ROLE: Business Analyst

LOCATION: Central London

SALARY: £40000 - £45000

TYPE: Permanent

INDUSTRY: Publishing

This role is suitable for a finalist accountant with a couple of exams remaining to become qualified.

As a senior member of the finance team reporting to the Head of Management Accounts. This role has ownership for the timely and accurate delivery of the month end reporting. You will play an integral role alongside the FP&A and Commercial team in developing the overheads annual budget and understanding the key drivers.

You will also work closely with the rest of the Finance department (in particular the FP&A, Commercial and Shared Service teams) in order to carry out the key responsibilities and ensure consistency and best practice is developed and maintained across the function. This role will play an integral part within the Management Accounts team where success is driven from problem solving, communication, accounting knowledge and innovation.

RESPONSIBILITIES

• Establish and maintain strong working relationships with key stakeholders
• Responsibility for completing the month end management accounts process, including the review and understanding of all variances within the individual P&Ls for each business unit; with a focus on retrospective but also forward looking variance analysis versus the latest budget or forecast, for presentation to Commercial management & the Senior Finance Stakeholders.
• Month end tasks include accurate preparation and posting of month end accruals & deferrals, reviewing & ownership of the output of the management accountant and provision of insightful and analytical commentary to the business.
• Preparation of the annual budget, and three re-forecasts each year, for each business area. Working closely with the commercial teams to ensure that the budget is accurate, and all resultant deliverables are understood & communicated clearly. This role will also be involved in putting together the quarterly presentation of the budget/reforecast which is presented to the CFO and CEO for sign off.
• Ownership of incentive schemes within business units, in partnership with Commercial Finance Manager, including design, implementation & calculation of results.
• Commercial Finance support through the provision on strategic review of each proposed deal, regular maintenance of activity trackers
• Ad hoc projects, for example profitability analysis of individual business units, as required by both Finance and Commercial Management.
• Ensuring financial awareness is high throughout the business units being supported, with provision of ad hoc training and support where necessary.
• Line management of the Management Accountant in external office, including provision of support to ensure continued personal and professional development.

REQUIREMENTS

• A technically strong, latter-stage part-qualified Accountant (CIMA preferred, ACA, ACCA considered) with minimum 1-2 years' experience in a commercial environment.
• Able to build good relationships with key stakeholders at a senior level.
• Excellent communications skills both within Finance & the wider business. The individual will need to build relationships with stakeholders within the business to produce key deliverables.
• Excellent Excel skills - VLOOKUP, PIVOT, general ability to distil and analyse high volumes of information in a clear & insightful way.
• Ability to work under pressure and to tight deadlines in a dynamic environment
• Ability to use initiative to find alternative ways of solving problems.
• Ability to work autonomously but not afraid to speak up, ask for help and elevate issues as appropriate to Finance Manager.
• Strong organisation and planning skills, combined with good attention to detail.
• Financial Systems literate; experience of Essbase & Oracle desirable