Finance Manager
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Finance Manager
The Finance Manager is responsible for ensuring the smooth running of the Finance function for this growing contemporary luxury womenswear brand who retail online, through global wholesale (80%) and seasonal pop ups. Main duties will include reconciliation of ledgers, month and year end, stock and bank reconciliation, budgeting and forecasting, VAT and tax compliance, credit control, payroll and cashflow management projections. The brand turns over just under £1m and sells through international stockists and stores including Net-A-Porter, Selfridges, Luisa Via Roma, Harrods, Browns, Revolve, Le Bon Marche. Recovery following the pandemic is encouraging as momentum starts to return in some of the key global markets and as such the role will start 1-2 days a week working from home and evolve as the business grows.
The successful candidate will have a proven track record in successfully guiding small brand growth (ideally women’s fashion) in international fashion wholesale and e-commerce with full P&L responsibility and experience working with QuickBooks. Expertise in business structure, budgeting and cashflow forecasting are essential along with the ability to plan and execute a financial strategy to grow the business, working closely with the founders.
Main responsibilities
- Manage the finance function supporting the operational team in financial aspects of their roles to ensure trading is optimized through regular analysis of KPIs and results.
- Month-end and board reporting including in depth knowledge of chart of accounts, accuracy of book entries, sales and purchase ledger review and completion of monthly board pack by the deadline.
- Variance Analysis: attend monthly/quarterly meetings with relevant team members to discuss departmental P&L’s versus budget. Ensure that there is a focus on cost saving and controls around spending (P&L and stock).
- Manage budgets & forecasting including cashflow and stock working closely with the Owner and FD.
- Merchandising support: Set stock buy forecast with owner, (based on forecast Net sales with assumptions, setting exchange rates and review regularly with owner to ensure margin and buy are in line with budget.
- Manage bank payments, cash management, sales reconciliations, credit control, bank reconciliations (including investigation of discrepancies), VAT, stock reconciliations, quarterly balance sheet reconciliations and Year End audit controls.
- Preparation/review of weekly pay run & monthly payroll.
- Generate BACS payment runs.
- Credit control; ensure wholesale appropriately manage the deposit & pro-forma payments schedule, credit checks and chasing of debt.
- Monitor outstanding invoices, maintaining an aged creditors report, ensuring relevant departments are kept informed of outstanding commitments.
- Track actual cash flow movements against budgeted cash flow and highlight any issues to Owner on a timely basis.
- Preparation and review of all government submissions, including accuracy of VAT return.
- Ensure stock management is accurate and reconciled and stock count procedures are robust. Monthly stock journal to be posted based on closing stock.
- Other ad hoc reconciliations and analysis as required to support the needs of the business.
- Attend board meetings with the Owner and FD.
- Liaise with auditors on year end accounts to ensure all statutory requirements are met.
- Keep an effective file management system for retrieval of accounting records.
- Maintain records for the company's contractual assets/liabilities and ensure that company's statutory books (i.e. board minutes, etc) are kept up to date.
Essential Skills
- Finance Manager with P&L and fashion industry experience to understand the seasonal peaks and supply chain structure and cashflow requirements.
- Exceptional financial planning, organisational and management skills.
- 360 view of the day to day operational needs of a small business with solid expertise in financial planning.
- Hands-on approach and ability to multi-task and anticipate deadlines.
- Driven to continually improve processes and procedures.
- Experience using QuickBooks.
- Proficiency in Word, Excel and Zedonk an advantage.
- Fashion wholesale accounting experience to include e-commerce.