Group Business Accountant

Who we are:

• an iconic brand with a history dating back 179 years
• a truly global business with customers in over 150 countries
• a unique combination of B2B and B2C Businesses

• be part of our Finance Transformation programme, reshaping our processes and the technology we use
• work closely with finance and business colleagues from around the globe
• ability to influence in an organisation of 1,600 people

• Preparation of monthly management accounts and reporting information for all Shared Services departments
• Responsibility for all property accounting (occupancy) including property finance leases globally
• Liaison with the FP&A team to ensure business activity is accurately reflected within the finance reports
• Accounting for sales transactions where multiple products are sold as a bundle (“group sales”)
• Preparation of files for quarterly review of costs by managers in the Facilities Management departments (UK, US, Hong Kong, India)
• Accounting for property and other administrative cost allocations (annually)
• Manage the invoicing for the UK subtenants in the UK properties
• Preparation of management accounting pack for external accountants in France
• Branch accounting for the Japanese branch of the Hong Kong legal entity (including taxes)
• Accounting for Life Assurance costs including allocation of costs to other businesses in the group
• Accounting for global travel costs managed through the Group’s external travel bureau (Egencia)Preparation of travel cost (Egencia) allocations
• Balance sheet reconciliations for central Shared Service departments and Group functions
• Monthly and Quarterly information reporting to Government departments (including UK National Statistics office)
• Assist with preparation of legal entity accounts
• Assistance with end of year audit queries, including US Insurance audit

Experience, skills and professional attributes

• Education and training

• Qualified Accountant
• BA/BS in Finance or Accounting preferred

• 
  Previous work experience

• Experience of management accounting including accruals and variance analysis
• Balance sheet reconciliations

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  Technology

• MS Office: Excel to intermediate level
• ERP: ideally Peoplesoft
• Google work suite, or similar collaborative work-tool

• 
  Languages

• English

• 
  Key skills

• Attention to detail and Accuracy
• Ability to manage own deadlines and prioritise work
• Good written and oral communication skills

• 
  Personal attributes

• Commitment to quality and timely service delivery
• An ability to work under pressure and to tight deadlines
• Self-motivator, eager and willing to learn
• Pro-activity and responsiveness

• 
  Interpersonal skills

• Able to communicate well with global colleagues and provide support to non-financial managers

• Accuracy of accounting
• Level of support provided to the business and own team
• Ability to meet reporting deadlines
• Timely and accurate completion and issue resolution of balance sheet reconciliations
• Timely production of budgets and forecasts
• Ability to provide well-presented information and insightful analysis of variances to plan