Head of Finance

Head of Finance - London

Independent Media Agency

Salary £70,000 + great benefits

Hybrid Working - 3 days in the office

Ref VFR3517

Our client is a growing and incredibly successful Media Agency based in the heart of London - Working with great Clients and have a great staff culture and office space - strong benefits and a competitive salary should make this an attractive opportunity to someone who wants to grow over the next two years into the FD.

The Head of Finance will work closely with the CFO,COO, Client MD's and Business directors within the client teams and other senior stakeholders regarding reporting and cash flow management. As well as managing the accounts receivable and accounts payable functions. The is a great opportunity to progress to being finnace director as the CFO begins to step away from the business, in this position you will be able to shape and organize the finnace department within the business that is significantly growing year on year, as well as influencing the process and ways of working within the business.

What our client is looking for from their Head of Finance:

• Ownership and accountability of day-to-day Finance department; to be a leader and strategic thinker to support CFO with financial insights.

• Experience of managing individuals and working with other teams to drive financial efficiency.
• Communication skills with multiple stakeholders; adapt accordingly depending on audience and ability to lead and present to senior teams/the Board if required.
• Numeracy and attention to detail
• Ability to multi-task and work efficiently as the work demands; pre-empt issues and ability to see what’s coming down the track.
• Excel skills and proficiency with financial software and banking. Ability to streamline financial process using automation or technology.
• Always interrogate 'why’ and the 'so what’
• 6+ years finance experience

What the role of the Head of Finance entails:

Main Roles & Responsibilities:

• Main day to day finance contact within the business
• Oversee 2 to 3 direct reports - AP, AR and Finance Manager
• Bank & Cashflow management, including AR review and bank liaison
• Management of AR & AP functions to ensure timely collections and payments as part of strong cashflow management
• Management Accounts preparation and reporting
• Assist CFO in commercial and forward-looking areas of forecasting, structured and ad-hoc financial analysis and client services pricing

Accounting, Reporting and Financial Planning

• Liaising with the bank on ad-hoc basis and providing management information where required
• Management of CID invoicing facility, including submission of monthly MER reports to Barclays
• Oversight of AR and AP functions
• to ensure client invoicing is completed on time (undertaken by Client facing team), AR collections are strong and any overdue amounts are highlighted early and resolved efficiently
• Ensuring cash is collected on time then enables timely payment of suppliers by the AP function and management and generation of interest income
• VAT returns
• Maximise technology and tools to efficiently deliver the output of the finance team, including our accounting & media system (Concept) and AI maximisation
• Preparation of monthly management accounts, including posting journals, balance sheet reconciliations, P&L analysis and interpretation of results
• Assist the CFO in areas of financial planning and analysis, including but not limited to: -

o Weekly revenue and margin pipeline reporting to the board

o Monthly revenue, margin and cost reforecast

o Monthly client profitability reporting and analysis

o Annual budget process

o Annual statutory audit

Revenue & Sales Invoicing

• Work with the client teams to ensure they raise all sales invoices in a timely and accurate manner, managing revenue pre-payment process. Whilst client invoicing is led by the client teams, you will need to understand the processes involved and assist with any more technical invoicing areas
• Ensure all invoices are posted to the Accounts (including correct cut-off)
• Liaise with different teams internally and provide support for monthly billings and other ad-hoc requests
• Review aged debtors report on regular basis, including managing weekly review meeting with COO and CFO
• Support Accounts Receivable role once in place and in the event of any client payment problems

Credit Control & Supplier Payments (transitioning to separate role after 3-6 months):

• Regular client account reconciliations
• Regular email and phone liaison with customers to achieve close management of Accounts Receivable to ensure monies all received on time and overdue debt is kept to an absolute minimum. Develop key relationships with senior finance counterparts
• Review aged debtors report on regular basis
• Prepare and run weekly AR meeting with COO and CFO
• Batching purchase invoices for x3 payment runs per month to ensure suppliers are paid on a reasonable timescale, whilst maximising cashflow and avoiding ad-hoc payments
• Input of BACS payment runs to Barclays for approval by one of the Directors

The Plan

The Head of Finance will initially be responsible for the credit control and accounts receivable aspects as stated above but the idea is that an additional team member will be employed to take on this function in due course.

VisionFR is committed to encouraging equality, diversity, inclusion and eliminating unlawful

discrimination within our workforce and whilst fulfilling our Client’s recruitment needs.

Due to the high level of applications being received if you do not hear from us within 5 working days, please assume your application has not been successful on this occasion, usually due to other candidates having more relevant sector exposure, qualifications or required skills. We thank you for your interest.