Accounts Assistant

Who we are and what we do

We, Hachette UK Distribution, are the leading book distribution company in the UK. We are one of the most advanced distribution centres in Europe, with leading-edge automation and modern systems which will ensure world-class service to customers and publisher clients. We ship in excess of 60 million books globally each year and supply one out of every four books to the UK trade.

Our mission is to make it easy for everyone to discover new worlds of ideas, learning, entertainment and opportunity.

Hachette UK Distribution is part of the Hachette UK publishing group.

The Accounts Assistant position within the Distribution Finance department is a varied and rewarding opportunity for a motivated individual seeking to grow and develop their finance career.

The role provides key support to the Distribution Finance team and senior stakeholders through the coding and routing of invoices, recharging transport related charges through detailed analysis, weekly sales analysis, calculation and raising monthly sales invoices and sundry invoices, answering publisher queries, managing the suppliers and resolving associated queries and/or discrepancies.

The position plays an important role in providing accurate and timely financial data to support business decision-making. The successful candidate will be comfortable working with excel, and ideally SAP or a similar ERP, while ensuring the maintenance of accurate, compliant, and well-controlled financial records.

The role would suit a proactive individual with a positive, can-do attitude and strong communication skills, both written and verbal. The ability to work collaboratively as part of a team, as well as with stakeholders across the wider organisation, is essential.

The position is ideal for someone looking to further their accounting knowledge, system expertise, and process improvement skills.

• Organisation, coding, routing for authorisation and chasing of all division accounts payable invoices.
• Analysis and summarising of transport related invoices to client level costings.
• Calculating and raising of monthly sales invoices to clients for our services.
• Calculation of premium carriage charges to include on client invoices.
• Raising and chasing of sundry invoices.
• Calculation and crediting of Mixed Damages.
• Answering publisher queries.
• Own the weekly sales process.
• Manage Supplier related queries, ensuring prompt and proactive resolution.
• Maintenance of several analysis spreadsheets.
• Support the maintenance of financial systems and contribute to continuous process improvement initiatives.
• Understanding other areas within finance team to provide support and create resilience within the team.
• Provide ad-hoc support to the Distribution finance team as required.
• Any other duties as may be reasonably requested in line with the job role.

• Respond promptly and professionally to client queries in line with agreed Service Level Agreements.
• Ensuring that Clients’ key reporting requirements can be met where possible.
• Maintain strict confidentiality at all times in relation to financial data and sensitive business and Publisher information.

Knowledge, Experience &

Qualifications:

• Experience with in a similar accounting role.
• Experience of liaising with colleagues and customers at all levels.
• Owner mentality towards managing own workload and prioritise effectively.
• Experience of working with SAP or other large ERP systems.
• Experience working on some similar month end tasks.

Skills & Attitudes:

• High level of attention to detail.
• Excellent organisational skills.
• Positive with a “can do” attitude and demonstration of growth mindset towards development of role.
• A hunger to learn and understand.
• Flexible and can work under pressure and on own initiative.
• A good communicator with the ability to prioritise and build strong relationships across multiple functions/businesses at all levels.
• Able to use own initiative and proactively identify areas for improvement.
• Excellent IT skills including (Microsoft Word, Excel, Teams and Outlook).
• Be flexible and a team player.

Our people are our greatest…