Finance Manager
Congleton
This expanding business in Congleton is looking for a Finance Manager to lead a small team.
Please see the details below:
Role purpose
The Finance Manager will take ownership of the day-to-day finance function and provide the Managing Director with accurate, timely and commercially useful financial information. This is a hands-on position in a small finance team, combining transaction-level oversight with management accounts, cash-flow control and process improvement.
Key responsibilities:
Financial operations and control
- Lead the day-to-day finance function while remaining actively involved in bookkeeping, reconciliations and transaction processing.
- Maintain accurate accounting records, ensuring information is complete, consistent and up to date.
- Oversee sales ledger, purchase ledger, bank reconciliations, expense processing, VAT returns, payroll inputs and payment runs.
- Ensure sales invoices are raised promptly, supplier invoices are correctly authorised and all balance sheet control accounts are regularly reconciled.
- Manage credit control proactively, resolving queries quickly and escalating overdue or high-risk balances.
- Maintain an effective month-end timetable and provide accurate information to the company's external accountants for statutory accounts and tax compliance.
- Maintain clear project-by-project records of purchase orders, client receipts, supplier commitments, payments, fees and outstanding balances.
- Work with the team to prepare, monitor and reconcile client budgets, highlighting overspends, missing costs, timing risks and variations promptly.
- Prepare short-term cash-flow forecasts that distinguish operating cash from amounts held or committed for client projects.
- Ensure suppliers are paid accurately and on time without exposing the business to avoidable working-capital risk.
- Produce a reliable monthly management accounts pack, including profit and loss, balance sheet, cash flow, aged debt, aged creditors and relevant commentary.
- Develop practical reporting by client, project, service line or event where the underlying systems and data allow.
- Provide the Managing Director with concise explanations of performance, cash requirements, risks and actions needed.
- Support budgeting, forecasting and variance analysis, maintaining clear assumptions and following up agreed actions.
- Supervise, support and develop the Accounts Assistant, setting clear priorities, checking work and maintaining appropriate segregation of duties.
- Create and maintain documented workflows, standard operating procedures, checklists and a finance calendar so key activities can continue during absence or staff changes.
- Identify capacity constraints and provide evidence-based recommendations when additional resource or external support is required.
- Lead the practical digitalisation of finance processes, reducing manual work and duplication while improving control, visibility and data quality.
- Promote a responsive, service-focused finance culture that works constructively with the wider business.
- Maintain appropriate financial controls, approval limits and audit trails for banking, payments, supplier changes, client receipts and journal entries.
- Protect against fraud and error through independent verification of bank-detail changes and secure payment processes.
- Ensure compliance with VAT, payroll, record-keeping and other routine financial obligations, seeking specialist advice where needed.
- Maintain suitable records and support external reviews, audits, insurance queries and due-diligence requests.
- Work closely with the Managing Director, providing clear, timely financial information and practical advice.
- Build effective relationships with clients, suppliers, external accountants, payroll providers, banks and other professional advisers.
- Explain financial information clearly to non-finance colleagues and promote shared ownership of accurate, timely data.
- Proven experience managing a small finance function and delivering accurate end-to-end accounting processes.
- Strong hands-on bookkeeping and management accounting capability, including month-end, balance sheet reconciliations, cash-flow forecasting and credit control.
- Experience supervising or developing finance staff and improving ways of working.
- Confident using cloud accounting software, ideally Xero, with strong Excel skills and the ability to l
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Recruiter: RK Accountancy
Salary: £40,000 to £50,000 Per Annum
Reference: MO105723R