Financial Controller

Due to growth this successful service business in Stockport is looking for a Financial Controller to lead a small team of three.

Reporting to the Finance Director you’ll be responsible for ensuring the accuracy, integrity and timeliness of the Company’s financial reporting and control environment.

This role will lead the day-to-day financial operations of the business, ensuring robust financial controls, efficient finance processes, and high-quality management information. The Financial Controller will support the continued growth of the business through strong governance, financial discipline, and operational excellence.

Key Responsibilities:

Financial Reporting

• Lead the monthly management accounts process and ensure timely completion.
• Produce accurate monthly financial results, board reporting packs and supporting analysis.
• Ensure reporting deadlines are consistently achieved.
• Deliver robust balance sheet reconciliations and review processes.
• Analyse monthly variances against budget, forecast, and prior year performance.
• Support preparation of lender, investor, and board reporting requirements.

Financial Control & Compliance

• Maintain a strong financial control framework across the business.
• Own the month-end and year-end close processes.
• Ensure financial policies and procedures remain fit for purpose and are adhered to.
• Manage the annual external audit process.
• Coordinate statutory accounts preparation.
• Ensure compliance with Companies House and regulatory filing requirements.

Tax & Treasury

• Oversee VAT, Corporation Tax, and employment tax compliance.
• Liaise with external tax advisers.
• Manage cash flow forecasting and treasury operations.
• Proactively manage working capital, identifying and driving actions to optimise cash conversion, debtor days and creditor terms.
• Ensure effective management of debtor and creditor balances.
• Support covenant reporting and banking requirements.

Management Accounting

• Ensure high-quality management accounts are produced each month.
• Drive consistency across reporting processes.
• Improve reporting efficiency through automation and standardisation.
• Support annual budgeting and forecasting cycles.
• Provide detailed financial analysis to support business decision-making.

Transactional Finance Leadership

• Lead Accounts Payable, Accounts Receivable and Credit Control functions.
• Ensure efficient billing and cash collection processes.
• Take ownership of working capital performance, setting targets and leading actions across billing, collections, and payables.
• Monitor transaction processing quality and controls.
• Ensure appropriate segregation of duties and financial governance.

Systems & Process Improvement

• Support finance transformation initiatives.
• Drive continuous improvement across financial processes.
• Maximise use of reporting tools and automation technologies.
• Champion the exploration and adoption of AI within Finance, identifying opportunities and leading initiatives that improve efficiency, insight, and control.
• Share Finance’s AI learnings and use cases with the wider business and support AI-led initiatives for our customers.
• Improve data quality and reporting accuracy.
• Lead the finance workstream of acquisition integrations, including onboarding of acquired entities’ systems, processes, controls, reporting, and teams.

Team Leadership

• Lead, develop and mentor members of the finance team.
• Establish clear objectives and performance expectations.
• Build a culture of accountability, accuracy, and continuous improvement.
• Support succession planning and capability development.
• Promote collaborative working across the wider business.

Key Deliverables:

The Financial Controller will be responsible for:

Monthly

• Timely production of management accounts.
• Accurate balance sheet reconciliations.
• Cash flow reporting.
• KPI and management reporting.
• Forecast updates

Quarterly

• Covenant reporting support.
• Finance process reviews.

Annual

• Budget preparation.
• External audit management.
• Statutory accounts delivery.
• Tax compliance coordination.

Work Experience

Essential

• Qualified Accountant (ACA, ACCA or CIMA).
• Significant experience within a Financial Controller, Senior Finance Manager or equivalent role.
• Strong technical accounting knowledge.
• Experience managing month-end and year-end reporting processes.
• Experience leading finance teams.
• Exposure to private equity-backed organisations.
• Experience of audit management
• Proven experience leading the finance workstream of acquisition integrations.
• Strong systems and process improvement experience.
• Excellent analytical and problem-solving skills.
• Ability to communicate financial information to non-finance stakeholders.
• A genuine passion for exploring AI in Finance, with the drive to lead AI initiatives within Finance and for our customers.

Success Measures

The Financial Controller will be measured against:

Financial Control

• Clean audit outcomes.
• Accuracy of financial reporting.
• Balance sheet integrity.
• Compliance with internal controls.

Operational Excellence

• Month-end close completed to timetable.
• Improved working capital performance.
• Reduced process inefficiencies.
• Improved reporting automation.
• Timely and effective finance integration of acquired businesses.
• Successful delivery of AI initiatives within Finance.
• Finance scales with the business without a proportional increase in headcount through automation and AI.

Leadership

• Team engagement and retention.
• Finance team capability development.
• Stakeholder satisfaction with finance support.

If this role is of interest, or should you have any queries at all, then please do not hesitate in contacting me.

Regards

Mike

[phone removed]

[email removed]