Finance Manager

Hybrid Patterd:

Salary: Up to £75,000 (DOE) + discretionary bonus + benefits

We are proud to be working with an independent professional services company based in Wimbledon, who are looking to add a Finance Manager to join their team. This is a newly created role and a great opportunity for someone with experience in the professional services sector to shape the finance function as the business grows.

The Business

Our client is an independent professional services company. Founded in 2000, it has grown from two people to a team of 60, and works with FTSE 100 companies, charities and privately owned businesses. Growth has come both organically and through acquisitions, and the business has ambitious plans for the future. Collaboration and pragmatism sit at the heart of the culture. It is a friendly, supportive team with a flat structure, where people are trusted to get on with things and add value while keeping a good work-life balance. It has been named a Sunday Times Best Place to Work for the last four years and reports consistently high employee engagement.

The Role

This is an exciting opportunity for an ambitious, qualified accountant who enjoys combining technical excellence with commercial partnering and wants to help shape a growing professional services business. As a newly created role, it offers genuine influence over how finance is run.

Reporting to the Head of Operations, you will:

• Lead the day-to-day finance function and manage a Billing Administrator and a Bookkeeper,
• Work closely with the Head of Operations to strengthen financial governance and drive continuous improvement across finance processes and systems
• Produce timely, accurate monthly management accounts and MI for the Executive Management Team and Board, supported by meaningful variance analysis
• Maintain balance sheet reconciliations, ensuring all balances are understood and differences resolved
• Support quarterly and year-end reporting, prepare audit schedules, and assist with statutory accounts under UK GAAP, liaising with the external auditors
• Take ownership of the budgeting and business planning process, producing quarterly and rolling forecasts and scenario modelling to support commercial decisions
• Work with budget holders to explain results and improve their financial understanding
• Strengthen internal financial controls and oversee key reconciliations, including bank, payroll and intercompany balances
• Monitor debtor ageing and support timely billing and collection
• Support VAT returns, PAYE reviews and other regulatory requirements
• Partner with the heads of the client-facing service lines to monitor financial performance, utilisation, work in progress and contract profitability
• Provide financial input into pricing, fee proposals and commercial decisions, and produce profitability analysis by client, project and service line
• Lead initiatives to reduce manual processing, support system integrations and the implementation of new finance tools, and help deliver a two-week month-end reporting timetable

About You

You will be a fully qualified accountant (ACA, ACCA or CIMA) with Professional Services experience and:

• Proven experience producing monthly management accounts
• A strong understanding of UK GAAP and financial reporting requirements
• Experience of budgeting, forecasting and financial planning
• Advanced Excel skills and experience with finance systems (Xero, Syft or similar is advantageous)
• Strong analytical skills, first-rate numeracy and excellent attention to detail
• Experience supervising or mentoring junior staff, or strong potential to do so
• The ability to explain financial information clearly to non-finance colleagues
• Professional services experience is a must.

The Package

• Salary of up to £75,000 depending on experience, with an annual salary review
• Discretionary annual bonus
• Medical cash plan and life assurance (4x basic salary)
• Employee assistance programme, including mental health support and a 24/7 virtual GP
• 25 days holiday plus bank holidays, with the option to buy or sell holiday, plus an additional day for your birthday, a volunteering day and extra days over the Christmas shutdown