Head of Commercial Finance - #142880

Your role:

You will be an integral member of the Senior Finance Leadership Team, collaborating closely with the Chief Financial Officer (CFO) and be responsible for the Finance Business Partners, Pricing Business Partner, Financial Accounts and Client Reporting teams. In this role, you will lead the Commercial Finance team to provide valuable financial insights to the business. Your responsibilities will include overseeing the annual budget and reforecasting processes for income and expenditure, leading the preparation of monthly management accounts and departmental and sector data, pricing and ensuring compliance with annual statutory accounts. You will drive a first-class business partnering culture for the team.

You will actively lead relevant financial projects in our project portfolio to drive efficiencies, client service and ensure compliance with relevant rules, regulations and policies.

You will demonstrate strong leadership, communicating well with all the stakeholders across the firm and adopting a positive and engaging approach to change.

What you'll be doing:

Strategy:

• Contribute to the development and periodic review of the finance department strategy, with a focus on developing the firm's financial reporting and business partnering.
• Support the delivery of the finance department strategy and lead on relevant elements of the Finance Improvement Plan (“FIP”).
• Promote the finance department and its people within the firm.
• Lead the Finance Partner Forum (“FPF”) and drive strategic and operational performance with our Finance Partner.
  
  

Budgetary control environment:

• Lead the preparation of the budget and forecast and present to senior stakeholders for both income and expenditure.
• Promote business partnering through regular review meetings with income and expenditure budget holders.
• Appraise and refine project budgets and report periodically on the project portfolio budget and expenditure
• Driving a first-class service ensuring insights and reporting are accurate, correct and a fair representation of performance.
  
  

Business Partnering:

• Understand the key financial drivers in the business; review and analyse business and individual fee-earner KPI's and financial information to identify under-performing areas and support the senior stakeholders with improvement plans.
• Seek continuous development and improvement of business intelligence tools and reporting.
• Support optimisation of the way the Firm manages its matters through their lifecycle to deliver improved operational efficiencies and profitability, including support on pricing, matter budgets, change orders and matter financial analysis.
• Lead pricing services with the Firm's Partners, Marketing, Business Development and Pursuits teams to provide input for pitches, including developing fee structure options in response to client RFP's and ad-hoc requests.
• Help develop and provide training to the business on financial governance and commercial awareness.
  
  

Financial and Client Reporting:

• Ensure the preparation and delivery of the consolidated annual financial statements for the LLP, including individual subsidiary entity accounts.
• Management of the annual audit including the relationship with the audit delivery team at our external auditors.
• Oversee the production of monthly and quarterly management accounts and present to senior stakeholders when required.
• Improve the production of P&L account analysis and associated schedules and reports for general control and tax purposes.
• Oversee the production of the monthly cashflow reports and forecasts and proactively develop and improve the forecasting model and reports.
• Provide support to relevant parties on the entries and movements in the firm's provisions in the balance sheet.
• Produce various ad hoc reports and complete ad hoc tasks as required.
• Lead the client reporting team to ensure timely and accurate delivery of contractual reporting requirements. You will also drive efficiencies and enhance processes in alignment with the Client Experience project.
  
  

General Management:

• You will be part of the department's senior leadership team and actively participate in the overall management of the department.
• Drive positive change within the teams through the delivery of items in the FIP, seeking opportunities to improve and automate reporting.
• Provide leadership, guidance and coaching to the Commercial Finance team so they provide high quality support to the firm through continuous improvement
  
  

What we need from you:

• Collaborative team leader and qualified accountant with the ability to form effective relationships and influence change.
• Management of your own work and deliverables and those of your team and flexibility to meet the demands of a busy department and firm.
• Credible business partnering experience with the ability to innovate and drive changes within the team.
• Ability to communicate confidently and present to individuals and groups at all levels within the firm.
• Professional self-starter who is dependable, competent and diplomatic with strong negotiation skills.
• Analytical skills and experience to foresee issues and implications and identify solutions and opportunities for improvement.
• Experience of producing consolidated financial statements and managing the annual audit process.
• Technical knowledge of relevant Financial Standards and management reporting.
• IT skills – strong Excel skills.
• Experience of working within a professional services environment would be beneficial.
• Knowledge of Aderant Expert would be an advantage
  
  

What you'll bring to the team:

• Role Modelling - not just inspiring others through your actions but supporting and enhancing the cultural initiatives that underpin life at the firm.
• Reputation - not just championing your department and enhancing your internal profile but committing to the highest of standards to make Burges Salmon a great place to work and ensuring that our commercial edge is matched by genuine care.
• Personal Development - able to evidence taking responsibility for this area despite your expertise, challenging the norm by continually looking forward for you and your team.
• Drive Performance - show strategic, project and leadership skills to enhance efficiency and effectiveness, and proactively support the firm's overall strategy through a culture of continuous improvement.
• Collaboration - challenging for innovation and using your expert status to support all people - from partners to team members - to grow capacity and capability by building strong teams.