Interim Project Accountant

Sewell Wallis is partnering with a leading South Yorkshire PE-backed business in Sheffield, who are seeking a highly skilled Project Accountant to join their team on a 9-12 month maternity cover contract. This is an exciting opportunity to contribute during a pivotal growth phase for the company, combining essential accounting duties with a focus on process automation, system integration, and driving continuous improvements.

If you have a strong background in change management and systems automation, this role is ideal for you, as you'll be key to enhancing operational efficiency and reducing manual tasks across the business.

What will you be doing?

• Lead projects focused on streamlining finance processes and minimising manual work.
• Champion system adoption by encouraging wider use of Sage Intacct and Salesforce in finance workflows.
• Act as a change agent, influencing key stakeholders and embedding best practices.
• Support the month-end close process, including preparing and posting journals, accruals, and prepayments.
• Assist with monthly management accounts, variance analysis, and collaboration with the Management Accountant.
• Maintain and reconcile balance sheet control accounts, resolving discrepancies as needed.
• Process monthly payroll for approximately 140 employees across two companies using Sage, ensuring compliance with UK payroll legislation.
• Manage supplier relationships and resolve queries, ensuring timely payments within internal authorisation limits.
• Prepare and process weekly supplier payment runs, ensuring alignment with internal controls.
• Maintain accurate cash and bank records, including daily reconciliations and appropriate transaction allocations.
• Use Sage Intacct to produce financial reports, process transactions, and streamline workflows.
• Reconcile complex data sets as part of month-end activities and reporting.
• Support year-end accounts and assist with audit schedules, liaising with auditors as necessary.
• Provide finance support to other departments, including handling coding queries and assisting with budget tracking.
• Collaborate with the Financial Controller and Finance Director on ad-hoc tasks and continuous improvement initiatives.

What skills do we need?

• Qualified Accountant (ACA/ACCA/CIMA or equivalent) with practical experience in a fast-paced SME or scale-up environment.
• Proven track record in leading systems and process change projects in finance, with strong stakeholder management skills.
• Comfortable balancing hands-on accounting work with strategic projects.
• Experienced with cloud-based finance systems (Sage Intacct experience is a plus).
• Advanced Excel skills with the ability to translate manual processes into automated workflows.
• Experience supporting external audits and preparing audit schedules is desirable.
• Proactive in process improvement, with a strong commitment to maintaining robust internal controls.

What's on offer?

• Hybrid working: 3 days in the office
• 25 days annual leave + bank holidays (Pro-rata for contract length)
• Enhanced pension scheme
• Healthcare benefits

Apply for this role below, or for more information, contact Kayley.

To apply please send your CV, quoting our reference and specifying which website you saw this position advertised on. Due to the high volume of applications please accept that if we have not responded to your application within seven days, your application has not been successful. Sewell Wallis is a specialist recruitment company with a vast amount of experience in our industry we offer permanent, temporary and interim recruitment support for accounting and finance, human resources and business support positions. We recruit at all levels within finance from Purchase Ledger Administrator and Credit Controller level through to Financial Controller and Director positions. With offices in Sheffield and Leeds, we are well situated to cover all of South Yorkshire, West Yorkshire and Manchester. Please visit our website for more information on accountancy and finance jobs and human resources or business support positions.