Assistant Financial Accountant

Collinson; Haywards Heath; On-site; GBP 30,000 - 40,000; Full time

Job summary

A global travel solutions company is hiring an Assistant Financial Accountant in Haywards Heath. You will support the finance team with the production of management accounts, handle balance sheet reconciliations, and assist in audits. The ideal candidate has experience with SAP and is proactive, detail-oriented, and able to work under pressure. This role offers opportunities to evolve within a diverse and ambitious team committed to delivering superior customer experiences.

Qualifications

• Proactive forward looking and challenging mindset.
• Able to work well under pressure and deliver high-quality results.
• Knowledge and experience of best practices in the finance industry.

Responsibilities

• Process transactional journals for high-quality management accounts.
• Support preparation of P&L trend analysis.
• Prepare balance sheet reconciliations and maintain schedules.
• Collaborate with Finance Operations to ensure transaction accuracy.
• Assist in delivering cashflow forecasts for the entity.

Skills

Part Qualified Accountant (ACCA, CIMA, AAT or Equivalent) or qualified by experience

Good knowledge of SAP

High personal levels of motivation

Detail focused with strong organisation and planning skills

Ability to interact with others

Job description

Collinson is the global privately‑owned company dedicated to helping the world to travel with ease and confidence. The group offers a unique blend of industry and sector specialists who together provide market‑leading airport experiences loyalty and customer engagement and insurance solutions for over 400 million consumers.

Collinson is the operator of Priority Pass, the world’s original and leading airport experiences programme. Travellers can access a network of 1,500 lounges and travel experiences including dining, retail, sleep, and spa in over 650 airports in 148 countries, helping to elevate the journey into something special. We work with the world’s leading payment networks, over 1,400 banks, 90 airlines and 20 hotel groups worldwide.

We have been bringing innovation to the market since inception, from launching the first independent global VIP lounge access programme Priority Pass to being the first to sell direct travel insurance in the UK through Columbus Direct and creating the first loyalty agency of its kind in the travel sector with ICLP. Today we still invest heavily in innovation to ensure that we continue to deliver superior customer experiences.

Key clients include Mastercard, American Express, Cathay Pacific, British Airways, LATAM, Flying Blue, Accor, EasyJet, HSBC, Chase, HDFC.

Our mission is focused on doing good beyond profit, which for us means we seek out opportunities for our people to share in our success and that we give back to the communities and people within which we work.

Never short of ambition, the success of our business is delivered through the diverse and talented team of over 2,200 global colleagues.

Purpose of the Job

The Assistant Financial Accountant will work within the Insurance finance team of the Collinson Group. They will work as an integral part of the finance team. The team will be responsible for the accurate monthly management accounts financial controls as well as support the production of the statutory accounts and being one of the key points of contact during the audit process.

The Assistant Financial Accountant will be responsible for the processing of financial transactions within the production of the monthly management accounts balance sheet reconciliations cash flow forecasts and other tasks relating to their entity. They will also support any process/ system changes within the team ensuring the on‑boarding process for new clients is set up and accounted for correctly as well as ensure a strong and effective control environment exists with a specific emphasis on improving month end close and accounting.

Key Responsibilities

• To process the transactional journals in the production of high quality and timely management accounts
• Support the preparation of P&L trend analysis and analytical reviews for the entities to ensure Group and the business have a good insight into key movements and the financial performance of each entity
• Prepare period related balance sheet reconciliations ensuring all aged items are managed and cleared in a timely manner and maintain a schedule for each entity detailing the balances with supporting evidence to be reviewed at monthly BSR meetings
• Provide updates to the Financial Accountant of the inter-company position ensuring this is reconciled monthly to agree with the other group entities
• Assist the Financial Accountant across the lines of business (Travel Accident & Health and Multi-lines teams) to ensure accurate revenue commission and profit share accruals
• Collaborate with Finance Operations to ensure all transactions processed are accurate and complete and recorded in a timely manner
• Point of contact between Finance Operations SAP team and Financial Reporting for system and process change ensuring completion of tasks and flagging any issues if identified
• Support the Financial Accountant on all audits (including but not limited to internal 3rd party or year‑end) creating the year end Group Statutory packs with supporting evidence for balances as required as well as assist with audit requests by providing evidence for audit samples walkthroughs and explanations for postings and processes
• Assist in the completion of VAT, Corporation Tax, IPT and any 3rd party reporting as required.
• Assist in delivering the cashflow forecasts for their entity/entities
• Keeping abreast of accounting developments to ensure that the impact of changes are understood
• Ensuring all process documents are regularly reviewed and updated
• Strive to deliver process improvements delivering best in class processes

Knowledge, Skills & Experience Required

• Part Qualified Accountant (ACCA, CIMA, AAT or Equivalent) or qualified by experience
• Good knowledge of SAP
• High personal levels of motivation and delivery orientated focus
• Able to work well under pressure
• A proactive forward looking and challenging mindset
• Detail focused with strong organisation and planning skills
• Ability to interact with and develop working relationships internally and externally in order to achieve best outcomes for the business and customer
• Knowledge and experience of best practice within industry to consistently improve delivery within department

Collinson is an equal opportunity employer and welcomes differences in all their forms including: colour, race, ethnicity, gender identity, sexual orientation, neurodivergence, family status, age, individuals with disabilities and people from all backgrounds, cultures and experiences as we strongly believe this contributes to our on‑going success.

We are focused on continually evolving our purpose driven high performing culture providing an environment where our people have the opportunity to achieve their full potential and do interesting and meaningful work. Our company values are: Take Action, Do the right thing, One team and Be insight led. These help guide everything we do internally in terms of how we think, act and interact right through to how we deliver value to our customers and clients.

In your application please feel free to note which pronouns you use (For example - she/her/hers, he/him/his, they/them/theirs etc).

If you need any extra support throughout the interview process then please email us at

Key Skills

Corrosion Inspection, Bidding, Maitre, Customer Support, Defense, Adobe

Employment Type: Full Time

Experience: years

Vacancy: 1