Assistant Accountant

Assistant Accountant 

• Location: Leatherhead, Surrey (Hybrid, 3 days from home, and 2 from the office)
• Job Type: Temporary until mid October 2024
• Hours: 35 hours per week 
• Hourly rate: £16.00 PAYE or £19.84 via an umbrella company.

We are seeking an Assistant Accountant to join our finance team on a temporary basis during a critical period of year-end activities and system migration. This role is integral to ensuring that our accounting system is up-to-date and accurate. The successful candidate will be proactive, customer-focused, and capable of building strong relationships across the organisation.

Day to Day of the role:

• Ensure invoices are correctly coded, authorised, and filed.
• Make timely payments to suppliers, tenants, and staff for expenses.
• Handle new vendor creation and vendor changes.
• Prepare weekly BACS payment runs to ensure creditors are paid within their terms.
• Maintain signatory lists for invoice approval and payments.
• Manage day-to-day banking matters and liaise with transactional bankers.
• Perform bank and balance sheet reconciliations, maintaining accurate balances.
• Resolve supplier queries effectively.
• Post transactions to the accounts ledger, including credit card transactions, staff expenses, and all bank movements.
• Complete the month-end purchase ledger close procedure.
• Forecast short-term cash flow on a weekly/monthly basis and liaise with the Treasury regarding funding requirements.
• Assist with internal and external audits.
• Support the Finance Manager with month-end or year-end reporting as required.

Required Skills & Qualifications:

• AAT qualified or part-qualified.
• Experience of working in housing or not for profit. 
• At least 2 years of experience working in a finance team.
• Knowledge of basic accounting principles, including reconciliations.
• Experience with Purchase Ledger.
• Understanding of VAT.
• Ability to build good working relationships and possess strong communication skills.
• Advanced proficiency in Excel and Word.
• Housing Sector experience is desirable but not essential.
• Experience of Business Central would be ideal.