Senior Management Accountant

JOB DESCRIPTION

Job Title

Senior Management Accountant

Department

Finance

Location

Beckenham

Hours

Full time Hours

Contract type

Permanent

Salary

£60,000 – £70,000

OVERVIEW

Eclipse Global is an industry leader in live event production, where we craft unforgettable experiences for clients through our cutting-edge audio-visual and scenic solutions. Our dedicated team of professionals brings exceptional events to life in all scales and formats. Currently, we're seeking technically strong and commercially minded Management Accountant.

This is a hands-on role with responsibility for establishing strong financial controls, reconciliations, management reporting and finance processes, while improving the accuracy and integrity of financial information across the business.

A key objective of the role is to take ownership of the detailed financial processes and analysis required to run an effective finance function, enabling the Finance Director to focus increasingly on financial strategy, business planning, commercial decision-making and supporting the CEO and leadership team.

The role will also play an important part in the continued development of Eclipse’s finance systems and reporting capability, including the planned migration from Xero to NetSuite.

The successful candidate will combine strong core accounting knowledge with excellent Excel, analytical, FP&A, project accounting and reconciliation skills and will be comfortable improving processes as well as performing detailed financial analysis.

MAIN DUTIES & RESPONSIBILITIES

• Management Accounting & Month-End Control
• Take ownership of the monthly management accounts process and ensure accurate and timely financial reporting.
• Prepare and review month-end journals, accruals, prepayments, deferred income, accrued income and other accounting adjustments.
• Develop a structured and controlled month-end close process with clear responsibilities, deadlines and supporting documentation.
• Ensure the integrity of the general ledger and investigate unusual or inconsistent balances.
• Produce monthly P&L, balance sheet and supporting management reporting schedules.
• Analyse actual performance against budget, forecast and prior periods and investigate significant variances.
• Provide concise financial analysis and commentary to the Finance Director/CFO.
• Ensure appropriate supporting documentation and audit trails are maintained.
• Financial Controls & Reconciliations
• Establishing a comprehensive balance sheet reconciliation process.
• Preparing and reviewing monthly reconciliations for all key balance sheet accounts.
• Investigating and resolving historic or unexplained balances.
• Ensuring reconciling items are cleared promptly rather than carried forward between periods.
• Reconciling information between operational systems, project records and the general ledger.
• Reviewing control accounts and ensuring transactions are correctly coded and allocated.
• Improving controls around revenue, costs, project accounting and month-end cut-off.
• Developing clear finance procedures and documented processes.
• Identifying weaknesses in existing processes and implementing practical improvements.
• Revenue Recognition
• Take responsibility for ensuring that revenue is recognised accurately, consistently and in the correct accounting period.

This will include:

• Reviewing project and job status at month end.
• Ensuring appropriate recognition of revenue in accordance with applicable accounting standards and Group policies.
• Preparing and reconciling accrued income, deferred income and revenue-related balance sheet accounts.
• Reconciling invoiced revenue to revenue recognised.
• Reviewing cut-off at month end.
• Working with operational teams to understand project delivery dates, completion status, cancellations and changes in project scope.
• Maintaining clear supporting calculations and documentation for revenue recognition.
• Identifying and resolving discrepancies between financial and operational project information.

Project Accounting & Profitability

• Maintain accurate financial information for individual projects and jobs.
• Review project revenue, direct costs, gross profit and gross margin.
• Reconcile project accounting information to the general ledger.
• Analyse actual costs against estimates, budgets and quotations.
• Identify margin erosion, cost overruns and unusual project variances.
• Review project closure and ensure all relevant revenue and costs have been recognised.
• Support improved reporting of project, customer and business-line profitability.
• Work with operational and commercial teams to improve the accuracy of project financial information.
• Provide analysis to support the Finance Director’s wider review of margins and commercial performance.

FP&A & Financial Modelling

Support the Finance Director and developing Eclipse’s FP&A capability.

