Lewis Silkin is a UK top-100 commercial law firm with offices in London, Oxford, Cardiff, Dublin and Hong Kong. The firm is recognised by clients and industries alike as being distinct: for its deep understanding, insight and advice to creative, innovative and brand-focused businesses; for its market-leading international practice in employment, immigration and reward; and for delivering pragmatic, commercial advice in a refreshingly human way.
With 64 partners and more than 360+ staff, the firm is structured around two key divisions.
In employment, immigration and reward, it is consistently top-ranked, and was named HR Law Firm of the Year 2015 by the Legal 500. With over 100 lawyers, Lewis Silkin’s employment and immigration team offers an unrivalled service supporting clients, including many of the world’s leading businesses, on their HR, employment and immigration law needs domestically and internationally.
The creators, makers and innovators team is made up of leading advisers for creative, innovative and brand-focused businesses, offering a deep understanding of the industry sectors in which clients operate combined with real expertise across a wide range of legal services. From start-ups to multinationals, the firm’s comprehensive and commercially focused advice helps clients succeed in an increasingly complex and converged international marketplace. |
The Assistant Accountant is a full time role which sits within the management accounts team. The management accounts team deal with the provision of management information, external financial reporting and audit, cash flow management, purchase ledger and employee expense claim processing, compliance with VAT/PAYE regulations, oversight of payroll, and Partner related transactions.
Key Responsibilities and Duties
The Assistant Accountant role is based in our Cardiff office reporting into the Head of Cardiff Finance. The role is intended to provide varied support to the central finance team with a primary focus on cash flow management, management accounts and other internal reporting and transaction posting.
Working collaboratively with other team members, responsibilities will include:
- Cash flow management including reporting of daily balances, funding overseas accounts and monthly cash flow forecasting;
- Providing support to the management accounts reporting process including posting of prepayments and accruals, calculation and posting of depreciation and undertaking balance sheet reconciliations;
- Preparation of regular VAT returns and management accounts for the Lewis Silkin group’s smaller entities.
- Assisting with the firm’s external financial reporting, audit and regulatory returns;
- Setting up users on the Firm’s practice management and time recording systems and extraction of system data for further analysis;
- Preparation of property service charge workings, and requests for payments in respect of these;
- Setting up regular partner payments and posting these into the firm’s practice management system.
- Providing cover for the firm’s accounts payable (AP) and expenses payment processes where required.
- Ad-hoc support to the finance team as required
Experience and Skills Required
- Demonstrable accounting experience in a similar role;
- Excellent attention to detail and a consistently high level of accuracy;
- Strong technical skills including advanced Excel and experience of practice management systems or other accounting software packages;
- An understanding of VAT recovery processes;
- The ability to manage their own time, organise and take responsibility for their work, and deal with queries efficiently and promptly;
- The ability to build relationships with partners and key stakeholders across the firm;
- The knowledge and desire to identify and implement improvements to processes and procedures;
- Strong communication and influencing skills, with the ability to communicate at all levels of the organisation;
- The ability to appreciate organisational objectives, working with the rest of the team and supporting others as required to achieve these; and
- An enthusiastic and flexible approach with a ‘can do’ attitude.
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