Let us introduce ourselves…
It is the people at Shakespeare Martineau that make us so special. By understanding what our people want, giving them the support they need, recognising everyone’s contribution and realising the unique power of teams; together we win. As a firm we are focused on proactively building and developing diverse teams, bringing different backgrounds, personalities and perspectives together. We play to our strengths, pushing ourselves to be consistently better than yesterday and deliver amazing solutions for our clients. We empower our teams with a high degree of individual responsibility; we self-manage and encourage everyone to be responsible for their own learning, knowing it makes us even better at what we do!
We believe in trusting our people to make the right decisions for themselves from how you dress to how, when and where you work – we focus on outputs.
The opportunity:
We are currently building a Financial Reporting & Analysis (‘FR&A’) team that will provide insightful financial reporting, analysis and business partner support to our Business Units and Central teams and have a brand new opportunity for a Commercial Accountant to join the team.
We’re looking for a confident individual with a proven track-record working in a similar role, to strengthen and expand our reporting and analysis capability as well as building solid business partner relationships with our incredible people.
This opportunity will initially be offered on a fixed term of 6 months.
Your key duties will be:
- supporting the Finance Business Partner in the FR&A team and Commercial Managers in the Business Units with financial analysis and reporting requirements relating to the business need; typical analysis would include:
- fees and cost forecast preparation and actual variance analysis and interpretation
- WIP and debt analysis including recoverability, actual and forecast analysis
- key client analysis including trends and profitability
- assistance with pricing for bids and tenders
- the preparation of quarterly and annual benchmarking surveys
- supporting the Finance Business Partner in the FR&A team in the supervision and development of two Finance Analysts within the team; this will include:
- assisting in the allocation of workloads
- reviewing work produced for accuracy, relevance, presentation and interpretation
- providing guidance and development support
- providing additional ad hoc financial analysis as required by the Business Unit leadership teams, partners and the Finance Business Partner and Commercial Finance Manager in the FR&A team; to include both the provision of data in a meaningful way and insightful interpretation
Skills and experience you will need:
- to be a qualified accountant with one of the following qualifications (ACA/ACCA/CIMA)
- to have demonstrable experience in a similar role, preferably in the legal or professional services sector
- to be competent in excel with the ability to handle large amounts of data accurately (e.g. must have working knowledge of Pivot Tables, Vlookups, index function)
- the ability to tailor reports to the end user and highlight and interpret key findings, turning data into information
Desirable Experience:
- experience of working within the legal sector or other professional services business
- IBM COGnos Analytics experience or similar forecasting and reporting tool
Key competencies you will need:
- excellent interpersonal skills with the ability to build rapport, credibility and impact quickly at al levels
- to be enthusiastic, positive and have a ‘can do’ approach
- a strong attention to detail with high levels of accuracy
- the attitude and ability to meet deadlines
- quick and keen to learn
- to be an excellent communicator with an enquiring mind
How we work:
We embrace agile working and offer a blended approach to where and how we work.
We appreciate that people have different needs and preferences and we’re keen to be flexible, after all, we value what you do, not where you do it.
We have hubs in Birmingham, Leicester, London, Milton Keynes, Nottingham, Solihull, Stratford-upon-Avon and Sheffield. This role will be predominantly home based with travel as required into Birmingham or one of our other West Midlands hubs. |
Please be aware, for some vacancies, where we receive high numbers of applications we may need to bring the close date forward.
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. Details of the checks can be found here.
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Shakespeare Martineau is a committed equal opportunities employer. We seek to attract, develop and retain talented people from a diverse range of backgrounds and cultures. We value and respect individuality and encourage a culture within our business where people can be themselves and be valued for their strengths and experiences. Everyone who either applies to or works for the firm is treated equally, regardless of their gender, age, ethnic origin, nationality, marital status, sexual orientation or religious beliefs. |
