Finance Systems Analytics and Reporting Manager

The Open University UK; Milton Keynes; Hybrid; GBP 46,000 - 56,000; Full time

Job summary

An established industry player is seeking a Finance Systems Analytics and Reporting Manager to enhance financial reporting and analytics. This pivotal role will leverage SAP BPC and SAP Analytics Cloud to support budgeting, forecasting, and reporting processes. The successful candidate will collaborate across departments, ensuring data integrity and fostering a culture of excellence in financial practices. If you are a qualified finance professional with a passion for analytics and reporting, this is an exciting opportunity to make a significant impact in a leading educational institution.

Qualifications

• Extensive knowledge of SAP reporting systems including BPC and SAC.
• Experience in financial reporting and analytics in a higher education context.

Responsibilities

• Create and maintain data models for reporting in SAP Analytics Cloud.
• Collaborate with stakeholders to gather requirements for budgeting and forecasting.

Skills

SAP BPC

SAP Analytics Cloud

Financial Analysis

Data Visualization

Power BI

Data Reconciliation

Collaboration Skills

Education

Qualified Accountant

AAT Level Finance Knowledge

Relevant Certifications in SAP

Tools

SAP BW

Power BI

Job description

Finance Systems Analytics and Reporting Manager

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Finance Systems Analytics and Reporting Manager

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Advert Reference Number: 732

Job Location: Milton Keynes

Department: Financial Accounting & Systems

Salary: £46,735 to £55,755

Closing Date: 12 May 2025

Weekly Working Hours: 37

Contract Type: Permanent Fixed Term Contract: End Date: Welsh Language: Not Applicable

About the Role

The Finance and Business Services (FBS) function is looking to recruit a Finance Systems Analytics and Reporting Manager to support the Open University’s Finance and Business Services team.

The Finance and Business Services team at The Open University is seeking an experienced and dynamic Finance Systems Analytics and Reporting Manager to lead and drive excellence in financial reporting and analytics. This critical role will focus on leveraging strategic reporting systems to support the university’s budgeting, forecasting, and reporting processes as the University transitions from BPC to SAP Analytics Cloud.

As the Finance Systems Analytics and Reporting Manager, you will be pivotal in managing SAP analytics tools while fostering collaboration across the institution. Your contributions will directly impact the accuracy, efficiency, and strategic alignment of financial processes within the university.

This is an exciting and dynamic role that is perfect for someone who, as a qualified finance professional, has a deep understanding of finance and is passionate about leveraging SAP BPC and SAP SAC tools to drive the group budgeting, forecasting, and planning process and contribute to the success of a leading educational institution.

Key Responsibilities

• Create and maintain data models that support various reporting requirements and integrate data from multiple sources into SAP Analytics Cloud.
• Develop clear and meaningful data visualizations that facilitate effective analysis and decision-making.
• Apply best practices in data visualization to present data in an understandable and insightful manner.
• Collaborate closely with stakeholders across the university to gather requirements and understand budgeting, forecasting, and reporting needs.
• Work closely with cross-functional teams, including IT, Finance, CDO, and other departments, to align reporting and analytics initiatives with organizational objectives.
• Conduct user training and write training documentation
• Be a key member of the FBS committee where changes and enhancements required to the systems are evaluated and prioritized
• Ensure data integrity and quality in the reports by validating and verifying data sources, transformations, and calculations.
• Adhere to data governance standards and guidelines to maintain consistent and accurate reporting.

Skills and Experience

Essential

• Have extensive and hands-on knowledge of SAP Reporting systems including BPC (standard), SAC, and SAP BW
• Significant experience in SAP BPC planning and forecasting systems.
• Good understanding of finance to AAT level with hands-on experience of working in finance.
• At least one end-to-end implementation experience of SAP Analytics Cloud solutions
• Experienced in supporting the development and maintenance of fully integrated BPC budgetary, forecasting, and planning models, collaborating with offshore IT support partner to resolve defects.
• Experienced in the design and development of interactive and visually appealing reports using SAP Analytics Cloud, ensuring data accuracy and relevance.

• Ability to carry out data reconciliation activities with ease and accuracy
• Line management of a Power BI (and potentially other systems) reporting analyst
• Good understanding of Non-SAP reporting tools including Power BI to guide and inform the production of visually appealing impactful reports.
• Excellent communication and collaboration skills, with the ability to work effectively in a cross-functional team environment.
• Ability to be flexible and work analytically in a problem-solving environment, address user queries and troubleshoot issues related to reports and dashboards.
• Ability to optimize and troubleshoot the performance of Power BI.
• Familiarity with SAP releases and features roadmap.
• Financial analysis skills to gather and interpret requirements from various stakeholders with the ability to bring user requirements to life.

Desirable

• Be a qualified accountant with significant experience in Accounting and Finance domain. Familiarity with financial reporting processes and standards.
• A sound technical understanding of Power BI reporting and planning tools best practices.
• Evidence within a higher education context.
• Relevant certifications in SAP BPC, SAC or related areas are advantageous
• Understanding of SAP Finance Products including S4 Hana, SuccessFactors, and Payroll

Essential Requirements

Flexible working: We are open to discussions about flexible working. Whether it’s a job share, part-time, compressed hours, or another working arrangement. Please reach out to us to discuss what works best for you.

Work location: It is anticipated that a hybrid working pattern can be adopted for this role, where you can work from home and the office. However, as this role is contractually aligned to our Milton Keynes office, some attendance in the office will be required when necessary and in response to business needs. We’d expect this to be at least once per week.

How to apply: To apply for this role, please submit the following as separate documents:
• CV
• Supporting statement, up to 1000 words, setting out your interest in this role and examples of your skills and experience meeting the required competencies as detailed in the job and person specification.

Early closing date: We may close this job advert earlier than the published closing date if a satisfactory number of applications are received. We encourage early applications.

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