Accounts Assistant

The Fragrance Shop; Manchester; Hybrid; GBP 24,000 - 32,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Flexible working options

Hybrid working scheme

Employee discounts on fragrances

Job summary

The Fragrance Shop, the UK’s leading independent fragrance retailer, is seeking an Accounts Assistant to join its Finance team. You will own daily reconciliation of cash and expenses, support loss prevention, and ensure accurate financial reporting in a fast-paced retail environment.

Hybrid working and generous staff discounts are offered. Reporting to the Group Financial Controller, you will handle store banking, online tender reconciliation, KPI reporting, and month-end processes, while

Qualifications

• Strong Excel skills and reconciliation experience.
• Experience in high-volume retail finance is a plus.
• Attention to detail and accuracy in cashflow reporting.

Responsibilities

• Daily reconciliation of tender to sales across stores.
• Manage store banking procedures and documentation.
• Online reconciliation across all tenders and exception reporting.
• Weekly store expense control and KPI reporting.
• Support month-end processes and compliance reporting.
• Develop procedures to improve loss prevention.
• Handle chargeback queries with Customer Services.
• Ensure audit-ready balance and reconciliation documentation.

Skills

Excel

Attention to detail

Reconciliation

Stakeholder liaison

Retail familiarity

Education

AAT qualification

Tools

Accounting software

Job description

The Fragrance Shop, the UK’s leading independent fragrance retailer, is seeking an Accounts Assistant to join its first-class Finance team. This role is essential to ensuring accurate and timely reconciliation of cash and expense data, playing a vital role in loss prevention, cashflow analysis, and online payment integrity. Working under the Group Financial Controller, the successful candidate will demonstrate ownership, attention to detail, and a proactive approach to continuous improvement in a fast-paced retail environment.

Key responsibilities

• Daily reconciliation of tender to sales across the store estate.
• Manage store banking procedures and documentation.
• Online reconciliation across all tenders, including exception reporting.
• Weekly store expense control and monitoring.
• Ownership of KPI reporting for cash and expense management.
• Assist in the month-end process and support compliance reporting.
• Develop and maintain business-wide procedures to improve loss prevention.
• Handle online queries and chargeback support in collaboration with Customer Services.
• Ensure accurate transactional audit processes and timely control account reconciliations.
• Liaise with stores and assist with finance-related queries.
• Provide ad hoc financial support to the wider team.
• Prior experience working with transactional ledgers, ideally in a retail or high-volume environment.
• Advanced Excel skills; knowledge of reconciliation processes.
• Meticulous and methodical, ensuring accuracy and timely delivery.
• Confident liaison with internal and external stakeholders.
• AAT qualification or active training are desirable.
• Self-starter who can work independently and within a team.

What you can expect

• Flexible working options and a hybrid working scheme.
• Generous employee discounts on luxury fragrances.
• Duvet days and home working allowances.
• Excellent learning and development opportunities.

Key Objectives

• Maintain accurate cash and expense reconciliation across all retail stores and online channels.
• Prevent chargebacks and support audit compliance.
• Improve financial processes to support loss prevention and cash flow visibility.
• Ensure accurate financial reporting to support wider business performance.
• Daily reconciliation reports and audit documentation.
• Weekly store expense and KPI reports.
• Chargeback response documentation with CS.
• Online payment and tender exception logs.
• Month-end support documentation and account balances.
• Continuous improvement updates for loss prevention processes.