveyancing and legal advice, for instance for wills and family trusts

If you'd like to enquire about the salary, please feel free to get in touch with me via matthew.mercer@shoosmiths.co.uk or 03700 863 267. 

The application process

We will aim to respond to you within 3-4 working days following your application. If successful, you will be contacted by a member of our recruitment team for an informal telephone discussion. There will be one interview stage which will be held at our Northampton office.

Interested but have further questions? Get in touch with me directly via email (matthew.mercer@shoosmiths.co.uk), phone (03700 863 267) or LinkedIn (https://www.linkedin.com/in/matthew-mercer-91811a25). 

Equal opportunities

Shoosmiths is a committed Equal Opportunities employer promoting equality of opportunity. This means that everyone who either applies to or works for the firm is treated equally, whatever their gender, age, ethnic origin, nationality, marital status, disability, sexual orientation or religious beliefs.

Background Checks

Due to the nature of the work undertaken, confirmation of employment will be subject to a variety of checks which will be carried out once an offer of employment is accepted. These checks will include employment references covering the last 5 years, proof of ID, proof of address covering the last 5 years, Personnel Vetting credit search(which will only highlight insolvency or County Court Judgements - should any adverse data show on the Personnel Vetting search then any offer of employment made will be withdrawn). Terrorism Check (against data supplied by the Bank of England) and a Criminal Records check.

Shoosmiths is a committed Equal Opportunities employer promoting equality of opportunity. This means that everyone who either applies to or works for the firm is treated equally, whatever their gender, age, ethnic origin, nationality, marital status, disability, sexual orientation or religious beliefs.