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.
Want to find more about our amazing benefits?
The opportunity:
We now have a fixed-term opportunity for an Assistant Financial Accountant to join the Financial Control team within the FR&A team.
This is key role in the Financial & Reporting Analysis (‘FR&A’) team reporting to the Financial Accountant with the principal objective of supporting the Financial Accountant and Financial Controller to deliver robust, timely, accurate management and financial information, improve ledger integrity and accounting control, provide MI commentary and deliver operational cost and capital spend forecasting with specific responsibility for own tasks and deliverables
This role will be offered on a fixed term of 12 months.
Your key duties will be:
- maintaining the Prepayment register, processing the monthly releases journal, liaising with the AP team regarding any queries in relation to values and evidencing year end prepayments
- maintaining the Accruals register, processing the monthly journals in relation to additions and releases and reviewing balances being held at year end. Liaising with the AP team to identify accruals needed as part of month end and year end cut off
- processing monthly VAT payments and Quarterly VAT returns in conjunction with the Financial Accountant
- maintaining the Fixed Asset Register and liaising with the Financial Accountant in relation to appropriate depreciation, write offs, balance sheet evidence and providing capex reporting to the relevant business personnel
- regularly monitoring all expense and capital related nominal control account balances to ensure ledger integrity and all balances are accurate and sufficiently evidenced. Liaise with relevant team members and resolve any issues as necessary
- maintaining the IT maintenance and support contract reports and liaise with IT and AP regarding contract expirations and renewals
- engaging with stakeholders of the firm where appropriate to understand reporting needs e.g. Head of Facilities
- assisting the Financial Accountant and Financial Controller with the operational cost and capital forecasting process
- maintaining the cash analysis spreadsheet and reporting on a weekly and monthly basis or as required and ensuring it is reflective of future cash commitments of the business
- supporting the Head of Member Services with supporting detail and analysis for the preparation of the partnership tax return
- processing relevant journals
- linking up and working with other teams e.g. AP to improve ledger integrity, monthly accounting processes and financial and regulatory control
- working with the Financial Accountant in the production of monthly balance sheet reconciliations
- supporting the Financial Accountant in the production and delivery of the monthly and annual TB to the Financial Controller and assisting with the relevant analysis, schedules, variance analysis and commentary on key movements
- supporting the Financial Accountant in the production and delivery of the Firm’s Main Board and Business Unit monthly management accounts and associated monthly reports, C-Suite monthly MI and other relevant Business Operations team, Office Head and Regional Head monthly MI
- in conjunction with the Financial Accountant, having ownership and delivery of the external reporting including ONS surveys and payment practices report
- supporting the Financial Accountant and Financial Controller in the production of audit schedules and analysis and assisting during audit visits including the preparation of the first draft of the annual financial statements.
- to deputise for the Financial Accountant, as required and where appropriate
- to engage and support the implementation of the new TM1 reporting software and new practice management system
- to provide additional ad hoc financial reporting support as required by the Financial Controller and Financial Accountant to meet the needs of the business
- to support the Financial Controller and Financial Accountant in the future as the firm grows to ensure that the future group (house of brands) report all their entity results in line with group policies
- in conjunction with the Financial Accountant, taking decisions on appropriate accounting treatments on transactions and where necessary be able to present these to Financial Controller with recommendations
Skills and experience you will need:
- to be a qualified accountant or at finalist stage 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 comfortable working across a number of IT platforms, intermediate to advanced experience in Excel is essential
- ideally, experience of working within the legal sector or other professional services business and using TM1 (IBM COGnos Analytics) and Aderant Expert applications
Key competencies you will need:
- excellent interpersonal skills with the ability to build rapport, credibility and impact quickly at all levels
- flexibility and the ability to operate in a changing environment
- 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 prioritise and meet deadlines
- the ability to use initiative to work independently and as part of a team, as required
- to be an excellent communicator with an enquiring mind
- to be quick and keen to learn, adapting to new systems and processes and developing as the role evolve
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. |
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. |
