Senior Finance Business Partner

Job summary

The senior Finance Business Partner will assist the Financial & Commercial Director with both the day-to-day management and development of the Finance department to support the efficient operation of the business.

The position will champion a customer service approach throughout the business and both demand and deliver quality information to drive value. The Finance Business Partner will support the Finance & Commercial Director in the planning, execution and management of the Finance strategy including the relationships with other teams. This role will engage with Depot Management roles in ensuring that the day-to-day running of the business is correctly managed.

Main Responsibilities

• Delivering information to the business that is accurate, timely, user-friendly, concise and fundamentally adds value.
• Working with each team within the business to evaluate the key reporting requirements, agree format and content and ensure all users can understand the message.
• Providing a genuine customer focused service.
• Growing company profitability and value through critical analysis of business performance and linkage to underlying drivers.
• Development of business cases, considering alternatives to support decision making utilising a variety of financial metrics and tracking to ensure these deliver the anticipated rate of return.
• Challenging and driving down business costs or supporting investment where business benefits.
• Establish a clear framework for the flow of information both to and from the operation.
• Ensure total integrity and transparency of all reporting and financial data, having an awareness of the differences between IFRS and UK GAAP.
• Promote teamwork within the Finance function and improve the team’s knowledge and confidence.
• Undertake such duties as may reasonably be required by the Financial & Commercial Director.
• Assist and participate in such projects that may require joint input by the Heads of Departments.
• The duties listed above are not exhaustive.

Specific responsibilities

• Manage the preparation of the monthly management accounts and variance analysis and commentary for Metroline Manchester, within deadlines set and ensuring that management has a full understanding of the company performance against budget.
• Manage the integrity and accuracy of Financial Systems, challenging anything that looks unusual or is unexpected.
• Leading the critical area of revenue accounting including liaising with external providers e.g., TfGM.
• Ensure that all internal controls are operating effectively, including ensuring accurate reconciliations are prepared.
• Act as custodian for Corporate Governance, ensuring standards are complied with relating to bank mandates and financial authority limits.
• Understand and model the impact of changes to customer requirements.
• Review of monthly journals.
• Review of the Balance Sheet to ensure that it is a true and fair reflection of the financial position of the company.
• Support the Finance & Commercial Director in preparing reports, reconciliations and supporting documentation for Statutory, Interim and Internal Audits.
• Collate, investigate and make recommendations for investment appraisals and business case analysis to aid business decisions.
• Model and analyse cost base and identify and drive opportunities and efficiencies to achieve area targets.

Competencies & Skills

• An understanding/appreciation of the service requirements and the management of day-to-day operational issues.
• Ability to manage own workload effectively and apply flexibility to achieve deadlines.
• Excellent interpersonal and organisational skills.
• Exceptional customer service skills with a natural flair of providing support and guidance and going ‘the extra mile’.
• Ability to use initiative and identify solutions when a problem or difficult situation arises.
• Able to work with large volumes of data, identify trends and summarise key messages.
• Capable of budgeting ‘bottom up’ using core business drivers to generate realistic and challenging budgets. Able to reforecast ensuring that business drivers produce reliable and repeatable forecasts.
• Excellent written and spoken English with the ability to communicate at all levels.
• Ability to influence and persuade key decision makers.
• Excellent attention for detail.
• Ability to interpret and present statistical data.
• Able to build lasting relationships with internal and external stakeholders.
• Must be a team player and willing to develop others to increase team and individual performance.
• Excellent written and spoken English and ability to communicate at all levels.
• Minimum of 1 years’ experience Financial Reporting / Finance Business Partnering.
• Exposure to Oracle accounting system desirable.
• Ability to learn quickly and adapt skills to the task in question.
• Ability to think creatively and be proactive in making progress.
• Be a good team player and show a willingness to try new tasks, improve the efficiency of processes and help out other team members as and when required

Essential Criteria for application

• Qualified ACCA, CIMA or ACA qualification with at least 5 years post qualification experience.
• Demonstrable experience of good all-around accounts experience including management accounts, analysis and balance sheet reconciliations.
• Skilled in the use of IT systems, specifically Finance Systems (e.g., Oracle, SAP etc) and also PowerPoint, Excel, Word and Outlook. Strong Excel skills are essential, but not Macros/VBA.
• Flexible approach to working hours.

Hours of work/Location

38 hours per week, Monday to Friday but must be flexible to work over and above these hours if deemed necessary. Hybrid working Part homeworking by request.

The Equality Act

Metroline is an equal opportunity employer and all qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment with due regard to legal obligations for protected characteristics i.e. age, disability, marriage and civil partnership, gender reassignment, pregnancy and maternity, race, religion and belief, sex and sexual orientation.

Applications

To apply please email a covering letter of application and CV to Manchester Recruitment Team, joinmanchester@metroline.co.uk

Applications should include:

• the reasons you are applying for the post
• why you believe you are a suitable candidate
• any relevant qualifications or experience