Purchase Ledger Manager

We’re First Central Insurance & Technology Group (First Central for short), an innovative, market-leading insurance company. We protect the things customers love so they can get on with what matters to them in life.

Data drives us. It fuels our outstanding distribution, finance, technology and legal services. Our underwriting skills are built on data expertise; it creates the insights we need to give the right cover to the right customers at the right price. But, it’s the people inside and outside our business that power us. They make us stand out, help us succeed. We’re ambitious.

We’re growing. We’ve won awards.

Are you a finance expert who loves leading a team and making things run smoothly? We're looking for a Purchase Ledger Manager to join our Finance Operations team. If you're all about organisation, efficiency, and delivering a great service, this could be your next big move!

Thriving in fast-paced environments, you’ll be great at building relationships across the business and have a real passion for leading teams. Ideally, you'll be AAT qualified, with significant Purchase Ledger experience, Purchase Order process knowledge, and a knack for driving improvements.

You’ll be proactive and confident in stakeholder management and play a key role in championing the purchase order process across the business, ensuring they are raised prior to invoice and take the lead in designing clear and engaging training materials, including 'how to' videos and guides, to help educate the wider business – improving the process!

We're big on working flexibly - you'll spend most of your time working from home, with 1 day per week in the office at Haywards Heath, West Sussex - because collaborating with colleagues is always great, right? But of course, it’s your choice - if you prefer to be in the office more - that's good with us too.

Must-have skills to be successful in this role:

• Strong team management and leadership skills – you’re a great leader, have previous experience in high-performing purchase ledger teams and are known to develop your teams to the next level!
• Significant experience in running a high-performing purchase ledger team within a shared services function – you can demonstrate expertise in managing financial operations efficiently.
• Strong stakeholder management skills and ability to communicate effectively with senior managers, colleagues, internal and external stakeholders – you know collaboration (teamwork makes the dream work), how to get your message across, how to resolve issues all whilst ensuring adherence to SLA’s.
• Strong analytical skills and ability to drive process improvement
  , based upon analysis of data – you know your financial processes and have proven experience in enhancing efficiency.

What’s involved:

Leadership:

• Manage the Purchase Ledger team to provide an excellent service and to provide assurance that there are no financial control issues that could impact the business.
• Develop and implement a team structure that is efficient and effective.
• Manage the team to ensure it is high performing and a great place to work.
• Deputise for the Group Financial Operations manager when appropriate.
• Provide support and cover for the other Financial Operations Team Managers.
• Drive efficient issue resolution both within the team and with the wider business.
• Build strong relationships with stakeholders across the business areas.
• Conduct colleague management duties including:
  Coaching and feedback to team leads to achieve KPI’s and SLA’s;
  All colleague issues including monitoring absence and conducting disciplinaries;
  Assist the recruitment process where necessary.

Purchase Ledger Management:

• Responsible for ensuring external payments are paid timely within terms to suppliers and colleagues.
• Proactively identify and manage issues to resolution. Signpost issues to upper management with clear routes to green and manage expectations.
• Drive the Procure to Pay process with the business to ensure adherence and liaise with senior stakeholders where appropriate.
• Provision of monthly dashboards and other MI to demonstrate team metrics and adherence to SLAs.
• Run the monthly Payment control meetings with senior…