Finance Accountant

The Vacancy

Primary Job Purpose

The Finance Accountant will be responsible for preparing accounts and budgets for a portfolio of Developments, business partnering Area Managers and Regional Operations Managers and either overseeing a functional area of the Services business (e.g. Catering, Facilities Management, Utilities, Payroll)

Key Responsibilities

Accounting

• Prepare and distribute year end accounts for Developments within the required timescale.
• Ensure robust process and controls are in place.
• Key contact for the auditors, ensuring audit queries are cleared on time.
• Prepare robust commentary for the annual reports.

Budgeting

• Prepare and distribute budgets within the required timescale.
• Work closely with the Area Managers to come up with realistic and reasonable budgets.
• Prepare robust and clear commentary for the annual reports.

Systems and Reporting

• Responsible for managing the various tools and systems used to produce the accounts, budgets, quarterly spend reports and other reporting or analysis as and when required including:-
  
  • Support the Development and help manage financial reporting for the Developments via reporting systems including feeding in budget assumptions for specific functional areas.
  • Support meeting month end accounts deliverables.
  • Support the delivery and ongoing development of quality homeowner reporting.

Stakeholder Management

• Key contact for Area Managers and dedicated contact for at least one Regional Operations Manager, attending their monthly meetings with their Area Managers.
• Ensure Area Manager and Homeowner queries on accounts and budgets are responded to on a timely basis and in a professional manner which is conducive to our five-star Customer Satisfaction rating.
• Represent Development Accounts at inductions and other ad hoc training for Area Managers and Area Relief Managers.
• Support process improvement initiatives across Development Accounts.
• Work alongside other members of the Services team as necessary to support business objectives.
• Support and provide cover within the Development Business Partner team and other adhoc tasks at the request of the Development Accounts Manager/Head of Finance Business Partnering - Services.
• Always fully comply with McCarthy Stone's policies and procedures.

Person Specification of a Finance Accountant:

Education and Qualifications

• ACA/ACCA/CIMA qualified or a QBE applicant or working toward, with relevant experience of active business partnering/stakeholder management and preparation of accounts/budgets.

Knowledge & Experience of a Finance Accountant

• Production of accounts and budgets to a specified deadline
• Recent experience of business partnering non finance stakeholders/functions
• Strong system skills - Excel, Databases, Reporting tools. Ideally with some experience of Adaptive, Qube and Power BI or other similar tools
• Experience in the following would be desirable:
  
  • Working within a fast-paced, high volume environment
  • Working within a Customer Service environment

About Us

As the UK's leading developer and manager of retirement communities, we have more than 40 years experience of providing high-quality homes to exacting specifications. We've created over 58,000 age-exclusive retirement properties - apartments, bungalows, coach houses, and cottages - in more than 1,300 developments across the UK.

At McCarthy Stone, we believe that retirement living involves much more than simply deciding to move into a new home that's better suited to our customers' needs. It's also an opportunity for them to embrace a new way of life, to have the freedom to live a lifestyle with more choices and more time to do the things they enjoy.