Accounts Assistant

Location: West Midlands

The opportunity
 
We are looking for an Accounts Assistant with strong communication skills to join a transactional Finance team in Droitwich for a well established family business.
This is a great opportunity for someone at the beginning of their finance career who wants more than a traditional desk based transactional role.
Alongside day-to-day finance responsibilities, 1-2 times a month, you will visit stake holders off site, and work directly with site teams to improve financial processes, resolve discrepancies and provide practical training around till management, banking and online payment gateways.
With just over 90 sites in England and Wales, you could be working with a wide range of people and environments. You will often be meeting people for the first time who have little or no finance background and who may be resistant to changing established ways of working. Because of this, your ability to communicate clearly, adapt your approach and build relationships quickly will be just as important as your finance experience.
You will be the face of the finance team when visiting sites, so confidence, credibility and a genuinely helpful approach are essential.

What you'll be doing

Site visits, training and relationship building
- Visit client sites approximately 1 to 2 times per month to support managers and operational teams
- Deliver practical training on till management, banking procedures, till float reconciliations and online payment gateways
- Explain financial processes and controls in straightforward, practical language to people without a finance background
- Build rapport quickly with site managers and stakeholders, creating positive relationships between operational teams and Finance
- Handle resistance to new processes positively and confidently, helping people understand why changes are needed
- Investigate cash variances and till discrepancies on site, working collaboratively with managers to understand the cause and find a solution
- Identify opportunities to improve processes and strengthen financial controls across sites
Banking and cash reconciliation
- Complete daily and weekly reconciliations across multiple sites
- Reconcile merchant receipts, till cash and online payment gateway transactions against bank accounts
- Investigate discrepancies and ensure issues are resolved accurately and promptly
Credit control and income collection
- Manage B2B accounts, party bookings and corporate invoices
- Support timely collection of outstanding monies
- Respond to queries and work with internal and external stakeholders to resolve issues
Wider finance support
- Work as part of the wider Transactional Finance team
- Provide support and cover across different areas of Transactional Finance when required
- Build your knowledge of the wider finance function and develop your accounting experience

What we're looking for
The person behind the numbers is particularly important for this role.

You will need to be:
- Confident communicating with new people and able to establish credibility quickly
- Comfortable delivering training to individuals and small groups
- Able to explain financial processes simply and clearly to people who do not work in finance
- Comfortable dealing with people who may initially be resistant to change
- Personable, approachable and confident representing the Finance team on site
- Naturally good at building relationships with stakeholders at different levels
- Accurate and organised, with good attention to detail
- Curious and willing to investigate discrepancies rather than simply identifying them
- Comfortable working independently when visiting sites
- Willing and able to travel to client locations around 1 to 2 times per month with own transport…