Assistant Accountant (Expenses) - Edinburgh

Ameriprise Financial; City of Edinburgh; On-site; GBP 40,000 - 60,000; Full time

Job summary

A financial services firm in Edinburgh is seeking a Finance professional to manage cost accruals and prepayments. The ideal candidate will possess established accountancy knowledge and strong Excel skills. This full-time role offers the opportunity to work closely with the Revenue team to support client billing and year-end financial statements. Flexible working arrangements are available.

Qualifications

• Understanding of debits and credits.
• Strong Excel skills including IF statements, VLOOKUP/XLOOKUP, and Pivots.

Responsibilities

• Prepare and post monthly cost accruals and prepayments.
• Review costs in Ledger to ensure accounts are error-free.
• Assist in completion of year-end financial statements.

Skills

Established accountancy knowledge

Strong Excel skills

Exposure to multi-entity & multi-currency environments

Tools

Power BI

Workday

Alteryx

Job description

Where you'll fit in & what our team goals are...

In your role you will contribute to Group financial statements through accurate recording of cost and revenue related transactions on the Workday GL application.

Your primary focus is to ensure accurate cost accruals and prepayments for the areas assigned within the EMEA and APAC regions and monthly review and analysis of variances in accordance with month end timetables. You will also carry out a review of higher value invoices prior to approval to ensure allocated coding is correct as well as contribute towards completion of year end financial statements.

How you'll spend your time

• Preparation of and posting into Workday Ledger of monthly cost accruals and prepayments across the EMEA and APAC regions, with adherence to monthly and quarterly requirements; requires preparation and maintenance of expected spend in areas of costs allocated by the Manager, Expense Accounting
• Review of costs in Ledger to ensure accounts are free of errors; ensure coding of costs are in accordance expectations and with the coding structure established for budget purposes to provide accurate business unit reporting; requires review of month-on-month expenditure, analysis of unexplained variances
• Review of higher value invoices across EMEA and APAC prior to approval, ensuring coding of costs is accurate and unexpected costs are identified prior to payment
• Assisting in the completion of year-end financial statements, including liaising with the Group auditors and preparing financial statements disclosures.
• Supporting Revenue team in client billing function, including raising fee invoice, calculating and posting month end accruals, credit control, liaison with client management on issues, monthly reviews and variance analysis.
• Explore opportunities for process improvement and innovation, leveraging toolsets available.

To be successful in this role you will have

• Established accountancy knowledge (understanding of debit and credits)
• Strong Excel skills (IF statements, VLOOKUP/XLOOKUP, CONCATENATE, Pivots, Charting)
• Exposure to multi-entity & multi-currency environments

If you also had this, it would be great

• Experience of identifying efficiencies/automation opportunities for the tasks the team is responsible for.
• Knowledge of AI/automation type tools (Alteryx, OCR and RPA)
• Experience in toolsets like Power BI, Alteryx, Workday worksheets (or similar) or a desire to learn and develop these skillsets.
• An interest in studying towards professional exams
• Financial Services exposure

This role will require you to work 4 days per week from the Edinburgh office, with 1 day per week working from home.

About Columbia Threadneedle Investments

Working at Columbia Threadneedle Investments you'll find growth and career opportunities across all of our businesses.

We're intentionally built to help you succeed. Our reach is expansive with a global team of 2,500 people working together. Our expertise is diverse with more than 650 investment professionals sharing global perspectives across all major asset classes and markets. Our clients have access to a broad array of investment strategies, and we have the capability to create bespoke solutions matched to clients' specific requirements.

Columbia Threadneedle is a people business and we recognise that our success is due to our talented people, who bring diversity of thought, complementary skills and capabilities. We are committed to providing an inclusive workplace that supports the diversity of our employees and reflects our broader communities and client-base.

We appreciate that work-life balance is an important factor for many when considering their next move so please discuss any flexible working requirements directly with your recruiter.

Full-Time/Part-Time

Full time

Worker Sub Type

Permanent

Job Family Group

Finance