Financial Accountant

Penguin Random House; London; On-site; GBP 40,000 - 80,000

Job description

Reports to: Head of Finance, Central Finance Team

About Us

Join the place creatives call home!

Fremantle is a powerhouse of the TV and Film industry. We’re one of the world’s largest and most successful creators, producers and distributors of Entertainment, Drama & Film and Documentaries.

From critically acclaimed dramas like The Responder, starring Martin Freeman, award-winning films including Paolo Sorrentino’s Oscar-nominated The Hand of God to incredible entertainment like The Rap Game, Too Hot to Handle, The Apprentice, Celebrity Juice and Britain’s Got Talent, we make shows with global appeal.

Our purpose

We aspire to tell stories that connect people around the world. We believe our shows should reflect and celebrate the world we live in and we want to create irresistible entertainment and engage with our audience. To achieve this, we must have people from all backgrounds and cultures working in our teams and on our shows, and we commit to creating opportunities for talent by being inclusive in all that we do.

Job overview:

The Financial Accountant is a key member of the Central Finance department. Reporting to the Head of Finance, they will focus on the continuous improvement of the day-to-day activities of the financial reporting cycle.

This includes but is not limited to:

• Documentation of processes for management across the UK business with a focus on the balance sheet and the Financial Statement Close Process.
• Reviewing internal control procedures to ensure the completeness, accuracy and timeliness of all related transactions, balances, monthly closings and reporting.
• Assisting with the preparation of the financial statements using CaseWare, providing expertise and a review of underlying accounting and statutory reporting disclosures for IFRS compliance.
• Continuously improving reporting requirements, schedules and reports linking Accounting modules (SAP), Reporting modules (BOFC) and the financial statements.
• Supporting the Finance Manager and Head of Finance to drive consistency and process improvements.
• Preparation and compilation of audit documentation and being a key contact, along with the Finance Manager, for the statutory external audit process.

About the team:

This role is within the Central Finance department which includes the General Ledger, Accounts Payable and Cash/Treasury teams at Fremantle. Central Finance are responsible for providing financial support to the main UK business units. In addition, there are a number of smaller and dormant entities supported by the team. The GL team are responsible for ensuring the completeness, existence, timeliness, valuation and overall accuracy of the Balance Sheet of all of the UK reporting entities and ensuring that transactions are processed in accordance with Fremantle’s control environment and comply with accounting standards and financial accounting policies of FM, RTL and Bertelsmann. The team prepare balance sheet reviews, intercompany reconciliations (monthly and quarterly), the quarterly VAT return, monthly and quarterly reporting packs, an annual controls review and statutory accounts.

Here you’ll get to:

• Develop and maintain relationships with key stakeholders in the UK business units and central finance teams.
• Provide executive summaries of complex processes to management.
• Have primary responsibility of ensuring a clean FSCP (Financial Statement Close Process). Creating and providing lead schedules that clearly bridge information from our accounting system and our reporting modules.
• Ensure that business process documentation can support balance sheet positions. Producing, revising and reviewing current processes that impact individual balance sheets and ensuring these are well documented.
• Design and implement improved processes and templates for the completion of reporting packs on a monthly and quarterly basis.
• Be a key contact for the annual group review of controls. Develop the financial control environment by working with key stakeholders in the business units to improve and document their processes.
• Assist the Finance Manager and GL team members with the group and statutory external audit requirements, providing information and explaining complex accounting processes as required.
• Assist the Finance Manager and GL team members with month-end and quarter-end reporting requirements as required.
• Provide assistance to the business on all financial systems and management of changes to systems where there is an accounting impact.
• Design and implement automated workflows with Microsoft Power Automate and our external RPA provider.
• Work with the GL team on any ad-hoc financial projects e.g. providing analysis and advice as appropriate.

The ideal candidate will be a Qualified Accountant (ACA or equivalent) preferably with experience in understanding complex business processes and be used to working in a controls-based environment. Preference will be given to candidates who can demonstrate a track record of experience within this type of role.

Ideally, the candidate will have experience in preparing statutory accounts and/or auditing mid-sized corporations. The successful candidate will need to be able to demonstrate the following key competencies:

• Strong technical background in IFRS accounting.
• Confident and enthusiastic self-starter.
• Excellent interpersonal and relationship management skills.
• Strong analytical and process-oriented mind.
• Advanced process documentation and Excel skills (vlookups/pivot tables).
• Knowledge of SAP and/or BOFC is highly desirable.
• Background in financial system controls is highly desirable (e.g. SOX or similar).