Financial Controller job description

Finance & accounting — Financial Controller
Owns the accounts, financial controls, audit and statutory filings.

RESPONSIBILITIES
- Own the tax provision including deferred tax, and document the tax risks behind it for advisers or auditors.
- Design the purchase-to-pay controls and approval limits for the organization, and balance supplier relationships against cash timing.
- Set credit and collections policy for the team, and cut the time it takes to turn invoices into cash.
- Write the capitalization and depreciation policy, and account for leases, projects and impairments under the accounting standards that apply.
- Set the close timetable and standard for the whole organization and answer for the reported numbers being right.
- Prepare the annual statutory accounts and disclosures and take them through audit and approval.

REQUIREMENTS
- Experience at the Accounting Manager level (level 3 of 5) or equivalent
- Holds Certified Public Accountant (CPA)

REQUIRED SKILLS
Core Accounting
- Journal Entries and Accruals — You can set the journal approval rules and thresholds for the team, and fix the recurring causes of late or wrong entries.
- Account Reconciliation — You can set the reconciliation standard for every balance sheet account, with owners, deadlines and thresholds, and make sure it holds under audit.
- Accounts Payable Processing — You can design the purchase-to-pay controls and approval limits for the organization, and balance supplier relationships against cash timing.
- Accounts Receivable and Collections — You can set credit and collections policy for the team, and cut the time it takes to turn invoices into cash.
- Fixed Asset and Depreciation Accounting — You can write the capitalization and depreciation policy, and account for leases, projects and impairments under the accounting standards that apply.

Close & Reporting
- Month-End Close Management — You can set the close timetable and standard for the whole organization and answer for the reported numbers being right.
- Financial Statement Preparation — You can prepare the annual statutory accounts and disclosures and take them through audit and approval.
- GAAP and IFRS Application — You can write and update the organization's accounting policies when standards change, and agree judgment calls with the auditors.
- Revenue Recognition — You can write the revenue policy, advise sales on how deal terms change the accounting, and defend the judgments at audit.
- Consolidation and Intercompany Accounting — You can design the consolidation process and the intercompany charging rules across the group, including transfer pricing support.
- Management Reporting and Finance KPIs — You can design the management reporting suite for the company and keep KPI definitions consistent across teams or dashboards.

Controls & Audit
- Financial Controls and Segregation of Duties — You can own the control framework for finance, map risks to controls, and build professional skepticism into how the team reviews unusual items.
- Audit Readiness and Auditor Liaison — You can plan and run the annual audit with the audit firm, agree the timetable and scope, and close its findings.
- ERP and General Ledger Administration — You can lead an ERP upgrade, module rollout or system migration, and keep the books complete and controlled through it.
- Chart of Accounts Design — You can redesign the chart of accounts and reporting dimensions so managers get the reports they need without manual rework.

Tax & Treasury
- Sales Tax and VAT Compliance — You can own indirect tax compliance across several jurisdictions with tax advisers, and keep a risk log with an owner for each exposure.
- Corporate Tax Provision and Filing Support — You can own the tax provision including deferred tax, and document the tax risks behind it for advisers or auditors.
- Cash Flow Forecasting and Treasury — You can manage liquidity for the organization through credit facilities and banking relationships.
- Financial Risk Management — You can set exposure limits for the organization and report against them to senior leaders each quarter.

Planning & Analysis
- Annual Budget Building — You can coordinate the whole budget cycle, turning the company plan into targets each area agrees to.
- Rolling Forecasts and Reforecasting — You can build the company forecast, test it against scenarios, and tell leadership early when targets are at risk.
- Budget Variance Analysis — You can present variance analysis to senior leaders so it drives decisions, and improve how variances are reported across the organization.
- Financial Modeling — You can review others' models for errors and fragile logic, and set the modeling standards for the team.
- Finance Business Partnering — You can partner with senior leaders on pricing, investment and hiring decisions, and lead the finance partners who support them.

Delivery
- Project Management — You can keep several people's work in step across teams, agree priorities and hand-offs with them, and keep one shared task list that all of them actually use.
- Planning & Estimation — You can estimate work that spans several teams, name the assumptions behind each figure, and rework the plan when those assumptions break.
- Ownership & Accountability — You can hold accountability for outcomes delivered mostly by other people, taking the blame when it fails and passing on the credit when it works.
- Quality Focus — You can set how quality is checked on complex work shared by several teams, and you spot the problems that only appear where their pieces meet.

Craft
- Problem Solving — You can make the call on a problem outside your expertise and explain its cost, time and risk.
- Domain Expertise — You can bring in good practice from outside the organization and make it work here, and your judgment clearly improves the work you touch.
- Continuous Learning — You can judge which new ideas are worth the team's time and which are not, and you make room for the people around you to learn too.

Communication
- Communication — You can bring disagreeing groups to agreement on the facts and the next steps, and help colleagues frame a difficult or sensitive message.
- Collaboration — You can align teams with competing priorities on a common goal, surfacing the conflict early instead of letting it harden into resentment.
- Writing & Documentation — You can own the documents behind a large piece of work, coordinating contributions so that people who were not involved can carry it on.
- Stakeholder Management — You can hold senior and external relationships, negotiate between competing demands, and deliver unwelcome news without losing trust.

Leadership
- Leadership — You can lead across team boundaries, build the credibility that makes people follow you by choice, and create room for others to lead.
- Mentoring — You can develop other mentors, coach people through career decisions rather than tasks, and lift the capability of a whole team.
- Strategic Thinking — You can set direction for an area, choose deliberately what not to do, and defend that choice when it is challenged.

REQUIRED CERTIFICATIONS
- Certified Public Accountant (CPA) (required from Financial Controller)