Assistant Accountant, Manchester

Planit-IE Limited; Manchester; Hybrid; GBP 26,000 - 38,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

22 days holiday + bank holidays

Hybrid working after probation

Company pension

Employee Ownership Trust Bonus

CPD support

Job summary

Planit is an interdisciplinary design practice based in Altrincham, Greater Manchester. We are seeking an Assistant Accountant to join our Finance Team in a studio-based role.

You will manage invoicing, purchase invoices, and reconcile Pleo transactions while ensuring costs are allocated correctly across projects. You will work with Xero and CMAP, support project teams with financial management, monitor cash flow, and contribute to month-end processes.

Qualifications

• Finance or Accountancy Degree, or Level 3 AAT with at least 1 year experience.

Responsibilities

• Raise invoices promptly and manage purchase invoices with timely approvals.
• Reconcile Pleo credit card transactions with receipts and descriptions.
• Ensure invoices align with project budgets and costs are allocated to correct projects.
• Monitor Work in Progress (WIP) and prepare monthly billing.
• Reconcile project fees between CMAP and Xero.
• Support project teams with financial management and invoicing.
• Perform bank reconciliations and credit control.
• Assist with ad hoc finance and administrative tasks.

Skills

Attention to detail

Clear communication

Team collaboration

Education

Finance or Accountancy Degree, or Level 3 AAT

Tools

Xero

CMAP

Pleo

Job description

Location: Studio-based in Altrincham, Greater Manchester

Hours: Full-time, 37.5 hours per week

Planit is an interdisciplinary design practice, bringing together Landscape Architects, Urban Designers, and Visual Storytellers across five studios in the UK. Our purpose is to design for all life to thrive in balance, for today, tomorrow, and the next 200 years.

We're looking for an Assistant Accountant to join our Finance Team, based in Altrincham, our hometown and a place we've been helping shape through public realm design for over a decade.

Role

Our Finance Team of two sits at the heart of the practice, providing the accurate financial information and meaningful KPIs that keep good decision-making grounded in reality. If you find genuine satisfaction in getting the details right, and can see the bigger picture behind the numbers, this could be the right fit.

A substantial part of the role is keeping our financial information accurate and up to date. That means raising invoices promptly, processing purchase invoices, making sure they're approved on time, and keeping Pleo credit card transactions fully reconciled with the correct receipts and descriptions.

We work with a range of sub-consultants across our projects, so you'll be checking that invoices align with project budgets, ensuring suppliers are billing correctly, and making sure costs are allocated to the right projects.

Timesheets matter too. Accurate, on-time timesheets are what allow us to prepare monthly billing, monitor project performance, and track Work in Progress (WIP). You'll help make sure that process runs smoothly.

You'll also support the reconciliation of project fees between our project management system, CMAP, and Xero, ensuring all fees, recharges, and costs are posted to the correct projects and nominal ledgers.

Cash flow keeps the practice moving. Our Finance Team is responsible for raising invoices on time, chasing outstanding debts promptly, and monitoring cash flow regularly, so we can meet our financial commitments and continue to invest in our co-owners and our growth.

Beyond the day-to-day, you'll work alongside project teams to support project financial management, helping them understand what has been invoiced, what remains to be invoiced, ensuring additional fees are captured in the system, and providing financial support so projects perform well from start to finish.

This is a varied role. It calls for strong attention to detail, good organisation, and the confidence to work across the practice to keep our financial information accurate, timely, and commercially focused. Comfort with digital tools and a genuine willingness to embrace new systems are essential.

Key responsibilities

• Monitoring the finance inbox and responding to queries
• Keeping Pleo credit card transactions up to date
• Reconciling supplier and customer ledgers
• Credit control
• Prepare and issue month-end invoicing
• Liaising with project managers regarding project invoicing
• Timesheet analysis
• Bank reconciliations
• Xero to CMAP (project management system) reconciliations
• Supporting ad hoc finance and administrative tasks

Experience

• Finance or Accountancy Degree, or minimum Level 3 AAT with at least 1 year experience

What we are looking for

• Ambition to develop further and progress through professional qualifications
• Strong attention to detail and a methodical approach to your work
• Confidence working with digital tools and financial systems, and an openness to learning new ones
• A collaborative mindset; someone who communicates clearly with colleagues across the practice and takes genuine ownership of their responsibilities
• A values-driven approach to work, with an interest in how finance can support environmentally and socially responsible decision-making

Practice Information

Planit is an Employee-Owned business. Every co-owner taking personal responsibility within their areas of expertise for the benefit of the team, and success of the practice as a whole. As an accredited B Corp, we prioritise people, planet, and profit equally, and these values are embedded in how we operate.

This role sits squarely within that context. Balancing environmental and social considerations within purchasing decisions and financial management is a meaningful part of what this role contributes to the practice's mission. We welcome applications from candidates who share these values.

We support our team by providing benefits that include a minimum of 22 days holiday plus bank holidays and 3 Christmas closure days, flexible start and finish times (core working hours are 10.00am to 4.30pm), hybrid working following probation period (one day per week from home if full-time), company pension, Employee Ownership Trust Bonus, enhanced maternity and paternity pay, Salary sacrifice cycle and EV car schemes, support with professional fees and CPD.

Candidates must be eligible to live and work in the UK. If you require sponsorship, please check your eligibility against the relevant criteria on the UK Government website before submitting your application.