Finance Analyst
Ashford, Kent

Come and join the number one food service company in the country…With a turnover of over £2.6bn, Brakes Group is a leading supplier to the foodservice industry in the UK, Ireland, France and Sweden. The group comprises a family of specialist businesses which are able to deliver everything the caterer needs, including their very successful own brand ranges developed specifically for chefs.
The Finance Analyst will be responsible for all aspects of financial control across the IS and Digital areas through providing support, challenge and insight to the Senior Leadership Team and Director. This role will have sole responsibility for preparing monthly accounts, reporting monthly performance, delivering budgets and forecasts, being the finance lead in key initiatives and supporting the CIO as required.
Working full time in Enterprise House within the Central Finance function. The main challenges this role faces is the preparation of monthly financial reports, in order to meet the month end deadlines, challenge and pressure faced by both internal and external parties, juggling supporting multiple priorities. The environment is also highly controlled as we are entering a SOX financial control environment it will become even more important to ensure compliance.
In addition the Finance Analyst will be responsible for preparation and management of IS department budget of c£12m p.a. opex and c£15m p.a. capex with 55 FTE at any time running multiple key projects. And the Digital budget of c£5m p.a opex and c£2m p.a. capex with 17 FTE

Key Accountabilities
Sole responsibility for preparation of monthly management accounts and MPR packs for the IS and Digital areas ensuring both P&L and balance sheet have been prepared in accurately and in a timely manner.

• Posting all accounting adjustments in accordance with financial reporting standards.
• Understanding and commenting on performance versus budget, presenting actuals and latest forecasts to the IS and Digital Senior Management teams.
• Understanding both financial and non-financial KPIs and proactively managing these metrics.
• Understanding the detail of costs, challenging where necessary in order to control and reduce costs within the business and drive improved service.

Responsible for preparation of annual budget and forecasts in an accurate and timely manner.

• Sole responsibility for preparing annual budget, working closely with the senior leadership team to deliver a budget which is accurate, realistic and challenging.
• Managing weekly flash forecasting process – keeping informed of all risks and opportunities.
• Understanding key drivers and suggesting corrective action where necessary.

Management of fixed assets and delivering capital expenditure projects.

• Supporting the business in the preparation of the capital requests.
• Understanding the capital budget and actively managing variances.
• Managing assets under construction, additions and disposals each month.

Responsible for managing costs across IS and Digital to come in-line with budgets & forecasts

• Responsible for imbedding a culture of cost control across the team.
• Delivering a robust rolling forecast with no surprises.
• Liaising with external suppliers to perform regular commercial reviews, monitor spend and drive savings.
• Supporting the IS and Digital teams with key projects and initiatives, liaising with steering groups and project managers, building business cases, understanding key financials and giving recommendations, driving projects to land within budget.
• Suggesting and implementing process improvement in order to drive efficiency and improved compliance across functions.
• Managing and ensuring compliance with company expenditure via the PO process.

Knowledge, skills, experience and competencies

• Excellent communication and teamwork skills are essential in order to liaise effectively with those with both a finance and non-finance background.
• Strong influencing skills, with the ability to drive results.
• Calm and confident approach particularly when under pressure.
• Able to manage own workload and prioritise accordingly to meet deadlines.
• Can see beyond the obvious and questions or challenges where necessary.
• A significant degree of integrity due to the sensitive information this role is exposed to.
• This role requires the experience of a qualified accountant.
• Qualified with a recognised accounting body (A