Financial Planning & Analysis Business Partner

Company description:

Vitaflo (International) Limited

For more than 25 years, Vitaflo has developed innovative specialised clinical nutritional products for inherited metabolic disorders, pediatric?kidney disease, and specialised diets such as the ketogenic diet.

Vitaflo products offer patients choice, flexibility, and convenience. We combine the latest medical research, together with insights on changing modern lifestyles to best support patients in the compliance of restrictive therapeutic diets.

Vitaflo continues its mission of Enhancing Lives Together with research and development at the heart of what we do.

Job description:

We are part of Nestlé Health Science and continue to expand our global footprint with a worldwide presence in Clinical Nutrition. Behind our pioneering company are people who drive breakthroughs in research and development, creating innovative impact.

Our employees are at the heart of what we stand for with 96% saying they are proud to work for us and 94% recommending Vitaflo as a good place to work.

Our Headquarters, based in Liverpool, is the hub of innovative and creative activity. We strive to be at the cutting edge of our industry sector with patients needs being at the forefront of our mind. We work collaboratively, share our knowledge and expertise and above all love what we do and why we do it.

Financial Planning and Analysis Business Partner

Vitaflo (International) Ltd are currently looking to recruit a Financial Planning and Analysis Business Parter on a permanent contract to work at its head office just outside of Liverpool city centre. Reporting directly into the Financial Planning and Analysis Manager, the FP&A business partner is an integral part of helping the FP&A team to meet the forecasting & analysis needs for key stakeholders within the finance team, wider Vitaflo business and Nestle, under the guidance of the FP&A Manager.

A large part of the role will be focused on current year forecasting for the dynamic forecast (DF) and Master Business Strategy (medium term forecast), predominately in the UK entity but also the overseas business units They will take on specific areas of the business to business partner for the forecasting processes, but also to provide analysis support and understanding to stakeholders within their designated departments and countries. The FP&A business partner will play a key role in ensuring the successful adoption of the newly implemented FP&A software within the finance team and will support their stakeholders in using and understanding the system. Also, they will be an integral part of implementation and rollout of phase 2 functionality of the system. The FP&A business partner will be a super user of the FP&A software and will ensure that they are developing capabilities within the system to meet the needs of the business and Nestle. This role will business partner departments in the business and is therefore highly collaborative with a requirement for excellent communication skills.

What will you do?

As FP&A Business Partner, your main responsibilities will consist of the following:

• Production of detailed bottom up and thorough Dynamic Forecasting (DF) for all P&L items allocated where all items can be explained and have back up schedules which can be adapted for timing differences easily.
• Scenario planning for different outcomes depending on a range of variable inputs in the FP&A planning system. Ability to communicate differences in scenarios to financial and non-financial stakeholders.
• Business Partner departments and Vitaflo Subsidiaries to clearly understand all actual costs and forecast costs to help set accurate budgets with variance analysis.
• Have a broad understanding of the sales forecast (maintained by FP&A Manager & Revenue reporting Analyst) to help inform discussion with the wider business and changes to the DF & MBS
• Provide analysis on business unit performance to aid with annual target setting including base, high and low performance targets. Monitor performance targets throughout the year to assist the business unit in understanding path to target achievement.
• Manages ad hoc forecast requirements between quarterly dynamic forecast submissions to deliver no surprises for monthly reporting. Understand drivers on any deviations and credibly communicate to manage internal and external stakeholder's expectation
• Translating annual forecasts into budgets into the ERP system to keep budget holders accountable, ensure large forecast updates are reflected in the ERP system budgets. Where departments submit POs outside of budget, assess feasibility of approving spend by discussing with budget holder and alignment of overall global results.
• Be a super user for the FP&A software and be a key advocate of the system, helping to deliver a smooth adoption and roll out of phase-2 and being a champion of its use throughout the business
• Create, develop and enhance performance dashboards in FP&A software which focus on the key financial metrics of the department or wider business, monitor key performance indicators and highlight trends and variances and recommend actions to improve.
• Support the FP&A Manager and Head of Finance in the production and understanding of Quarterly Business Reviews with our Parent company, dynamic forecast submissions and MBS submissions. Provide clear and concise high-level summaries of analysis of actuals, forecast assumptions and changes to allow a clear understanding of trends and the direction of global business finances
• Collate and track all risks and opportunities for departments which are not included in the Dynamic forecast submission for reporting to Nestle on a monthly basis
• Work closely with the management accounting team to ensure that all information collated by them which impacts future finances are fed into the forecast and / or risks and opportunities.
• Analysis of departmental results to gain a full understanding of costs, variances against budgets and previous forecasts and how these will impact the forecast. Explain variances and trends to key stakeholders for the business and collaborate to understand forecasting implications and trends
• Help to produce 3 5 year forecast which will inform MBS submitted to Nestle and capture impact of all planned business changes, such as portfolio and global expansions
• Involvement in Vitaflo's QBR cycle ensuring that outputs from QBR calls are captured in the DF and are fully understood
• Making improvements to forecasting cycles and software files and ways of working through own initiative and from suggestions of improvements from business areas.
• Support the FP&A Manager, Finance Team and wider business with any ad hoc analysis requests
• Build and maintain internal network at a range of levels to ensure effective business partnering which will enable accountability of results by budget holders for forecasting, and also support to those budget holders for analysis and understanding of actuals / business cases to make sound business decisions from
• Build business cases were needed to support stakeholders to understand financial implications of business decisions. Ensure thorough thought process and well-developed assumptions to enable stakeholders to fully understand and make sound business decisions from the analysis provided.
• Key contribution to FP&A OMP (operational master plan) to ensure objectives are aligned with those of the wider finance team and the business to support key priorities and deliver continuous improvement over the key areas
• Work with other members of the finance team and wider business as a project team member on OMP project delivery. Lead OMP projects where appropriate

Who are we looking for?

For this role, we are looking for applicants who possess the following:

• ACA, ACCA, CIMA qualified, part qualified or QBE
• Experience in a full end to end business
• Forecasting and business partnering experience essential
• Experience of working on ERP system and FP&A software (desirable not essential)
• Advanced MS Excel skills, data manipulation is essential e.g. Pivot tables, filters, lookups, ability to think and work creatively to meet business needs
• Excellent communication and organisation skills, report writing experience preferable
• Excellent analysis skills
• Ability to prioritise manage workload, stakeholders and competing priorities in order to meet deadlines

What we offer?

• Competitive salary
• 25 days annual leave (pro rata for part time) plus bank holidays and Christmas shut down
• Discretionary bonus scheme (subject to qualifying period)
• Gym membership/allowance (subject to qualifying period)
• Employer pension contribution (3% rising to 5% subject to qualifying period then matched to a maximum of 10%). Employee minimum contributions apply
• Private healthcare (subject to qualifying period)
• Volunteering opportunities
• Cycle to work scheme (subject to qualifying period)

At Vitaflo (International) Ltd, our values are rooted in respect - for our employees, our customers and our patients. That's why championing diversity and inclusion is so important to us; when we embrace different perspectives and give everyone the chance to be the best they can be, we can think in new, creative ways that grow and enhance our business. We are committed to equal opportunity for all, and we may collect relevant anonymized data for monitoring purposes during our candidate registration process.

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