Finance Manager

Global US owned Media Group is looking for a qualified Finance Manager to join its European Finance Team. Sat within a specific team of 10, the Finance Manager will report to the Financial Controller and will manage 3 accounting staff.

Duties

As part of a small Finance team, the Finance Manager will have "hands-on" responsibility for all elements of the workload, including review of invoices/expenses, balance sheet reconciliations, journal entries, and departmental costs centre reports. This requires the position holder to be comfortable in all elements of the production of financial and management accounts using Microsoft Excel (with downloads from Great Plains, the corporate accounting system) and completion of the compliance side of the Finance function, such as tax reporting, statutory accounts preparation, Sarbanes Oxley, external audit, and general correspondence on all matters.

The candidate will also take ownership of the IT function for the Group. This will involve driving the development of the financial controls and systems to ensure sustainability as the Group's centralised IT function expands to Europe. The role will therefore need someone with the ability to be able to deal with ambiguity and be proactive in changing financial system and controls. Confidence to deal with senior stakeholders in the group is also necessary, as the role will involve both financial and operational collaborating to understand the performance of the entities and its forecasting needs. Finally, as the function grows over the next few years this will have high visibility within the Group and managing multiple senior stakeholders and conflicting priorities is a must.

As a manager, the position holder will manage the finance staff's logistical/job scheduling and determine priorities as well as assisting the Financial Controller and Finance Director with any ad hoc duties and ensuring deadlines are met.

Key Tasks:

• Monthly reporting of Operational and Holding Co entities including reporting to the US on HFM (corporate reporting package) as well as production of reconciliations of balance sheet accounts, journals for accruals, prepayments, etc.
• Monthly forecasting of Operational entities overheads in Cognos
• Forecasting of overheads and cash flow to DAS NY for DAS Europe
• Twice yearly calculation of retained earnings to enable dividend flow to DAS Europe from subsidiaries
• Review all journals prepared by staff for posting to Great Plains (accounting software)
• Approval of AP processing such as review and approval of overhead invoices through CORE and company staff expense claims
• Approval of payments via Treasury as well as monthly payment and expense runs.
• Review Leasing forecasts
• Review of Fixed Asset register
• Review control accounts (including bank reconciliations) for Treasury entities
• Review EC quarterly Sales List, quarterly VAT returns and annual European VAT recovery
• Manage process for recharging of a variety of costs to group companies and ensuring intercompany balances match at month end
• Preparation of National Statistic forms and other requirements
• Preparation of statutory accounts
• Quarterly tax calculations and annual completion of ITDC (US tax reporting system)
• Liaise with KPMG - external auditors
• Perform quarterly Sarbanes Oxley Testing
• Management of 3 staff to include regular monitoring of workload and periodic performance reviews

Requirements:

• Preference for a ACA qualified (or equivalent) from Practice
• ACCA / CIMA (or equivalent) Qualified candidates from industry will also be considered
• Confident communication / interpersonal skills
• Excellent time management to ensure tight reporting timetables are met.
• Excellent financial and management accounts preparation skills
• Excellent Microsoft Excel skills, including Pivot Tables and complex formulas
• Good people management skills at all levels, including senior management
• Outgoing, sociable, team player