Financial Controller

P.Louise is one of the fastest growing beauty brands in the UK, trading across Shopify, Tik Tok Shop, Boots wholesale, our own physical retail sites at the Trafford Centre and the P.Louise Empire, and international markets across the EU and US. We move quickly, we launch constantly, and we sell at real volume across a lot of channels at once.

That pace is the opportunity and the problem. The data exists, but too much of it lands late, lives in spreadsheets, and takes too long to turn into an answer. We need a Financial Controller who owns the numbers end to end and, more importantly, owns what the business does with them.

Own management information at P.Louise end to end. Deliver a fast, accurate close and turn it into clear margin insight the business can act on, while it still matters. Fix the processes between Finance and every other department so the numbers are right at source rather than corrected after the fact.

This is the centre of the role. MI at P.Louise is owned here, from source data through to the commentary that lands in front of the board.

• Own the full MI suite. Monthly management accounts, board pack, and channel and country reporting across every entity in the group. One owner, one version of the truth.
• Own the reporting calendar. Publish to a fixed timetable that the business can plan around. Timeliness is not negotiable. A good number next week is worth less than a solid number on the day.
• Reconcile the sources. Finance reporting must tie back cleanly to Shopify, Tik Tok Shop, Triple Whale, the WMS and Xero, with any differences explained rather than absorbed.
• Answer the so what. Every report should tell the reader what changed, why it changed, and what to do about it. Reporting that only restates the number is not doing its job.
• Support the trading rhythm. Work alongside Ecommerce, Merchandising and Retail on daily and weekly trade reporting, and bring the profit view into the trade meeting rather than leaving it as a revenue conversation.
• Forecasting and reforecasting. Own the P&L forecast and rolling reforecast, hold the business to it, and explain variance to forecast and to prior year with the same clarity every month.
• Retire manual reporting. Replace spreadsheet driven packs with automated, repeatable reporting so the team spends its time interpreting rather than building.

We know what we sell. We need to be far sharper on what we keep.

• Own gross margin. Margin reporting by SKU, category, channel, country and campaign, refreshed to a reliable cadence and trusted across the business.
• Landed cost accuracy. Make sure product cost genuinely reflects FOB, freight, duty, and inbound handling, and that cost changes flow through promptly rather than surfacing at year end.
• Contribution margin after variable cost. Build and own the view that goes past gross margin into 3PL and pick and pack, storage, outbound shipping, payment and gateway fees, returns, discounting and marketing spend, by channel.
• Channel profitability. A clear, defensible answer on how Shopify UK, EU and US, Tik Tok Shop, Boots wholesale and the retail sites each perform on the bottom line, not just on revenue.
• Challenge pricing and promotion. Provide first line financial input into pricing, discount depth, bundle and advent economics, and supplier and manufacturer cost negotiations, before commitments are made rather than after.
• Catch leakage early. Monitor return rates, shipping subsidy, over discounting, freight spikes, FX movement and supplier price creep, and raise them while there is still time to act.
• Answer the hard questions. Where are we making money, where are we not, what do we cut, and what do we put more behind.

Most reporting problems are process problems that started somewhere else. This role is expected to go and fix them at source.

• Own the interfaces. Take responsibility for how information flows into Finance from Ecommerce, Merchandising and Buying, Operations, Marketing, Retail and Wholesale.
• Fix it upstream. Where Finance is repeatedly correcting the same issue, redesign the process with the department that owns it instead of building another reconciliation.
• Set the standards. Agree cut off dates, data standards, coding discipline and clear service levels between Finance and the rest of the business, and hold both sides to them.
• Purchase order and cost discipline. Drive proper commitment capture, supplier invoice accuracy and approval routing, so cost is recognised when it is committed and not when the invoice appears.
• Be genuinely useful. Turn up to other departments with insight and options rather than requests and reminders. The…