Finance Analyst

H2O Recruitment Services; Leicester Forest East; On-site; GBP 30,000 - 45,000; Full time

Job summary

A reputable recruitment firm is seeking a Finance Analyst for their client based in Leicester. The role involves delivering accurate financial analysis, supporting management reporting, cost analysis, and designing KPI dashboards. Successful candidates will need strong analytical skills, advanced Excel knowledge, and experience in a financial analysis role within a manufacturing environment. This position offers the opportunity to enhance reporting processes and contribute to continuous improvement within the finance team.

Qualifications

• Strong analytical skills with high attention to detail.
• Advanced Excel capability, including pivot tables and formulas.
• Experience in analyzing financial and operational data.

Responsibilities

• Assist in the production of monthly management accounts.
• Prepare and analyse cost of goods sold (COGS).
• Design and maintain Excel-based reports and KPI dashboards.

Skills

Strong analytical skills with high attention to detail

Advanced Excel capability

Experience analysing financial and operational data

Confident communicator

Tools

SQL

Power Query

Excel

Job description

Finance Analyst

Reporting to: Financial Controller
Location: Leicester (with occasional on-site interaction as required)

Role Overview

An established organisation is seeking a Finance Analyst to support the Finance function by delivering accurate, timely, and insightful financial analysis to support business decision-making.

The role focuses on management reporting, cost analysis, KPI dashboards, and data analytics, working closely with Finance, Operations, and Production teams. It is well suited to someone with a strong analytical mindset who enjoys working with ERP-derived data and translating complex information into clear commercial insight.

Key Responsibilities

Financial Analysis & Reporting

• Assist in the production of monthly management accounts, including variance analysis and commentary.
• Prepare and analyse cost of goods sold (COGS) and margin information for month-end reporting.
• Perform detailed cost analysis, including product costing, job costing, and investigation of variances.
• Support the Financial Controller with financial analysis, periodic returns, and audit requirements.

Costing, WIP & Operational Insight

• Analyse costing data from the ERP system to ensure accuracy, completeness, and integrity.
• Liaise with Production and Operations teams to establish accurate work-in-progress (WIP) figures.
• Maintain costing data throughout the month to support timely reporting and forecasting.
• Investigate anomalies and discrepancies in operational and financial data, providing clear explanations and recommendations.

Data, Analytics & KPI Reporting

• Design, build, and maintain Excel-based reports and KPI dashboards to support financial and operational decision-making.
• Extract and manipulate data from ERP and other business systems using Excel, SQL, and Power Query.
• Produce regular reporting, including weekly sales and orders, reconciling operational data to the general ledger.
• Improve the automation, reliability, and presentation of management information and analytics.

Business Partnering & Continuous Improvement

• Work closely with stakeholders across the business to understand reporting requirements and provide analytical support.
• Contribute to improvements in data quality, reporting processes, and financial controls.
• Support ad-hoc analysis and project work within the Finance team as required.

Skills & Experience

Essential

• Strong analytical skills with high attention to detail and accuracy.
• Advanced Excel capability, including pivot tables, formulas, and data handling.
• Experience analysing financial and operational data within a manufacturing or similar environment.
• Ability to interpret ERP system data and translate it into meaningful commercial insight.
• Confident communicator, able to explain financial information clearly to non-finance stakeholders.

Desirable

• Experience using SQL / T-SQL for data extraction and analysis.
• Practical use of Power Query or similar data transformation tools.
• Costing or management accounting experience within a production environment.
• Exposure to KPI development, dashboarding, or business intelligence reporting.

Personal Attributes

• Curious, proactive, and improvement-focused.
• Highly organised, able to manage multiple analytical tasks concurrently.
• Comfortable working with large and complex datasets.
• Commercially minded with a strong problem-solving approach.