Financial Controller

Firebird; London; On-site; GBP 55,000 - 75,000; Full time

Job summary

A music company in London seeks a skilled Financial Controller to oversee financial operations across multiple entities. Candidates should be qualified accountants with at least 2 years of experience in financial reporting, reconciliation, and compliance in a complex business. This role involves managing a team, preparing VAT returns, and ensuring timely financial control within the music industry.

Qualifications

• Minimum 2 years’ post-qualified experience.
• Experience in month-end close, reconciliations, VAT, and reporting.
• Background in music, events, royalties, publishing or entertainment preferred.

Responsibilities

• Oversee and manage financial operations and control.
• Prepare and submit VAT returns and ensure compliance.
• Reconcile revenue and expenses related to events and music publishing.

Skills

Attention to detail

Stakeholder management

Excellent Excel skills

Education

Qualified accountant (ACA / ACCA / CIMA)

Tools

Sage

Job description

Department: Finance, Firebird UK

Reports To: Finance Director

Job Summary:

Firebird is seeking a skilled and highly organised Financial Controller to oversee the financial operations of the group, which includes record labels, music publishing, music events/festivals and e-commerce. This role will ensure accurate reporting, compliance, and timely financial control while supporting the strategic direction of the business. The successful candidate will manage the junior finance team members and work closely with the Finance Director to maintain robust controls and deliver insight across a complex, multi- entity music group. It will most suit a practically-minded, hands-on Financial Controller with a minimum of 2 years’ PQE.

Key Responsibilities:

Financial Operations & Control (Group-wide)

• Oversee the Finance Assistant and Finance Manager for AP, AR, ensuring accurate workload distribution and timely delivery.
• Approve AR/AP journals and adjustments, and ensure a complete and timely month-end close, including balance sheet reconciliations.
• Oversee the weekly payment run, ensuring all transactions are properly approved and documented.
• Manage and review the weekly bank reconciliation process.
• Review Travel & Entertainment (T&E) spend, ensuring appropriate allocation to the P&L and coding to relevant projects.
• Assist with the annual audit including preparing lead schedules and reconciliations.

VAT & Tax (Group-wide)

• Prepare and submit quarterly UK VAT returns, fully reconciling reported sales to the general ledger and P&L. Liaise with tax advisers to prepare monthly overseas VAT returns.
• Oversee global VAT compliance, liaising with international agent on territory-specific filings.
• Reconcile withholding tax accounts related to events:
• Ensure overseas tax deductions are reconciled to contracts and invoices sent, recovering with support from the tax team.
• Ensure UK and Spanish withholding taxes are deducted from payments from label to overseas artists, ensuring same are reported and paid to HMRC and Spanish tax authorities quarterly as required

Record Label

• Perform monthly revenue reconciliations across five digital and physical distributors.
• Reconcile quarterly PPL neighbouring rights statements, coding to artist projects.
• Review and reconcile physical distribution statements, checking for accuracy in costs and deductions.
• Reconcile artist royalty invoices (~500 per quarter) against Curve royalty statements; ensure timely payment processing by the finance manager and assistant.
• Liaise with the Royalties Manager to ensure artist balances in Curve and Sage are fully reconciled at all times.
• Reconcile capitalised artist advances to the Sage balance sheet; review provisions quarterly with the Finance Director.
• Review monthly A&R and marketing spend, reclassifying recoupables to the balance sheet where necessary.
• Accrue distribution costs and allocate A&R/marketing spend to appropriate project codes.
• Liaise with the Finance Director to produce management P&Ls, allowing for analysis of spend to budget and management accounts.
• Review and allocate T&E spend related to label activity to specific projects where applicable.

Events + Festivals

• Reconcile monthly event revenue to the events diary and contractual agreements (80 events annually).
• Maintain monthly reconciliation of deferred revenue, releasing to P&L as events occur (e.g., Ibiza, festivals).
• Reconcile the prepayments account, mapping all spend to event budget categories and releasing to P&L in line with timing of events.
• Perform weekly reconciliation of ticket sales and cash receipts across 2 major international festivals.
• Match data to ticketing reports, ensuring accuracy by ticket type and tier.
• Populate management accounts schedules with updated sales, enabling the Finance Director to brief the events team on festival performance.
• Reconcile reports received from festival partners, including:
• Bar spend shares
• Partner-sold day tickets
• Merchandise sales onsite
• Ensure all related invoices are raised and accounted for correctly.
• Allocate production costs against budgets; flag variances and accrue for missing or delayed invoices.
• Review Marketing, T&E and other event-related costs, ensuring correct allocation to specific events.

E-Commerce

• Reconcile daily Shopify cash receipts to online bank and platform statements.
• Manage and reconcile UK and global VAT for e-commerce sales, ensuring partner compliance with local requirements.
• Reconcile inventory, manufacturing, and shipping reports against invoices received from suppliers.
• Analyse and allocate digital advertising spend to the correct P&L codes.

Music Publishing

• Book quarterly publishing income statements from major publishing partners.
• Liaise with the royalties team to ensure Sage and Curve publishing data are reconciled.
• Post monthly royalty accruals and, on a quarterly basis, coordinate writer-by-writer allocation of actual royalty expenses (~200 writers quarterly), releasing accruals accordingly.
• Reconcile Curve statements against invoices received from writers, ensuring timely payment and accurate accounting.
• Reconcile Capitalized Advances against Curve on a quarterly basis, liaise with the Finance Director on impairment provisions

Qualifications:

• Qualified accountant (ACA / ACCA / CIMA) with min 2 years’ post-qualified experience.
• Demonstrated experience in month-end close, reconciliations, VAT, and reporting in a complex, multi-entity business.
• Experience in music, events, royalties, publishing, or entertainment is preferred.
• Excellent Excel skills. Experience of Sage would be useful.
• Excellent attention to detail and the ability to work independently and manage multiple workstreams.
• Strong communication and stakeholder management skills; confident liaising with tax advisors, department heads, and third-party partners.
• Proven ability to manage and develop junior finance team members.

About Firebird:

Firebird is a next generation music company providing career and brand guidance to over 1,000 artists worldwide to help them develop and grow broader global audiences and build longer lasting, higher impact, more profitable careers.Redefining the intersection of music, technology and finance, Firebird has rich expertise across the spectrum of artist management and intellectual property creation, from traditional endeavors like touring and recording, to cutting edge marketing and consumer product development, to emerging digital platforms from gaming to AI.Firebird’s roster of partners includes some of the most important companies across the various aspects of the music landscape today including Red Light Management, Mick Management, Transgressive, Defected, Ntertain, Tape Room, Easier Said and many more.