Finance Practice Manager - Oxford, United Kingdom - Oxford Policy Management

Description

OPM are recruiting a Finance Practice Manager to join a high-tempo and business critical team.

The Finance Practice Manager is responsible for leading the provision of full project-based management accounting services across a specific practice area, including financial planning and analysis and budgeting support reflecting the organisations' valuesand objectives.

They provide customer focused financial partnering to meet the organisations current requirements & planned future developments. The role sits in the Project Finance team within the wider Finance Department.

They are responsible for supporting an entire practice and all the projects within it, generally around 50 projects with a revenue value of circa £20m.

They will directly support circa 10 projects and will line manage a small team supporting the remainderof the projects across the practice area.

Key Primary Responsibilities

• Provide proactive financial partnering to assigned client group, supporting and advising on financial management matters, operational decision making, driving organisational performance and building financial capability
• Develop trusted relationships with relevant stakeholders
• Provide analysis to practice management on the bid pipeline and advise on and approve bid budgets in line with the project governance framework.
• Work with the relevant stakeholders in the preparation of budgets, forecasts and longer terms financial plans, to agreed timetable assumptions and strategic priorities. Produce project & practice budgets and forecasts of sales, costs and cashflow workingwith project teams & commercial finance on revisions where necessary.
• Monitor financial performance against budget and forecast providing financial analysis, informative commentary and advice at project & practice performance monitoring meetings, explaining & verifying variance on budgets & forecasts and ensuring all issuesand risks are highlighted to Head of Project Finance and the Practice leaders and/or Portfolio leaders as appropriate.
• Deliver accurate and consistent project and practice reporting information to meet the needs of the project, practice and finance teams within the required timescales and SLAs.
• Ensure the timely provision of financial advice, decision support and direction for such areas as projects, tendering and procurement, as well as reviewing the viability of existing programmes.
• Provide advice and where necessary training to consultancy team members on financial matters, proactive use of management information and accounting for project activities
• Monitor and advise project teams to ensure projects are compliant with client, statutory and internal control requirements.
• Facilitate and manage project audits required by clients and provide requested project financial information to the annual audit.
• Manage, coach and motivate direct reports ensuring regular performance reviews and development conversations are held to maximise retention and drive performance
• Liaise with financial accounting and project teams to ensure project accounting records, including client invoicing and project data, are accurate & complete.
• Ensure that robust standards of financial control are maintained at all times, ensuring compliance with accounting standards, approval limits, ethical guidelines and all other compliance requirements.
• Support the project finance team to continually improve delivery through team working and continually improving procedures & systems.

Person Specification

Professional/Technical Skills, Knowledge & Experience:

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Professional knowledge:

• Qualified Accountant (CIMA/ACCA/ACA) or qualified by experience.
• Significant postqualification experience in a relevant environment
• A depth of management accounting experience including budgeting & forecasting

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Financial partnering and management:

• Experience of managing a small team, including managing for performance, being accountable, approachable and supportive in approach
• Significant experience of delivering proactive financial business partnering or Financial Planning & Analysis experience with a strong business partnering focus
• Strong Stakeholder Management; able to influence stakeholders at all levels across multi levels including senior management
• Successfully supported budget holders in understanding and creating business cases, and understanding what is required for good decision making

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Technical skills:

• Excellent numeracy
• Intermediate to Advanced level Excel capability with sound generalist IT capability (experience with Dynamics beneficial)
• Ability to understand high volumes of complex financial information
• Good communicator, adept at communicating technical/financial accounting information to those with nontechnical/financial background
• Experience of developing financial models to enable strategic and commercial decision making

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Attributes:

• High level of attention to detail
• Well organised and efficient
• Excellent communication skills, both written and verbal
• Selfconfidence and ability to influence others.
• Ability to work effectively as part of a team.
• Enthusiasm, persistence, presence and selfmotivation

Indicative Measures

• Accuracy and timeliness of reporting provision
• Internal customer feedback
• Proactive performance management of team members
• Employee satisfaction data or equivalent