Responsibilities will include:

• Supporting annual budgeting and periodic forecasting.
• Maintaining and improving financial models.
• Preparing analysis of revenue, gross profit, operating costs and business performance.
• Assisting with cash flow and working capital modelling.
• Supporting scenario analysis and sensitivity modelling.
• Analysing historical trends and identifying key drivers of financial performance.
• Preparing data and models to support strategic and commercial decision-making.
• Developing more efficient and reliable forecasting processes.
• Supporting the production of management, Board and Group reporting.

The role is expected to provide the financial modelling, data integrity and analytical foundation that allows the Finance Director to focus on interpretation, strategic decisions and business direction.

Finance Systems & NetSuite Implementation

The Management Accountant will play a key role in the planned migration of the finance function from Xero to NetSuite.

Responsibilities may include:

• Supporting the design and implementation of finance processes within NetSuite.
• Reviewing existing Xero processes and identifying opportunities to simplify or improve them before migration.
• Supporting chart of accounts design and financial reporting structures.
• Reviewing and cleansing financial data prior to migration.
• Supporting data mapping and migration.
• Reconciling migrated data to legacy systems.
• Supporting user acceptance testing and validation of financial outputs.
• Developing appropriate financial controls within the new system.
• Supporting the development of management reporting from NetSuite.
• Documenting new processes and procedures.
• Helping ensure that the implementation improves efficiency rather than simply replicating existing processes.

The successful candidate should be comfortable:

• Working with large financial data sets.
• Building and maintaining financial models.
• Using advanced Excel formulas and functions.
• Creating structured reconciliation models.
• Using PivotTables and analytical reporting tools.
• Using lookups, SUMIFS, INDEX/MATCH or XLOOKUP and other advanced functions.
• Identifying inconsistencies and errors within financial data.
• Improving and automating recurring reporting wherever practical.
• Designing clear and controlled Excel models that can be understood and maintained by others.

The Management Accountant will be expected to actively improve how the Finance function operates rather than simply maintain existing processes.

This will include:

• Reviewing existing finance processes and identifying inefficiencies or control weaknesses.
• Standardising recurring finance processes.
• Reducing unnecessary manual processing.
• Improving the quality and consistency of financial information.
• Developing appropriate review and approval controls.
• Improving reporting timelines and month-end efficiency.
• Documenting key finance procedures.
• Supporting greater automation of finance and management reporting.

Year-End, Audit & Compliance

• Support preparation of statutory accounts and year-end schedules.
• Prepare reconciliations and supporting information for external auditors.
• Respond to audit queries and maintain appropriate accounting documentation.
• Support the Finance Director/CFO with tax, statutory and Group reporting requirements.
• Ensure appropriate financial records and controls are maintained throughout the year.

Experience Required:

Essential Qualifications

• Fully qualified CIMA or ACCA accountant.
• Strong technical accounting knowledge.
• Strong understanding of management accounting and financial controls.

Essential Experience

• Strong hands-on management accounting experience.
• Ownership of month-end accounting processes.
• Extensive experience preparing and reviewing balance sheet reconciliations.
• Strong understanding of accruals, prepayments, deferred income and accrued income.
• Experience with revenue recognition.
• Experience of project or job-based accounting.
• Experience analysing revenue, gross profit and project profitability.
• Experience preparing budgets, forecasts and financial models.
• Advanced Microsoft Excel capability.
• Experience improving financial processes and controls.
• Strong analytical and problem-solving skills.

Our Commitment to Diversity:

We are an Equal Opportunities Employer and are committed to tackling systemic inequalities by being proactive in creating opportunities for people from under-represented groups. With this in mind, we welcome applications from all ethnic backgrounds, religions, gender identifications and sexual orientations, and from anyone who considers themselves to have a disability.

Why Join Us:

At Eclipse Global, we are committed to fostering a diverse and dynamic work environment where personal and professional growth is encouraged. You'll play an important role in our events’ preparation and delivery, helping us maintain our leading position in the live events industry. Ready to drive your career forward in the thrilling world of live events? Apply for our Senior Management Accountant role today!