Balio is a permanent-capital software group that acquires and operates a portfolio of B2B SaaS
companies across the US, UK and UAE. Group Finance runs a single-source financial record for the
whole portfolio — consolidated in USD, closed monthly — and partners closely with the General
Managers and operational teams who run each portfolio company. Day-to-day bookkeeping is
handled by a dedicated offshore support-accounting team, freeing this role to focus on planning,
analysis, technical accounting and business partnering. It’s a fast-moving, acquisitive environment
where finance owns outcomes end to end.
Purpose of the role
Act as the finance partner to a cluster of portfolio companies — supporting their operational teams, owning their forecasts, budgets and FP&A, and standing behind the integrity and timeliness of their numbers. The transactional bookkeeping is done by the offshore support accountants; your job is to turn those books into insight, plans and decisions, resolve the technical accounting, and keep the whole cycle running efficiently.
Key responsibilities
- Business partnering — support the operational teams and General Managers of your portfolio companies, translating financial performance into clear, actionable insight and challenge.
- Forecasting & budgeting — own the budgets and rolling forecasts for your entities: build them, keep them current and hold the business to them.
- FP&A & reporting — produce and maintain FP&A dashboards and management reporting that give operators and leadership a live view of performance.
- Month-end close oversight — ensure the books close accurately and on time each month, reviewing and directing the work of the offshore support accountants rather than performing the bookkeeping yourself.
- Technical accounting — own and resolve technical accounting matters (IFRS treatment, revenue recognition, judgmental areas) across your entities.
- AR & AP — track and control receivables and payables, keeping working capital clean and issues surfaced early.
- Cash flow — track and forecast cash flow for your entities and feed the group cash position.
- Efficiency & controls — ensure the finance process for your cluster runs at maximum efficiency, with sound controls and continuous improvement of ways of working.
What success looks like in the first 6 months
- Every entity in your cluster closes accurately and on time, with the offshore team working smoothly to your direction.
- Budgets and rolling forecasts are live, trusted and used by operators to make decisions.
- FP&A dashboards give leadership a real-time view of portfolio performance, and technical accounting issues are resolved cleanly at source.
Requirements
- Professional accounting qualification (ACA / ACCA / CIMA / CPA or equivalent) — mandatory.
- 6+ years' relevant experience.
- Strong working knowledge of IFRS.
- Experience with ERP or other finance-tool implementations.
- Proven forecasting, budgeting and FP&A capability, including building management dashboards.
- Strong technical accounting judgement and comfort owning close, AR/AP and cash flow.
- Self-directed and effective in a lean, fast-paced, acquisitive environment; able to direct offshore support and partner with non-finance operators.
- Clear written and verbal communicator.
- SaaS / technology-sector finance experience preferred, including familiarity with SaaS metrics
- (ARR, NDR/GDR, MRR).
- QuickBooks and Xero experience advantageous.
- Exposure to group consolidation, multi-entity and multi-currency finance.
- Experience onboarding or integrating an acquired business into a group.
- Experience in a private-equity, holding-group or portfolio environment.
- UAE / DIFC or international group experience.
You’ll be one of a small group of portfolio-facing finance business partners reporting to the Financial Controller, supported by an offshore support-accounting team that handles transactional bookkeeping. The role is high-ownership and analytical: someone who wants to partner the business, own the plan and direct the numbers across several companies will thrive; someone who wants to do the bookkeeping themselves will not.