The posting
🌟 Position: Finance Manager / Financial Controller
📍 Location: Hybrid – London office and home working
💼 Type: Part-time
📅 Start Date: Immediate
💰 Salary: £50k to 85K DOE
About Cooper Moss Rutland
Cooper Moss Rutland (CMR) is an independent, award-winning Project Controls consultancy specialising in helping clients overcome complex challenges across major construction and infrastructure programmes.
Our expertise spans planning and scheduling, cost, risk, change, reporting and data, and we work on some of the UK's most complex programmes across rail, nuclear, defence, energy, aviation and water.
As the business continues to grow, we are looking for an experienced Finance Manager / Financial Controller to take ownership of the finance function and play a key role in supporting the continued development of the business.
The Opportunity
This is a key appointment and a chance to take genuine ownership of the finance function in a growing consultancy. We are looking for someone who can bring structure, control and insight to the business while staying comfortable in a hands-on environment.
Depending on experience, the role could sit at Finance Manager or Financial Controller level. This is a part-time role, typically two to three days a week, with fixed days agreed in advance and including the month-end close.
At Finance Manager level, you would own the day-to-day finance function, month-end close, management reporting, budgeting, forecasting and cash flow.
At Financial Controller level, you would take broader responsibility for the control environment, processes and the external accountant relationship, with junior support handling the transactional workload.
This is not simply a reporting role. We are looking for someone who can build and improve the finance function as CMR continues to scale.
Key Responsibilities
Financial Management & Reporting
- Own the month-end close process from end to end.
- Prepare accurate and timely monthly management accounts and reporting packs.
- Present the monthly numbers to the Partners with clear commentary, flagging what matters and what does not.
- Monitor business performance against budget, forecast and prior periods.
- Bring the month-end close timetable down and hold it there, so the Partners have management information early in the following month rather than at the end of it.
- Track actuals against budget and forecast each month, and investigate the variances rather than simply reporting them.
- Run a monthly finance meeting with the Partners, setting the agenda for what they should be looking at and where the business needs to pay attention.
Budgeting, Forecasting & Cash Flow
- Lead the annual budgeting and planning cycle.
- Develop and maintain rolling cash flow forecasts.
- Manage reforecasting and scenario analysis to support decisions on hiring, new clients and investment.
Controls and Process
- Own CMR's financial control environment, along with the finance policies and procedures behind it.
- Identify opportunities to automate and streamline finance processes, particularly the timesheet, invoicing and reporting chain, and shape how finance works with CMR's wider business systems.
- Ensure appropriate controls are in place across revenue, expenditure, purchasing, payments, cash and reporting.
- Own VAT compliance, including review and submission of VAT returns and ensuring the correct VAT treatment is applied across transactions.
Year End and External Accountants
- Coordinate the preparation of statutory accounts.
- Manage the relationship with CMR's external accountants.
- Coordinate year-end activities, and help prepare the business for statutory audit as CMR approaches the turnover threshold.
Transactional Finance
- Oversee day-to-day transactional finance: purchase and sales ledger, invoicing, expenses, credit cards, payments, bank reconciliations and the timesheet-to-invoice process.
- Take ownership of client billing, which varies considerably by client and by platform, along with unbilled work and revenue accruals.
- Supervise, review and develop the Finance Assistant, who runs the day-to-day purchase ledger, sales invoicing, reconciliations, expenses and timesheet chasing.
- Oversee credit control and cash collection, including the debtor position and follow-up of overdue balances.
- Agree clear escalation routes with the Finance Assistant and the Partners for urgent queries and approvals on the days you are not working.
- At Finance Manager level, remain comfortable being hands-on with transactional finance where required.
- At Financial Controller level, provide appropriate oversight while using junior finance support to manage the transactional workload.
What We're Looking For
Essential
- ACA, ACCA or CIMA qualified with at least two to three years post-qualification experience, or strong equivalent experience.
- Strong experience across month-end, management accounts and financial reporting.
- Experience owning budgets, forecasts and cash flow.
- A background in industry rather than practice. We are not looking for someone moving straight from an accountancy firm.
- Comfortable being hands-on. This is a small finance function, but day-to-day transactional processing is handled by the Finance Assistant.
- Experience improving finance processes, systems and controls.
- Strong Excel skills and experience with Xero or a similar accounting system.
- The ability to explain financial information clearly to non-finance colleagues, and the confidence to challenge them on it.
- Experience running a disciplined month-end timetable, and a track record of improving reporting turnaround.
- Experience acting as a sounding board to non-finance business owners, guiding what they should be looking at rather than waiting to be asked.
- Experience supervising or mentoring junior finance staff.
- Comfortable working a fixed part-time pattern, with clear priorities and handovers between working days.
Desirable
- Experience within professional services, consultancy, construction or another project-based business.
- Experience preparing a business for its first statutory audit.
The Person
The successful candidate will be someone who wants to take ownership rather than simply manage a process.
You will be comfortable getting into the detail when required, but equally able to step back and provide the leadership team with clear financial insight and challenge.
Why Join CMR?
- Join a growing, independent consultancy operating across the UK and internationally.
- Have genuine ownership and influence over the finance function.
- Work directly with the Partners and senior leadership team.
- Join a collaborative, people-focused culture built around innovation, development and continuous improvement.
