Finance Assistant

Established in December 2018, Ophthalmic Consultants of London (OCL) was formed from the merger of 3 highly successful, world recognised eye surgeons offering our patients premium vision correction. We offer specialist consultations, diagnostics, laser eye surgery and lens surgical treatments from our flagship clinic in Central London as well as clinics in the surrounding areas and Hertfordshire.

Our mission is:  To take personalised eye care to a new level of excellence and expertise and to be a model for collaborative working amongst the UK's top consultant eye surgeons. To ensure the OCL brand is synonymous with the best sub-specialist eye care available anywhere in the World and at the forefront of research into innovative technologies and techniques.

We are looking for an experienced Finance Assistant who will assist the Finance Manager run the finances of the company. You will manage the bookkeeping duties of the company, as well as provide support to the Finance Manager on varied management and financial accounting tasks. In addition, the Finance Assistant will provide support to the Clinic Manager and Admin team when required.

Overview of Core responsibilities:

The post holder will be an accomplished bookkeeper, having previously held at least one post such as Finance Assistant, Accounts Assistant, Purchase and/or Sales ledger clerk, and have a good overall knowledge of how a Finance department operates.

The post holder will work closely with the Finance Manager, Clinic Manager and with the Admin team, therefore experience liaising with colleagues at different levels and across departments is essential.

Typical duties include processing purchase invoices into the accounts software (Xero), seeking the necessary approval and submitting payments, interfacing trade debtors from our CRM system into Xero and reconciling the two, performing credit control and debt recovery, processing expenses and reconciling bank accounts.

 Key Roles and Responsibilities:

Operational duties

· Assist the finance manager in reviewing financial systems and processes

· Identify processes that can be streamlined and suggest ideas

· Develop systems to achieve Key Performance Indicators and set targets within financial boundaries

· Provide support on developing systems with the Finance Manager to ensure our services are value for money

   Financial and Resource Management

· To be responsible for the bookkeeping of the company, ensuring bookkeeping is performed in a way that it can easily be used for management accounting, financial accounting and taxation

· To perform credit control and debt recovery, including contacting patients, insurance companies and other third parties in the course of credit control, taking payments over the telephone, and escalating if necessary

· To record purchase invoices, get approval for payments and ensure invoices are settled within payments

· To assist the Finance Manager and the Clinic Manager with ad-hoc reports

· Any other duties as reasonably required

Information Technology

· To assist in the maintenance of IT systems across the company, including but not limited to Xero, PPS and Medisight

To identify areas where IT systems can be streamlined

Necessary Skills:

Outstanding IT skills, including and most importantly MS Excel to a minimum level of advanced functions such as Index/Match. The accountancy software we use is Xero, and although experience in Xero is not essential, competence on a mainstream accountancy package is a must.

For the Finance Assistant to be effective at this role, it is essential to have a very strong knowledge of bookkeeping in at least one core area of accounting (sales ledger, purchase ledger or cash book), ideally all 3, as well as grasping fully double-entry bookkeeping. Some exposure to management accounting and year end processes would be beneficial but not essential.