Trust Accountant/Assistant Accountant

Hachette UK Distribution; East Hagbourne; On-site; GBP 30,000 - 45,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

35 days annual holiday including Bank Holidays

Pension Plan and Life Assurance schemes

Company enhanced family policy

Reward programme for discounts

Cycle to Work scheme

Free onsite parking

Free tea and coffee

Job summary

Hachette UK Distribution is seeking a Trust Accountant / Assistant Accountant to manage trust ledgers and support financial operations. In this role, you will conduct financial reconciliations, prepare client statements, and handle queries, ensuring an efficient accounting process.

The ideal candidate will possess strong accounting skills, excel proficiency, and the capability to work independently within a fast-paced environment. We value initiative and a can-do attitude in our collaborative team.

We offer extensive benefits, including 35 days annual leave, a pension plan, and continued professional development opportunities.

Qualifications

• Experience in accounting roles with full ownership.
• Ability to maintain trust ledgers and perform financial reconciliations.
• Skill in data extraction and report creation.

Responsibilities

• Maintain the trust ledger and report on client’s trust ledgers.
• Conduct weekly and monthly cash reconciliations.
• Handle client queries and ledger amendments.

Skills

Accountancy knowledge

Intermediate to advanced Excel skills

Communication skills

Analytical skills

SAP experience

Tools

SAP

Job description

We, Hachette UK Distribution, are the leading book distribution company in the UK. We are one of the most advanced distribution centres in Europe, with leading‑edge automation and modern systems which will ensure world‑class service to customers and publisher clients. We ship in excess of 60 million books globally each year and supply one out of every four books to the UK trade.

Our mission is to make it easy for everyone to discover new worlds of ideas, learning, entertainment and opportunity.

Hachette UK Distribution is part of the Hachette UK publishing group.

What you'll be doing

The Trust Accountant / Assistant Accountant role within the Distribution Finance department is an exciting and varied role allowing the right candidate the opportunity to own it in its entirety.

This role is responsible for maintaining the trust ledger on behalf of our group and client publishers, and reporting upon each client’s trust ledger. This includes but is not limited to: weekly and monthly cash reconciliations for both third party and intercompany payment runs; monthly publisher statements; client sales’ reconciliations; and handling all related client queries and ledger amendments.

As a technical and client facing role, a good depth of technical accounting knowledge along with an ability to demonstrate an appropriate level of professionalism as a representative of Hachette UK Distribution Ltd, is desirable.

The role will require an independent analytical approach on areas such as financial reconciliation, reporting and process development.

Data extraction, report creation and scheduling from one of our systems also plays a part within this role. Training for this will be provided, with the idea that the candidate will be the department(s) go to for the maintenance of these reports.

Who we are looking for

The role is standalone, so experience of taking full role ownership and an ability to work autonomously is desirable.

The successful candidate should have a can‑do attitude with good communication skills, both written and verbal. The ability to work as a team player both within the department and outside it, with other members of the organisation, is essential.

The role would suit someone looking to further develop their technical accounting knowledge, process improvement and development skills.

As such, candidates are expected to have intermediate to advanced excel skills and be comfortable working with a number of different systems.

SAP experience is also an advantage.

What we offer

Our people are our greatest asset and our benefits reflect this. Therefore, we offer an extensive list of benefits that include:

• 35 days annual holiday including Bank Holidays
• Pension Plan and Life Assurance schemes
• Company enhanced family policy including maternity, paternity and shared parental
• Reward programme giving discounts, savings and cash back at numerous retailers
• 2 Community Days per year
• Cycle to Work scheme
• Generous discounts on books we publish
• Mental Health First Aiders / Champions and an Employee Assistance Programme (EAP)
• Wide-ranging training library
• Development Programmes including Mentoring
• Staff Events
• Many employee networks to join
• Free onsite parking
• Free tea and coffee

Our commitment

Hachette employs people on the basis of their abilities. We aim to attract and develop talent from a base as broad as the world of readers we want to reach, with a wide and representative range of age, faith, disability, race, gender, sexuality and socio‑economic, regional and cultural backgrounds.

If you are shortlisted and need us to make any adjustments to help you attend your interview, please let us know.

We will notify all candidates of the outcome of their application.