Practice Accountant - West pa

Practice Accountant
West Lancashire | Hybrid Working | Up to £50,000 per annum

A well-established specialist accountancy firm is looking for an experienced Practice Accountant to join the team.

This is an excellent opportunity for an accountant with previous accountancy practice experience who is looking for genuine responsibility, direct client contact and the opportunity to develop their management accounting and advisory skills.

The firm provides specialist accountancy and financial support to a portfolio of clients within the sports and leisure sector, giving the successful candidate the opportunity to develop specialist knowledge of a distinctive client base.

You’ll take ownership of a portfolio of clients, working closely with business owners, managers and finance teams. The role offers significant client exposure and the opportunity to become a trusted adviser, rather than simply producing the monthly numbers.

You’ll be responsible for delivering accurate and insightful management information to your clients, including:

• Preparing monthly management accounts, including P&L, balance sheets and supporting schedules
• Reviewing performance against budgets and prior periods and providing variance analysis
• Monitoring cash flow and working capital
• Preparing and reviewing VAT returns
• Maintaining balance sheet reconciliations
• Supporting budgeting, forecasting and year-end accounts preparation
• Analysing financial performance and highlighting trends, risks and opportunities
• Working directly with clients to explain their financial results and respond to queries
• Helping clients improve financial processes, controls and reporting

This is a client-facing role, so you’ll need to be comfortable explaining financial information to non-financial stakeholders and providing practical, commercially useful insight.

Previous accountancy practice experience is essential.

You will ideally be:

• ACA, ACCA or CIMA qualified, part-qualified, approaching qualification or QBE
• Experienced in preparing and reviewing management accounts
• Confident with P&L, balance sheets, cash flow and financial analysis
• Experienced with VAT and balance sheet reconciliations
• Comfortable analysing budgets and explaining variances
• Confident communicating with non-financial stakeholders
• Highly organised and able to manage recurring monthly deadlines
• Proactive, commercially minded and committed to excellent client service

The ability to understand clients' businesses and turn financial information into useful commercial insight is particularly important.

The salary on offer is up to £50,000 per annum, depending on experience. This is a full-time, permanent role, initially office-based with hybrid working available once established in the role.