Accounts Assistant

Hawthorn One; Eccles; On-site; GBP 29,000 - 35,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Workplace pension

25 days holiday + bank holidays

Wellbeing support & virtual GP

AAT/CIMA study support

Exclusive Hawthorn One role

Job summary

Hawthorn One in the West Lancashire area near Eccles is seeking an Accounts Assistant to back up the Head of Finance in a small, fast-paced team. You will handle day‑to‑day transactional finance, invoicing, reconciliations and payroll support, while contributing to automation and KPI reporting.

You will be pivotal in ensuring accurate sales invoicing, timely reconciliations and robust supplier and payroll processes as the business grows.

Qualifications

• Experience in transactional finance including AP/AR and reconciliations.
• Strong Excel with lookups, pivots and data cleaning.
• Excellent attention to detail and accuracy.
• Ability to organise own workload in a fast-moving SME.
• Positive, supportive team‑first approach.
• Willingness to progress toward AAT qualification.

Responsibilities

• Own sales invoicing and weekly invoices in Xero, with consolidation as needed.
• Daily bank reconciliations across main accounts and cards.
• Manage purchase ledger and supplier invoices coding.
• Support payroll weekly/monthly: timesheets and deductions.
• Produce pivot table reports feeding KPI tracking and cash flow.
• Credit control and month‑end tasks; assist Head of Finance on projects.

Skills

Excel skills

Lookups & pivot tables

Attention to detail

Workload organisation

Team‑oriented attitude

Transactional finance experience

Education

AAT study toward

Tools

Xero

Job description

Our client is a privately owned SME in West Lancashire, near Eccles. The business has invested (and continues to invest) heavily in modern systems, automation and data, and is now entering a more structured phase of growth. The business is backed by a long-term investor that focuses on building robust, well-run businesses and is focused on commercial discipline, operational performance and sustainable profitability.

This Accounts Assistant Job is available to be a strong number two to the head of finance, covering the full range of transactional finance, sales ledger, purchase ledger, bank reconciliations, payroll support and operational financial data.

The Accounts Assistant Job

Reporting to the supportive and very personable Head of Finance you will work in a small office environment and act as a strong number 2 . You will take on all the day-to-day transactional finance to free the head of finance up to focus on higher-level commercial finance and automation work, and support with some ad hoc projects.

You will take full ownership of the sales invoicing, processing and sending ready invoices through Xero each week, then chasing down whatever's needed to get the next batch ready to go. Some customers are invoiced order by order, others want everything consolidated onto one invoice, so attention to detail really matters here as it's what keeps queries down once an invoice is sent.

You'll also carry out daily bank reconciliations across the main accounts, credit cards and an invoice finance facility, and manage a purchase ledger of supplier invoices, making sure everything is coded correctly before it's processed.

You'll support payroll on a weekly and monthly basis: timesheets, overtime, allowances and various deductions (under guidance), and you'll run regular reports using pivot tables and lookups that feed into the wider team's KPI tracking and cash flow planning.

Credit control covers a relatively clean, manageable customer ledger, mostly automated, with a smaller number of customers needing a more personal follow-up call now and then.

This Accounts Assistant Job sits at the centre of a small, fast-moving team hence there is plenty of scope to get involved in the wider automation and improvement projects already underway along with additional month end duties as you develop to support the Head of Finance if desired.

The Requirements

Your behaviours, values, attitude and approach matter just as much as your experience in this position due to the close knit team. You don't need to be fully AAT qualified for this role - progress toward it would be a genuine plus but what matters most is solid, practical transactional finance experience and the confidence and positivity to fit into a small, fast-moving team.

• Experience in a transactional finance role, accounts payable, accounts receivable, etc.
• Strong, confident Excel skills, including lookups, pivot tables and data cleaning
• Excellent attention to detail and accuracy
• The ability to organise your own workload in a fast-moving SME environment
• Reliable, calm and organised, with a positive, supportive working style and a genuine team-first attitude
• Curious about how the wider business works, with a get-stuck-in approach to helping it improve

The Rewards

Salary is up to £32,000, depending on experience. There is a workplace pension, 25 days' holiday plus bank holidays, and access to wellbeing support and virtual GP appointments through the company's HR platform, with further benefits under review.

AAT and CIMA study support are both genuinely available for anyone who wants to develop in that direction, and equally, there's no pressure to if you're happy focusing on the role as it is.

This role is exclusive to Hawthorn One and a full job details document will be provided.