Finance Manager
13 days ago
Congleton
This expanding business in Congleton is looking for a Finance Manager to lead a small team. Please see the details below: \n \n Role purpose \n The Finance Manager will take ownership of the day-to-day finance function and provide the Managing Director with accurate, timely and commercially useful financial information. This is a hands-on position in a small finance team, combining transaction-level oversight with management accounts, cash-flow control and process improvement. \n \n Key responsibilities:Financial operations and control \n\n • Lead the day-to-day finance function while remaining actively involved in bookkeeping, reconciliations and transaction processing.\n, • Maintain accurate accounting records, ensuring information is complete, consistent and up to date.\n, • Oversee sales ledger, purchase ledger, bank reconciliations, expense processing, VAT returns, payroll inputs and payment runs.\n, • Ensure sales invoices are raised promptly, supplier invoices are correctly authorised and all balance sheet control accounts are regularly reconciled.\n, • Manage credit control proactively, resolving queries quickly and escalating overdue or high-risk balances.\n, • Maintain an effective month-end timetable and provide accurate information to the company's external accountants for statutory accounts and tax compliance.\n, • Maintain clear project-by-project records of purchase orders, client receipts, supplier commitments, payments, fees and outstanding balances.\n, • Work with the team to prepare, monitor and reconcile client budgets, highlighting overspends, missing costs, timing risks and variations promptly.\n, • Prepare short-term cash-flow forecasts that distinguish operating cash from amounts held or committed for client projects.\n, • Ensure suppliers are paid accurately and on time without exposing the business to avoidable working-capital risk.\n, • Produce a reliable monthly management accounts pack, including profit and loss, balance sheet, cash flow, aged debt, aged creditors and relevant commentary.\n, • Develop practical reporting by client, project, service line or event where the underlying systems and data allow.\n, • Provide the Managing Director with concise explanations of performance, cash requirements, risks and actions needed.\n, • Support budgeting, forecasting and variance analysis, maintaining clear assumptions and following up agreed actions.\n, • Supervise, support and develop the Accounts Assistant, setting clear priorities, checking work and maintaining appropriate segregation of duties.\n, • Create and maintain documented workflows, standard operating procedures, checklists and a finance calendar so key activities can continue during absence or staff changes.\n, • Identify capacity constraints and provide evidence-based recommendations when additional resource or external support is required.\n, • Lead the practical digitalisation of finance processes, reducing manual work and duplication while improving control, visibility and data quality.\n, • Promote a responsive, service-focused finance culture that works constructively with the wider business.\n, • Maintain appropriate financial controls, approval limits and audit trails for banking, payments, supplier changes, client receipts and journal entries.\n, • Protect against fraud and error through independent verification of bank-detail changes and secure payment processes.\n, • Ensure compliance with VAT, payroll, record-keeping and other routine financial obligations, seeking specialist advice where needed.\n, • Maintain suitable records and support external reviews, audits, insurance queries and due-diligence requests.\n, • Work closely with the Managing Director, providing clear, timely financial information and practical advice.\n, • Build effective relationships with clients, suppliers, external accountants, payroll providers, banks and other professional advisers.\n, • Explain financial information clearly to non-finance colleagues and promote shared ownership of accurate, timely data.\n, • Proven experience managing a small finance function and delivering accurate end-to-end accounting processes.\n, • Strong hands-on bookkeeping and management accounting capability, including month-end, balance sheet reconciliations, cash-flow forecasting and credit control.\n, • Experience supervising or developing finance staff and improving ways of working.\n, • Confident using cloud accounting software, ideally Xero, with strong Excel skills and the ability to learn industry-specific systems.\n, • Ability to manage high volumes of detail and competing deadlines without losing sight of cash, risk or client service.\n, • Clear communicator who can make financial information accessible to non-finance colleagues.\n, • Proactive, organised and comfortable challenging established processes constructively.\n, • Qualified by experience, part-qualified or fully qualified accounting professional. Relevant qualifications may include AAT, ACCA, CIMA, ACA or equivalent.\n, • Experience gained across more than one sector or business model is desirable.\n, • Month-end reporting is accurate, useful and delivered to an agreed timetable.\n, • Cash-flow forecasts, debtor follow-up and supplier payment planning prevent avoidable cash pressure.\n, • Client project funds and supplier commitments are fully reconciled, visible and controlled.\n, • Finance processes are documented, consistently followed and not dependent on one person.\n, • The Managing Director and operational teams receive timely answers and clear financial insight.\n, • Manual work, duplicated entry and recurring errors reduce over time.\n\n Please submit your CV for immediate consideration.