Job Description

The role will include working closely with the Finance Manager to prepare monthly finance packs for each of the regional ALT(Alternative Legal Services) practice areas, reporting on the financial performance of each of the practice areas including variance analysis of year to date revenue, key performance indicators and profitability against budget. Key duties will also involve reconciliation of monthly reported revenue for the ALT Practice Group ensuring that revenue has been correctly reported to the relevant profit Centre, due to fluidity of fee earners across profit Centre’s, and working closely with the Revenue Executive, Finance Manager and the ALT fee earning teams to ensure that WIP provisioning at each month end is accurate and that reported revenue has been adjusted accordingly for any bad debts or potential write offs. The role will also involve the preparation of weekly revenue and KPI reporting and commentary to the ALT Senior Management team.

• Responsibility for accounting records of our Office, reporting to the ALT Finance Manager.
• Preparation of monthly management reporting packs for the regional ALT practice group, including revenue trends, KPI analysis and P&L variance reports.
• Responsibility for weekly revenue and KPI reporting for the regional ALT practice group, including commentary of month to date performance against budget and detailed commentary on current pipeline and activity levels based on communications with the Senior Management team.
• Support the Finance Manager in the continuous improvement and development of best practices and systems across the Belfast Office and regional ALT Practice Group.
• Support the Finance Manager in the preparation of the annual budgeting and quarterly forecasting processes
• Management and control of the general ledger, ensuring accounting records are maintained in accordance with the firms accounting policies, chart of accounts and internal compliance.
• Manage the month end process for Office, including the timely submission of headcount reports, accruals and prepayments and management accounting journals.
• Working closely with the Finance Manager and Revenue Executive to ensure adequate WIP / revenue provisioning to allow for potential bad debt and write offs.
• Reconciliation of regional ALT Practice Group revenue movements on a monthly basis.
• Review and reconciliation of balance sheet accounts on a monthly basis.
• Working closely with the Finance Assistant and London Payroll team to ensure that Belfast payroll, including overtime and Respond payments, are calculated accurately and reported in the correct cost Centre.
• Analyzing and taking a proactive role in conjunction with the Finance Manager in driving the profitability of the Office and regional Practice Group
• Working closely with the Finance Assistant on all accounting and book-keeping tasks for our Office and regional Practice Group.
• Working with the Finance Assistant to ensure the integrity of the information contained in fixed asset register.
• Working with the Finance Manager and the legal management team to ensure legal team compliance with strong financial disciplines.
• Ensure completeness of inter office accounting transactions in the ledgers.
• Managing the contractual reporting requirements to Invest NI and the filing of Statistical returns to external agencies where required.
• Assisting with the preparation of our financial statements including all relevant disclosure notes.
• Supporting the ALT Finance Manager with the annual budget and forecast process for the regional ALT Practice Group.
• Provide cover for the Finance Assistant and Revenue Executive when necessary.
• Assist with ad-hoc projects.

The responsibilities outlined above cannot totally encompass or define all tasks that may be required of the post-holder. The outline of responsibilities given above may, therefore, vary from time to time without materially changing either the character or level of responsibility or grade.

Required Knowledge, Skills, and Abilities

• Qualified accountant with membership of one of the professional bodies (CAI; ICAS; ECAEW; CIMA; or ACCA);
• At least 1-2 years' experience working as a financial accountant in a professional services environment;
• Proven experience of producing monthly management accountants and financial reporting;
• High level of attention to detail, coupled with strong creative and analytical ability and;
• Advanced knowledge of Microsoft Excel.