Accounts Payable Assistant (12 months FTC)

Overview

THE FIRM

Montagu Evans is an independent, market leading property consultancy, headquartered in London with offices in Scotland and Manchester. Our work encompasses planning and development, specialist valuations, and transactions across the United Kingdom.

We're a group of people that are excellent individually and exceptional together. We care about our legacy, creating spaces that people use to live, work, communicate, and connect.

We're a partnership, empowering those who run the business to create their own teams to exceed our client's requests. This highly flexible and collaborative approach has enabled us to develop an exceptional business that has spanned nearly a century.

We encourage an honest and straightforward approach to our work and relationships. We embrace individuality while relying on working together and never accepting the status quo.

We give everyone the opportunity to be the best version of themselves. We trust and support each other, recognizing that our people are the heart of our success.

Together we are Montagu Evans. We are committed to maintaining an inclusive work environment. Read more here

THE TEAM

The Finance team is integral to the firm and the Central Management Team, responsible for managing the firm's finance function across all areas: from credit control to accounts payable, expenses, management accounting, billing, payroll, cash flow, budgeting, forecasting, and business partnering with the firm's fee-earning departments.

We work with all areas of the firm, supporting and advising partners, departments, and fee earners, while providing financial information regularly to the executive committee and to the salary and remuneration committees.

The team currently consists of a Head of Finance, Financial Controller, 2 Business Partners, Credit Manager, Deputy Credit Manager, Credit Controller, Senior Management Accountant, Assistant Management Accountant, Partnership Accountant, AP Manager, and Expenses Administrator.

ROLE OVERVIEW

We are looking for a finance professional with a proactive approach and a keen eye for detail. The individual will need to be "hands-on" and able to work closely with team members. Prioritizing a demanding workload while maintaining a "can-do" attitude will be key, in addition to being an excellent communicator.

As a member of the finance team, you will manage the expenses and mileage claims processes, in addition to ad hoc payments and bank reconciliations, all of which are integral to the financial management and reporting of the firm.

This is an ideal opportunity to develop a broad skillset and gain experience within a busy finance team.

Responsibilities

MAIN DUTIES, RESPONSIBILITIES, ACCOUNTABILITIES

• Process all employee and Partner expense/mileage claims into the accounting system.
• Review expense and mileage submissions from the business to ensure accuracy, adherence to the firm's expense policy, audit, and commercial requirements.
• Review and amend VAT recoverable amounts for each claim in accordance with the latest HMRC legislation.
• Process expense payment runs at least twice a month.
• Be the first point of contact for the business for expenses matters, including managing the expenses inbox.
• Produce and send monthly expense reports to the Heads of Department and CMT Heads.
• Assist in migrating expense reporting to Qlik.
• Oversee bank postings daily, liaising with the finance team to post any remaining unallocated items.
• Produce bank reconciliations for all firm bank accounts at month-end.
• Produce bank reconciliations for Ratings client bank accounts on the TRAMPS system weekly.
• Process ad hoc payment requests as required, including Ratings client accounts payments.
• Process, review, and reconcile corporate card statements monthly.
• Assist and provide cover for AP manager - review new supplier setups, review new bank details, perform payment verification checks weekly, process supplier invoices and/or payment runs when required.
• Review and carry out spot checks for AP payment runs twice a month.
• Assist the finance team with ad hoc queries and tasks.
• Complete some ONS surveys.

Qualifications

DESIRED KNOWLEDGE, SKILLS, EXPERIENCE & QUALIFICATIONS

• Expenses and AP experience.
• Previous experience of working with various accounting systems, preferably Oracle NetSuite & TRAMPS.
• Strong attention to detail.
• Good communicator, both written and verbal.
• Self-motivated.
• Organised and committed.
• Energy, enthusiasm, and a desire to improve processes where possible.
• Good knowledge of Microsoft packages, particularly Excel.
• Reconciliation experience desirable.