Interim Finance Manager

Interim Finance Manager position within an award winning multidisciplinary practice of architects and urban designers, with studios in London and Dublin.

This is a new role within the company and is a major opportunity for the right individual to play an integral and long-term role in this ambitious practice as part of shaping its future. The practice is based in Farringdon and is currently 40 strong split between the London and Dublin studios with a turnover of approx £4m. The practice has a strong order book and plans to grow steadily over the coming years. We retain accountants in both London and Dublin and the role will involve liaising with them on preparation of all statutory returns.

The role

• The role will be wide-ranging and essentially cover all financial aspects of running the practice (see over for more detailed examples). The basic objective is to professionalise the business as it grows while 'freeing up' the architectural directors and other senior staff to concentrate on their core skills.
• The Accountant will deal with all aspects of financial management from budgeting and forecasting through to credit control and cash management. Duties will include the preparation of monthly management accounts and other financial reports, administration of the monthly
• payroll and liaising with the practice's external accountants over the preparation of statutory
• An important part of the role will be to ensure that accurate and timely information about project costs is available to the management team. This will require close interaction with the Studio Leaders and senior architects running the projects. Ability to use "Quickbooks" accounting software is preferable. We use CMAP which is a dynamic project management system for project costing and resource and reports are imported from this into QB.
• The Accountant will report to the Partners and occasionally Directors and will attend all important business - focussed meetings including Partners Meetings and quarterly management meetings. Good presentation and personal skills will therefore be required.

Qualifications

The successful candidate will be a qualified accountant in the UK with a practical and proven track record in business and ideally in the world of architecture or construction.

Responsibilities will include:

1. Management Accounts and Financial reporting

2. Management accounts

3. Company Secretarial

4. Payment authorisations

5. Employee benefits and company insurances

6. Leadership

Skills and Experience

1. Software
2. Strong experience of using finance software to enhance efficiency and Effectiveness.
3. Sector / company experience:
4. Experience in architecture or construction ideal (but not essential)
5. Must be able to work effectively in an SME environment
6. Technical skills and experience:
7. Qualified accountant (ACCA, CIMA, ACA).
8. Project accounting / job costing experience will be highly advantageous.
9. Commercial skills and experience:
10. Commercially minded, i.e. involved in overall business performance and opportunities rather than just the processes.
11. Able to interpret data and provide insightful commentary
12. Communication and influencing skills:
13. Ability to communicate effectively, build rapport and develop constructive relationships
14. Track record of influencing decision makers
15. Organisation skills:
16. Confident self-starter
17. Able to prioritise tasks and maintain a high degree of organisation
18. Excellent attention to detail - and follows up when something doesn't appear right
19. Self-motivated - able to work pro-actively and multi-task
20. Teamwork and leadership skills:
21. Team player with a proactive and flexible attitude
22. Experienced at managing and motivating a small team

Reporting: (not exhaustive)

Monthly

• P+L (current FE and rolling 12 months)
• Cashflow forecast (current FE and rolling 12 months)
• Balance Sheet
• Aged creditors/aged debtors
• Fee forecasts and pipelines
• Budgets vs actual expenditure
• Tax planning
• Management of subconsultancy drawdowns/payments
• PSWT calculations

Quarterly:

• Finance reports for Quarterly Man mtg
• WIP reporting
• VAT reporting (UK plus IRE)

Biannually:

• Rates review and adjustments
• NPT review and analysis
• Budget reviews and adjustments

Annually

• Salary reviews and benchmarking
• FX reviews
• Budget setting
• Profitability/ Productivity and financial metrics
• Benchmarking surveys - completions and analysis (RIBA/d3)

Remuneration

• £50-55k salary
• A range of further benefits to be discussed
• Minimum of 4 month contract

Bennett & Game Recruitment are acting as a Recruitment Agency in relation to this vacancy.

Bennett and Game Recruitment are a multi-disciplined technical recruitment agency based in Chichester, West Sussex operating across the UK with specialist teams covering a range of industries. We are acting as a Recruitment Agency in relation to this vacancy, and in accordance with GDPR by applying you are granting us consent to process your data, and contact you in relation to this application and the services we offer.