AddressThe Role
The Financial Controller is a critical role within the Haberdashers’ Company. It is responsible for the oversight of the key day-to-day financial activity for the Company and its Charities, for maintaining and reviewing the accounting records and for preparation of management information, tax information and statutory reports. The postholder has line management responsibility for the Accounts Assistant and plays an active role in both the Company’s small finance department and in the wider organisation.
The key responsibilities are:
- Financial control
- Manage and maintain the accounting for three companies, four charitable foundations and three school charities.
- Management of the accounting for investments, commercial properties and catering activity.
- Oversight of regular balance sheet and stock reconciliations and of the accounts payable process.
- Management information
- Preparation of consolidated management accounts for the Company.
- Support for financial forecasting, budgeting and cash flow analysis.
- Preparing and presenting reports at the Finance and Investment Committees.
- Statutory and tax accounting and reporting
- Preparation of statutory financial statements for all entities, including consolidated charity accounts with schools’ information.
- Key contact for the external auditor for year-end audits.
- Preparation of tax information for VAT returns and working with the external tax consultants.
- Projects
- Work on improving underlying processes, controls and documentation
- Supporting the transition to new accounting software
The Person
In terms of your professional skills and expertise, you will be a qualified accountant or with significant equivalent professional experience. You will have knowledge and understanding of charity fund accounting. You will be confident with key IT applications, including accounting systems, MS Office and Excel. You will have experience of preparing statutory accounts and tax information, and of liaising with external auditors.
You should be comfortable working as part of a small department and staff team, operating within a larger membership organisation. With excellent written and oral communication skills, you will be hardworking, highly motivated, energetic and responsible, able to work under pressure at times to meet deadlines. You will be a capable problem-solver, prepared to engage fully with the detail of issues and to use your initiative to overcome challenges. You should have excellent organisational skills and time management and be happy to work independently and to operate with limited supervision. Finally, you will be sympathetic to the objectives of a membership organisation which undertakes philanthropic and charitable activity, principally in the Education sector.
Essential Requirements:
- Qualified accountant, or with significant equivalent professional experience
- Experience of charity fund accounting
- Good knowledge of and confidence with key IT applications:
- MS Office 365, especially Excel
- Accounting systems (knowledge of Exchequer and iplicit an advantage)
Highly Desirable Requirements:
- Experience of working with charities and / or membership organisations
- Knowledge of accounting system migration
- Experience delivering financial process and control improvements
