Finance Assistant / Financial Accountant

Meeting Place; Bristol; Hybrid; GBP 25,000 - 30,000; Full time

Job summary

A leading company in Bristol seeks a Finance Assistant / Financial Accountant to support the Financial Controller. This role involves managing accounts payable and receivable, payroll, and operational tasks within a small finance team. The ideal candidate will have 3+ years of finance experience and advanced Excel skills. The position offers a salary of £25k – £30k, flexible working arrangements, and a commitment to professional development.

Benefits

Flexible working and hybrid working arrangements

28 days annual leave plus bank holidays

Pension contribution of 4%

Monthly expenses allowance for travel

Contribution to home working setup

Access to Employee Assistance Programme (EAP)

Cycle to work scheme

Life Assurance benefit

Commitment to learning and development

Qualifications

• 3+ years’ experience in finance administration.
• Advanced Excel skills including formulas, VLOOKUP, pivot tables.
• Competency with web-based applications like Xero.

Responsibilities

• Manage supplier invoice matching and posting to Xero.
• Provide excellent customer service by answering client queries.
• Record payroll data and process holiday, sick, and maternity pay.

Skills

Microsoft Excel

Attention to detail

Analytical skills

Organizational skills

Communication

Tools

Xero

Synergist

Job description

Finance Assistant / Financial Accountant

You will be responsible for assisting the Financial Controller in delivering a quality internal service to the business, this includes being the first contact for all client invoicing and supplier purchases.

The role is primary transactional finance but within an SME you can expect that the role covers a wider range of responsibilities. As a valued member of a small finance team, your job will be varied and challenging and as Meeting Place grows, there will be lots of opportunity for this role to grow with us.

Compensation and benefits

• Salary expectation linked to market: £25k – £30k based on experience.
• Flexible working and hybrid working arrangements.
• 28 days annual leave plus bank holidays. Additional days for your birthday and length of service, subject to conditions.
• Pension contribution of 4%.
• Monthly expenses allowance for travel and subsistence.
• Contribution to your home working set up.
• Access to the company’s Employee Assistance Programme (EAP).
• Cycle to work scheme.
• Life Assurance (Death in Service) benefit.
• A commitment to your learning, development, and training needs.

Main duties and responsibilities

Account Payable

• Provide data entry and database management for clients and suppliers into project management software, Synergist.
• Manage supplier invoice matching to PO and posting to Xero from Synergist / Hubdoc in a timely manner.
• Partner with the Financial Controller to reconcile the bank accounts on a weekly basis.
• Request and reconciling month end supplier statements.
• Provide completeness checks over all costs for the month end process.
• Manage the process of all company purchases on the company card, once authorised by Financial Controller or relevant budget holder.

Account receivable

• Provide excellent customer service externally by answering client queries timely and accurately.
• Client onboarding from contact to input onto our systems.
• Review, approve and send client’s monthly invoices and working with regions to resolve any issues with invoicing.
• Own the billing importing processes ensuring amounts imported are recorded accurately in the Xero General Ledger and reconcile monthly revenue to the billing plan.
• Send statements to clients on a weekly basis.
• Generate reminder emails and calls and resolving non-paid invoices with adequate challenge to our regional teams and recording all actions in the appropriate report.
• Ensure all purchase orders generated by the company are expensed back to the client with the use of Synergist reports.

Payroll

• Record payroll data in the company’s software system and ensuring the data remains up to date.
• Process holiday, sick, paternity, and maternity pay.
• Issue P45s and other necessary tax forms.
• Maintain compliant policies and procedures.
• Deduct tax and national insurance payments by making sure their tax codes are up to date.
• Reconcile to the HMRC portal and transmit FPS.

Operations

• Monitor daily the generic company email address and action as appropriate.
• Provide reception for inbound calls.
• Check for domain and website renewals and action appropriate POs for the renewals or closures for non-renewals with the appropriate person.
• Responsible for internal IT equipment, including purchasing and keeping the insurance and asset register up to date.
• Conduct training when required on company systems, mainly Synergist.
• Support regional departments on ad hoc enquiries.
• Provide support for improvements on the finance systems and internal processes to ensure efficient and effective use for users.
• Continually monitor, maintain, and review data quality and associated processes across systems, particularly Synergist.
• Undertake tasks which have been clearly defined in the event the Financial Controller is absent from their duties, these may include running reports for the Managing Director and Board, completing cash inwards in Xero, arranging supplier payments alongside the managing director etc.

Experience and skills required

• 3+ years’ experience of finance administration.
• Excellent Microsoft skills, with advanced level Excel skills (use of formulas, VLOOKUP, pivot tables).
• Competency with web-based applications such as Xero. Understanding of or previous experience with Synergist is advantageous.
• Strong attention to detail and able to prioritise tasks due to the fast turnaround of workload.
• Excellent analytical and numerical skills – you value getting things right and being above and beyond in looking at the details.
• Highly organised and a flexible team player with the ability to work proactively – you see your work as part of the team’s overall plan, and within that you’re happy driving your own workload or supporting team members with theirs.
• Confident, personable and is comfortable in communicating on the phone and through Zoom / Teams.

We’re the Meeting Place of deep knowledge and creative thinking. And we want to hear from you.