Finance Business Partner

Montagu Evans; London; On-site; GBP 40,000 - 55,000; Full time

Job summary

A leading property consultancy in London seeks a qualified finance professional to join their Finance team. This role involves business partnering with departments, supporting financial analysis, and improving reporting processes. The ideal candidate has a full accounting qualification and at least 1 year PQE, along with strong Excel skills. This position offers opportunities for development and involvement in new system implementations.

Qualifications

• Minimum 1 years PQE.
• Ability to build trust and rapport with stakeholders.
• Experience of implementing new systems preferred.

Responsibilities

• Business partnering with fee earning departments.
• Provide analysis of market information.
• Controlling month end billing process.

Skills

Strong communication skills

Solution driven mindset

Advanced Excel skills

Business partnering experience

Real Estate background

Education

Full accounting qualification (ACA, ACCA or CIMA)

Tools

Oracle Netsuite

Qlik

Job description

Overview

THE FIRM

Montagu Evans is an independent, market leading property consultancy. Headquartered in London with offices in Scotland and Manchester. Our work encompasses planning and development, specialist valuations and transactions across the United Kingdom.

We're a group of people that are excellent individually and exceptional together. We're people that care about people, not just bricks and mortar. We care about our legacy, we create spaces that people use to live, work, communicate and connect.

We're a partnership and the people who run the business are empowered to create their own teams to exceed our client's requests. This highly flexible and collaborative approach, tailoring the talent to the complexity of the work, has enabled us to develop an exceptional business that has spanned nearly a century.

We encourage an honest and straight forward approach to our work and relationships. We embrace individuality, whilst relying on working together and never accepting the status quo.

We give everyone the opportunity to be the best version of themselves. We trust and support each other. We recognise that our people are the heart of our success and only by identifying, supporting and promoting them will we be able to provide continued outstanding client service.

Together we are Montagu Evans.

Montagu Evans is committed to maintaining an inclusive work environment. One that embraces all everyone. Read more here https://www.montagu-evans.co.uk/about/diversity/

THE TEAM

The Finance team are an integral part of the firm and the Central Management Services department. The team is responsible for managing the firm's finance function in all areas: from credit control, to accounts payable, expenses, management accounting, billing, payroll, cash flow, budgeting and forecasting, as well as business partnering with the firm's fee earning departments.

We work with all areas of the firm and, in conjunction with other teams within the Central Management Services function, support and advise the firm's partners, departments and fee earners. Finance also provides financial information on a regular basis to the executive committee and to the salary and remuneration committees.

The team currently consists of a Chief Finance and Operations Officer (CFOO), Head of Finance, a Finance Business Partner (FBP), Financial Controller (FC), Senior Management Accountant, 3 Credit Controllers, Accounts Payable Manager, Partnership Accountant, and 2 assistant accountants.

This role will report into the Head of Finance, jointly business partnering with the incumbent business partner to provide business partnering and financial analysis support to all areas of the business. In addition to working closely with the wider finance function on billing, reporting, forecasts and budgets.

ROLE OVERVIEW

The individual will be responsible for assisting the Head of Finance with working with management teams and fee earners in the departments to help prepare forecasts and budgets, provide financial analysis on profitability and pricing for new, prospective and current jobs, and provide that partnership link between the fee generating departments and the central finance team. They will act as a central contact for any financial analysis and internal and external departmental reporting, including to clients.

The role will support the fee-earning departments in maintaining (and improving) WIP schedules, reconciling these to the Finance system, communicating monthly forecasts to the Senior Management accountant and providing appropriate challenge to Heads of Department as to revenue trajectory. The individual will also provide feedback and recommendations for improvement on departmental billing and process issues.

Despite being a well-established function in the firm, the role holds considerable scope for growth and development. Central to the role is improving reporting, forecasting and billing practices and processes for the departments, and beginning to create/adopt standardised procedures for pricing work and calculating profitability. The individual will work closely with fee earners to ensure that delivering value and driving profitability are embedded into the department's decision-making processes. This role would also liaise with the departments administrative and support staff, ensuring all financial administrative tasks and duties are completed with timely, efficient processes.

We are looking for a qualified finance professional (1+ PQE), with a proactive approach and a keen eye for detail. The individual will need to be "hands on" and able to work closely with team members, whilst building relationships with the wider departments.

This is an ideal opportunity for an individual that is willing to grow and change with the Finance team. The firm has recently implemented a new Business Information System (Oracle Netsuite), with a Business Intelligence layer (Qlik) so will be fully involved in making this a success from day 1.

Responsibilities

MAIN DUTIES & RESPONSIBILITIES

• Business partnering with the 3 fee earning departments and central management function, developing relationships with department sub-teams and fee earners, and providing real-time support and high quality analysis to inform commercial decision-making.
• Working with fee earners to calculate and review the profitability and pricing of prospective, new and existing jobs and projects.
• Providing analysis of market information to identify and track competitor trends
• Supporting ad-hoc business projects, for example helping business cases for senior lateral hires and preparing analysis reports
• Analyse cost drivers and value including benchmarking costs and making recommendations for improvement
• Maintaining (and supporting the evolution of) WIP, Pipeline and invoicing schedules, ensuring the records are complete and up to date and reconcile to Finance department systems
• Work with fee earners to assess and evaluate, on a job-by-job basis, the likelihood of jobs completing, and in so doing produce monthly forecast figures.
• Work with department heads to create detailed schedules, to assist with forecasting and budgeting processes, providing feedback and support to, Head of Finance, FC, and CFOO.
• Preparing financial reporting for the departments, in the most appropriate format for various forums, meetings, committees and other groups, in line with each department's reporting cycles.
• Controlling the department's month end billing process, performing checks to ensure that invoices are issued in line with Finance department procedures and encouraging/enforcing compliance
• Reporting Head of Finance, FC, and CFOO on billing issues, whilst considering potential solutions
• Calculate and verifying WIP values for the year-end financial statements and assisting with the audit process
• Working with department partners, FBP, Head of Finance, FC, and CFOO on the management and continuous improvement of fee-earning departments
• Ad hoc pieces of analysis and reporting, as and when required by the department's fee earners
• Ad hoc project work including support and training on the new Business Information System ("BIS" / Oracle Netsuite) and other systems development as required

Qualifications

DESIRED KNOWLEDGE, SKILLS, EXPERIENCE & QUALIFICATIONS

• Strong communication skills - both written and verbal
• A keen desire to drive improvement, with a solution driven mindset
• Full accounting qualification (ACA, ACCA or CIMA)
• Minimum 1 years PQE
• Advanced Excel skills preferred including Pivot tables and advanced formulae
• Business partnering experience. Ability to build trust and rapport with business stakeholders (junior and senior)
• Ability to juggle and prioritise competing priorities
• The energy and dynamism to identify, and pro-actively deliver improvements
• Real Estate background preferred but not essential
• Experience of implementing new systems preferred but not essential
• Experience of using Oracle Netsuite preferred but not essential
• Experience of Qlik preferred but not essential