Senior Accountant

London Borough Of Bromley; City Of London; On-site; GBP 47,000 - 72,000; Full time

Job summary

A local government authority in London is seeking a Senior Accountant to join the housing financial management team. This role involves overseeing budget monitoring, managing service accounts, and ensuring subsidy claims are optimized. Candidates should be CCAB qualified with substantial financial management experience. The position also requires skills in data analysis and the ability to utilize Power BI for reporting purposes.

Qualifications

• Significant financial management experience at a suitably senior level.
• Ability to deep dive into data and produce meaningful information.
• Knowledge of housing development schemes.

Responsibilities

• Lead on budget monitoring and annual budget setting for housing.
• Close the service's accounts at year-end.
• Ensure maximum subsidy through housing benefits claims.

Skills

CCAB qualified accountant

Financial management experience

Data analysis and visualisation

Knowledge of housing benefits

Critical thinking

Power BI expertise

Job description

Overview

Senior Accountant • Full-time • Permanent • £47,536 - £71,302 per annum. Bromley Council is looking for a senior accountant to join their housing financial management team. Reporting to the Head of Finance for Housing, Adult Social Care & Health, you will play a key role in contributing to housing's strategies for managing temporary accommodation and housing developments. Bromley is a great place to work and we are proud of the high-quality services we deliver to residents. The Council has been recognised as outstanding by Ofsted for its Children's services in 2024 and won an excellence in asset management award in 2021. Like many councils, we face financial challenges; however, there is sound financial management at Bromley which means that we are well positioned to support the Council to respond effectively. Oracle Fusion was implemented in 2022 and the finance team continues to explore opportunities where technology can improve our offer. Innovation, insight and the ability to influence a wide range of stakeholders will be vital in addressing the challenges ahead.

Responsibilities

• Leading on budget monitoring and annual budget setting for housing including demand lead areas such as temporary accommodation
• Closing the service's accounts at year-end and ensuring thorough workings for RO, RA and other returns to London Councils and grant funding organisations
• Knowledge of housing benefits subsidy and checking through subsidy claims, ensuring the Council maximises subsidy and minimises loss through avoidable errors
• Ensuring that housing developments maximise the Council's ability to cater for client lead demand
• Manage and lead the development of staff in supporting the delivery of the financial management offer to housing services
• Responding in a timely and substantive manner to Freedom of Information requests and external audit queries

Qualifications

• CCAB qualified accountant (consideration given to part qualified accountants) with significant financial management experience at a suitably senior level
• Seasoned ability to deep dive into data and produce meaningful information for managers, presented both via high quality graphical visualisations and narrative
• Knowledge of housing development schemes and the ability to review the financial and operational aspects and advise upon the particularities of these
• The Council may reopen its Housing Revenue Account and knowledge of the HRA rents, service charges and operations would be of benefit
• Keen sense of professional curiosity to draw reasonable conclusions from disparate data sources and triangulate between experts within the services
• High level of drive and initiative to support services by providing a critical ear and eye on interpreting facets of housing law and legislation
• If you have a zest for Power BI and can convert budget monitoring and budget setting outputs into a dashboard for the service, we would love to hear from you