Management Accountant

Warwick Medical School’s Finance team is looking for a Management Accountant to support the Finance Manager (teaching) and manage the school’s largest cost category; salaries. With a large workforce of 500 people to manage, complicated by jointly appointed clinical academics who split their time between clinical work in NHS hospitals and academic activities and significant levels of both Research and Teaching activity within the school. This is one of the most important roles within the team, managing c.£40m of expenditure; liaising with different teams internally and within the NHS trusts and making sure the time people spend is accounted for and recharged correctly.

You’ll report to the Finance Manager (Teaching) and be the main finance contact for academic colleagues across the School on salary reporting and NHS contracts and recharging.

In time, this role will also be responsible for the management accounts of the professional services team reporting directly to the COO.

This is a hybrid role, with three days a week on campus and two working from home.

What you’ll be doing

• Owning the clinical recharge process: recharging the time clinical academics spend on NHS clinical activity to the relevant NHS Trusts, accurately and on time, in line with Trust award letters

• Managing the large salary grid behind those recharges, reviewing, actioning and advising on any changes with the people affected

• Preparing quarterly management accounts, tracking performance against budget, explaining variances and producing forecasts

• Preparing detailed accounts and financial reports for different activities; supporting the Finance Manager for teaching when required.

• Monitoring and facilitating approval for new posts and post extensions ensuring all posts have been agreed by the School’s Senior management team

• Advising academics on financial performance and the University’s Financial Regulations

• Acting as an early warning system by raising major issues with the Chief Finance Officer, Warwick Medical School

• Supporting internal and external audit, giving Central Finance information for tax purposes, and working on projects such as cost/benefit analysis

• Developing internal reporting for senior management and making the most of SAP

For the full Job Description, please click on ‘Further information’

What you’ll bring

• A recognised professional accountancy qualification (ACA, CIMA, CIPFA or ACCA) and a good honours degree

• Recent experience of financially supporting a university department with management reporting and forecasting

• Experience of preparing management accounts, planning and forecasting, with current knowledge of accounting standards

• Advanced Excel skills, including VLOOKUPs, pivot tables and data manipulation. This isn’t a data role, but you’ll handle large volumes of data every day and need to be at ease with it

• A methodical approach: you like working through something complex step by step until it’s right, and you can keep doing that when deadlines are tight

• Strong communication skills, including explaining finance clearly to non-accountants. Much of your time will be spent with academics and clinicians, so confidence and tact matter

• A proactive attitude: you spot problems and solve them on your own, without waiting to be asked

• Sound knowledge of University Financial Regulations, plus experience of finance packages, Word, Access and email systems

It would be great if you also have

• Experience of using SAP

• The skills to design and build a new Excel model. The current salary model has outgrown its spreadsheet, and the right person could rebuild it (not essential)