Accounting Manager

Salary £60,000

This is a great opportunity for a driven and talented individual to make a real difference as part of a dedicated and professional team. The Manager will be part of a team providing accounting and financial reporting services for established and new real estate and private equity funds. The candidate will service the needs of a portfolio of private equity, real estate clients and associated SPVs, and will liaise with the CFO and finance team of the funds, third parties (including auditors) and any other external advisors necessary to ensure all issues are resolved and deadlines are met. The candidate will be working in a team of accountants and part-qualified accountants servicing a varied portfolio of real estate and private equity funds and SPVs. In addition, the candidate will also be involved in the take-on and setting-up of new clients coming into the team. There will be a number of interesting and varied ad hoc projects.

Key Responsibilities

Managing client relationships and accounting responsibilities:

• To maintain and develop strong, lasting relationships with clients;
• To be one of the primary contacts for clients with daily contact and regular in-person client meetings;
• Take ownership of your portfolio of clients and customer relationships;
• Implementing policies, procedures and checklists where necessary;
• Compile and analyse financial information underlying the financial statements, including the treatment of business transactions;
• Oversee preparation of financial reporting both at asset and fund level, including supporting files and review of all work produced by team;
• Preparation of consolidations;
• Bank debt covenant reporting;
• Production of monthly/quarterly NAVs;
• Investor tax, CIS and VAT reporting;
• Involvement in team planning, monitoring deadlines and coaching and developing junior staff members;
• Cashflow forecasting work;
• Plan year end audit including audit files and liaise with external auditors and clients;
• Prepare statutory financial statements in accordance with IFRS or UK GAAP;
• Contribute recommendations for improving the organisation's operations;
• Organise take-on and set-up of new clients; and
• Work effectively with the senior members of the Accounting team to ensure smooth transition of work sourced by them into the business.

Assisting with the internal procedures:

• Ensuring all regulatory and statutory reporting deadlines and filings are achieved;
• To support the recruitment process;
• To provide support and guidance to more junior team members;
• Drafting of procedures and other internal documents; and
• Assisting to build the general profile in Jersey;
• In addition to the duties listed above, the Manager may be requested to perform any other ad hoc duties or projects as requested by the management team.

People Management:

• Act as first point of contact for queries from team members.
• Supervision, coaching and mentoring of junior staff.
• Provide support and guidance to team members, acting as a mentor and role model.
• Manage the day to day workload of the team, including effective delegation and resource management.
• Manage performance of direct reports through the Performance Management process, including Performance Review meetings and objective setting.
• Support the recruitment process, reviewing CVs and conducting interviews with potential candidates.

Skills, Knowledge and Expertise

Technical Knowledge

• Strong technical accounting skills, ideally gained within real estate funds or an asset management environment;
• A full understanding of UK GAAP and IFRS and other relevant accounting standards, and related preparation of statutory financial statements and auditor liaison;
• Ability to write reports, business correspondence, procedures manuals and performance measurement reports at asset and fund level;
• Ability to solve practical problems and deal with a variety of situations for which there may be little precedence;
• Some experience of effectively presenting information and responding to questions from groups of managers and especially clients;
• Excellent interpersonal and communication skills;
• Confident and proactive approach and professional attitude to work;
• Highly organised with good time management and planning skills;
• Experience in supervising or coaching staff;
• Knowledge of Sun Systems and/or Yardi is an advantage but not essential;
• A deep understanding of the agreements associated with private equity and real estate structures and interpretation of terms within including LPA, debt documentation, sale and purchase agreements, leases etc.;
• Ability to effectively present information and respond to questions from peers, senior management and especially clients;
• Ability to lead, mentor, coach and carry out on-the-job training with staff members;
• Internal systems, controls and procedures training will be given on the internal applications used and the job holder will become familiar with the controls and procedures in place

Qualifications

• The candidate will be ACA or ACCA (or equivalent) qualified with 1-2 years PQE / have at least 10 years proven experience at FA level (if not qualified)
• Proven people management experience.