Job Description

You will work in the Group Financial Planning and Analysis team, who are predominantly responsible for the provision of accurate and timely reporting, proactive analysis and relevant insight to the senior management team and Exec Board and the facilitation of the business plan, budget and quarterly forecast processes.

We are looking for an almost Qualified / Newly Qualified Accountant with strong analytical ability and attention to detail, effective management of workload and excellent communication skills and able to develop strong stakeholder relationships.

The successful candidate will support the Head of FP&A and the Group FP&A team with all aspects of the team’s deliverables, including:

Reporting and Analysis

• Delivery of financial insight to senior management to support the strategy and business plan projections and drive sustainable profit growth 
• Preparation of month end performance reports in-line with the agreed timelines, working alongside the Divisional Finance teams
• Provide insightful focused commentary, explaining the key variances to budgets and latest forecasts, supporting the preparation of the Board reports 
• Work closely with the divisional teams to understand their business area, and as a result be able to provide value added support to them and their teams
• Proactively undertake analysis to assure accuracy, quality, and timeliness of outputs, understanding drivers and identifying risks / opportunities 
• Provide support to Head of FP&A and Finance Directors with ad-hoc financial analysis, producing accurate reports to enable effective decision making
• Development of reporting and analysis of key financial data to support the half year and annual external results

Business Planning / Budget / Forecast

• Lead the financial element of the annual business plan and budget process, ensuring that Group, Divisional and Capability requirements are understood and reflected in the activities and outputs 
• Ensure that the outputs are robust and reflect the agreed views of the management teams and delivered to deadlines
• Provide effective challenge to the commercial and divisional teams on the accuracy and deliverability of their forecasts 
• Work closely with the sector teams to develop a risk and opportunities register, and ensure that these are understood and reflected in the necessary reports
• Preparation of the finance elements of the business plan presentations for the Exec team and support with the divisional presentations 
• Work closely with the business to develop scenario planning for the business plan period at a Divisional and Group level
• Proactively undertake analysis to assure accuracy, quality, and timeliness of outputs, understanding drivers and identifying risks / opportunities 
• Consolidation of Group forecast and outturn scenarios incorporating business risk and opportunities 
• Coordinate timetables, meetings and deliverables throughout the annual budget process

Systems and Data

• Support the ongoing development and implementation of a new reporting system to enable improved and quicker business insights 
• Working with the FP&A analyst scope and document the needs of the business for additional automated reporting and dashboards ensuring key KPIs can be monitored regularly and used for effective decision making
• Work closely with the reporting solution provider to develop, test and validate the reports/dashboards for monthly reporting 
• Drive the focus, governance and guidance around financial master data used in reporting to ensure consistency, accuracy and quality across the business

Other

• Help to drive continuous improvement across all FP&A activities where necessary, such as reporting / forecasting processes, excel-based models, development of systems and optimization of activities 
• Develop innovative solutions to meet the required outputs more efficiently, and to therefore improve the analysis and insight provided to the organization
• Help to provide ad-hoc management information as requested to the senior management team 
• Support ad hoc projects as required

Required Knowledge, Skills, and Abilities

• Almost Qualified or Newly Qualified Accountant with recognized professional body (e.g., ICAEW / ICAS / ACCA / CIMA) 
• Experience of management reporting and explanation of key drivers of variances
• Business Planning, budgeting and forecasting experience 
• Ability to think strategically, challenge current processes and introduce improvements
• Excellent communication skills, with confidence to present numbers to senior stakeholders 
• Demonstrable ability to form effective working relationships with multiple stakeholders
• Self-starter who can use their initiative to add value to the role and team 
• Ability to work to tight timescales whilst maintaining a high level of attention to detail
• Highly competent with Microsoft Excel 
• Willingness to work flexibly in order to support changing requirements.