Assistant Accountant

Grafton Banks Finance Limited; Greater London; On-site; GBP 26,000 - 34,000; Part time

Job summary

Grafton Banks Finance Limited in central London is recruiting an Assistant Accountant on an initial 6-month contract to support the business during a busy period and ensure the smooth running of transactional finance functions. Reporting to the Finance Director, you will handle bank reconciliations, purchase and sales ledgers, VAT returns, and month-end journals within a small, supportive team.

The role requires AAT qualification or Part Qualification, strong Excel skills, and the ability to

Qualifications

• AAT qualification or Part Qualification (ACCA/ACA/CIMA) preferred.
• Experience running a transactional finance function largely unsupervised.
• Strong double-entry bookkeeping and month-end close knowledge.
• Hands-on VAT knowledge and quarterly VAT returns experience.
• Solid Excel skills (lookups, pivots) and ERP familiarity.

Responsibilities

• Process bank transactions and perform regular bank reconciliations.
• Manage purchase ledger: PO creation, supplier invoices, coding, and payment runs.
• Process employee expenses and credit card transactions with VAT coding.
• Maintain supplier ledger and resolve queries.
• Raise and issue sales invoices with milestone-based billing and attach supporting docs.
• Monitor timesheet postings for correct project billing.
• Support credit control in collections when needed.
• Prepare and post month-end journals including prepayments and accruals.
• Prepare balance sheet reconciliations and investigate unreconciled items.
• Review costs monthly to identify material variances and document findings.
• Maintain fixed asset register and post depreciation.
• Prepare quarterly VAT returns and maintain VAT audit trails.

Skills

AAT qualified or Part qualified

Double-entry bookkeeping

VAT knowledge

Excel

Purchase ledger

Sales ledger

Bank reconciliations

Month-end close

ERP system

Attention to detail

Education

AAT Qualified or Part Qualified (ACCA, ACA, CIMA)

Tools

ERP system

Excel

Job description

Grafton Banks Finance are working with a respectable services construction company with offices in central London to recruit an Assistant Accountant on an initial 6-month contract to support the business during a busy period. Reporting into the Finance Director and working within a small friendly busy finance team you will be responsible for supporting with the smooth running of the companies' finances.

Duties and Responsibilities will include:

• Transactional processing:
• Processing bank transactions - posting receipts and payments and performing regular bank reconciliations across
• Purchase ledger: raising purchase orders, logging supplier invoices, matching to purchase orders and approvals, coding to the correct nominal, project and VAT treatment, and preparing payment runs for review and authorisation.
• Processing employee expenses and company credit card transactions, including receipt chasing, nominal and VAT coding, and monthly credit card analysis and reconciliation.
• Maintaining the supplier ledger - supplier set-up, reconciliation to supplier statements, and resolution of queries and disputed items.
• Project support:
• Raising and issuing sales invoices in line with the agreed billing cycle, including milestone and stage-based billing, with supporting documentation attached.
• Chasing and monitoring timesheet completion, escalating persistent non-compliance, and ensuring time is posted to the correct project ahead of billing and month-end
• Credit control support:
• Supporting credit controller with collection as and when required
• Month-end:
• Preparing and posting month-end journals, including prepayments, accruals and recurring journals.
• Preparing balance sheet reconciliations with supporting schedules and investigating and clearing unreconciled items.
• Performing analytical review of costs month on month, investigating variances and escalating as required to document any material movements.
• Maintaining the fixed asset register and posting depreciation.
• VAT and year-end:
• Preparing quarterly VAT returns for review, including reconciliation of the VAT control accounts to the return and to the ledgers.
• Maintaining supporting records and audit trail for VAT and for year-end accounts preparation, including responding to accountant and auditor sample requests.

Experience and Key Skills required for the contract:

• AAT Qualified or Part Qualified (ACCA, ACA, CIMA)
• Practical working experience working as an Assistant Accountant running a transactional finance function largely unsupervised, including reconciling to a trial balance.
• Full working knowledge of double-entry bookkeeping, control accounts and the month-end close cycle.
• Practical, up-to-date UK VAT knowledge and hands-on experience preparing and reconciling quarterly VAT returns.
• Strong purchase and sales ledger experience - invoice processing, payment run preparation and bank reconciliation.
• Confident Excel - lookups, pivot tables, filtering and reconciling large data extracts. Excel is used extensively alongside the ERP for analysis and reconciliation.
• Experience working within an accounting or ERP system, and able to get productive in an unfamiliar platform quickly.
• A self-starter: able to take a defined workload, prioritise it independently, work to a fixed monthly timetable, and raise issues early rather than let them run.
• Accuracy and attention to detail, with the discipline to reconcile rather than assume.
• Clear, professional written and verbal communication. The role involves chasing colleagues, clients and suppliers persistently but construc