Finance Business Partner

Walker Morris LLP; Leeds; Hybrid; GBP 45,000 - 50,000; Full time

Job summary

A leading legal firm in Leeds is seeking a Finance Business Partner to enhance strategic financial management. This pivotal role requires a fully qualified accountant with at least 2 years of Business Partnering experience in professional services. The successful candidate will provide insightful analysis and challenge senior stakeholders to drive informed decision-making. A competitive salary of £45,000 - £50,000 and opportunities for hybrid working are offered.

Benefits

Annual bonus scheme up to 10% of salary

Minimum 25 days annual leave, increasing to 31

Auto enrollment in workplace pension scheme

Death in service benefit of 4x annual salary

Hybrid and flexible working arrangements

Qualifications

• Minimum of 2 years' experience in a Business Partnering role.
• Ability to constructively challenge stakeholders.
• Experience in presenting to and influencing senior teams.

Responsibilities

• Support proactive management of lockup levels.
• Provide actionable insight to senior fee earners.
• Work with operational finance to resolve billing issues.

Skills

Financial Management

Stakeholder Management

Commercial Awareness

Excel Skills

Interpersonal Skills

Written Communication

Education

Fully qualified accountant (ACA, ACCA, CIMA or equivalent)

Tools

Excel

Word

Outlook

PowerPoint

Job description

Overview

Are you a qualified accountant with a passion for strategic influence and commercial insight?

As a Finance Business Partner, you'll play a key role in supporting department heads and senior fee earners-providing insightful financial analysis, meaningful challenge, and helping to drive informed decision-making.

This is a pivotal role that contributes directly to the Firm's strategic growth and continuous improvement in financial management. You'll work closely with senior stakeholders in a team that is central to delivering the Firm's long-term ambitions.

As the Finance Business Partner, you will:

Financial Management

• Support the proactive management of lockup levels across the Firm. Work with the Head of Commercial Finance to identify areas for improvement and meet with fee earners and Partners across the firm to discuss.
• Work with members of the operational finance team to understand where challenges exist in terms of billing and cash collection processes and partner with stakeholders across the business to resolve these issues.
• Deliver actionable insight to Partners and other senior fee earners on a timely basis with regards managing write off levels. Work with the rest of the Commercial Finance team to offer recommendations for improvement including reviewing pricing, reallocation of work and more timely monitoring of performance.

Strategic support

Investment in people

• Provide detailed financial analysis to assess the financial contribution of fee earners and identify where support and training is needed to improve financial management.

Profitable, Balanced Growth

• Provide detailed financial analysis to support the assessment of performance by individual, department or client and opportunities and risks associated with further investment.
• Work with fee earners to build commercial awareness, enhance client relationships and ensure proposals are profitable but competitive from a market perspective.

Innovation

• Support members of the finance department and wider business to share analysis to help improve current processes and facilitate project objectives.

Wider Responsibilities

• Work closely with the Head of Commercial Finance and the rest of the Commercial Finance team to understand the firm's strategic direction and the role that this position plays in the firm meeting these aspirations.
• Ad hoc / proactive analysis to influence decisions and support the rest of the team.
• Support the Finance Team in developing Trusted Adviser status with the business.

We are looking for:

• Fully qualified accountant (ACA, ACCA, CIMA or equivalent).
• A minimum of 2 years' experience within a Business Partnering role for a professional services firm.
• Can evidence the ability to constructively challenge stakeholders and experience of presenting to and influencing senior teams.
• Excellent IT skills (to include in depth experience of Excel), plus good working knowledge of Word, Outlook and Powerpoint. Exceptional organisational skills.
• Excellent interpersonal skills to enable the job holder to liaise at all levels within the department and wider firm.
• Excellent written and oral communication skills.
• Experience of working within a finance department, ideally in a commercially focused or business partnering role.

Some of our benefits include:

• Salary reflective of your experience, est. £45,000 -£50,000
• Earn up to 10% of your salary with our annual bonus scheme.
• Minimum of 25 days annual leave plus Bank Holidays per year increasing to 31 days with length of service, with the opportunity to buy/sell up to 5 days holiday per year.
• Auto enrolled into the workplace pension scheme, and we'll contribute a minimum of 6% of your salary.
• 4x your annual salary in the event of a death in service.
• Hybrid and flexible working for most roles with 40-60% of your time spent in the office.

Find out more about working at Walker Morris here

Company Values

Our shared values represent our culture and the things that are important to us. They define who we are as a Firm, as an employer and what we expect of our people. They provide direction and purpose by influencing the decisions that we make and the actions that we take. It's really important that all candidates and employees demonstrate these values in their day-to-day activities:

• Embrace the fact everyone is different and unique.
• You can be serious without wearing a suit.
• Never lose sight of the bigger picture.
• Two heads are better than one.
• Take the bull by the horns.
• We win & lose together.

Walker Morris is committed to being an inclusive employer. Our aim is to ensure our workforce represents our diverse society. We recognise that everyone brings their own unique capabilities and experiences to their work. We welcome applications regardless of sexual orientation, gender identity and expression, age, neuro diversity or disability status, family or parental status, race, religion or ethnicity.

We take great pride in being a Disability Confident Employer. If you need any reasonable adjustments throughout the recruitment process, please don't hesitate to ask.

Click here to find out more about our diversity and inclusion work.

Type of Working

Hybrid

• Ministry of Housing, Communities & Local Government
• Ministry of Housing, Communities & Local Government