Management Accountant

An amazing opportunity to help transform disabled people’s lives. Motability is a major grant-making charity supporting disabled people with transportation needs. We are planning a substantial uplift in our activity and want to make the most of every poundwe spend. Can you help Motability improve our answers the following questions:

- What is the best way to financially quantify the soft-benefits we help our beneficiaries create?
- What is the marginal cost of the incremental benefit our programmes are bringing to disabled individuals’ lives?
- Is the grant-holding organisation’s evidence of expenditure robust?
- What is the budget forecast and cash-flow outlook for our programmes?

You will be a commercially minded analyst / management accountant able to effectively partner with our innovation, evaluation and grant-making teams to secure maximum benefit from our grants to organisations. You must have the interest and intellect to contributeto the soft analysis of outputs, outcomes and impact vs the hard financial inputs.

**Purpose of the role**
- Ensure that management reporting and financial management tools are fit for purpose, helping to support a culture of continuous improvement and best value.
- Model our incoming donations and grant commitments to ensure our income is used in a timely and effective way.
- Deliver a best-in-class business planning and budgeting process that leads us into delivering on our strategic plan.
- Support grant programmes and our innovation and evaluation agenda in:

- Assessing the incremental return vs marginal investment in, and value for money from, our grants and grant programmes.

**Key Accountabilities**

Support organisational grant-making:

- Provide Motability with high-quality data analytics and reporting that drives evidence based decision-making, to maximise impact and value for money.
- Support any shift in operating model, particularly where Motability operates through others or in partnership, so that Motability maintains clear sight of its impact and value for money.
- Support Motability in maintaining and improving an open and high performing culture, focused on beneficiaries and the difference that Motability can make for them.
- Ensure that financial evidence submitted in a grant claim meets the grant’s purpose and relevant award conditions.
- To work with the Grants Programmes team to develop finance conditions for grant awards to organisations, including the timing, amount and structure of payments

Financial Planning and Analysis:

- Engage with the Head of Finance and senior managers across Motability to deliver a shared understanding of future income, and to introduce planning methods to rapidly flex the organisation to meet the uncertainties in such income forecasts.
- Support the preparation of business cases within the organisation for capital and revenue initiatives.
- Support the preparation of projected yearly financial statements.

Budgeting and Forecasting:

- Include grant expenditure elements as part of collaborative annual business planning and budgeting process, to ensure delivery of the business and financial strategy and reforecasts as required by the business.

Project Work:

- To be an active member of the Finance Transformation project team: remit to cover structure of data held (for example, databases, Chart of Accounts), efficient end-to-end processes in terms of data capture, subsequent processing and surfacing information,to provide meaningful output for statutory and management information purposes.

Accounting and Performance Management:

- To deliver a monthly financial reporting process that is timely and accurate, that also engages with Heads of Departments (budget holders), building on, and developing, existing reporting.
- Support the Management Accountant in the production of monthly management accounts, to deadlines, for review by the Head of Finance and Finance Director. Identify key variances and issues affecting financial performance, whilst looking for improvement opportunities.
- To develop and deliver a suite of financial performance metrics in line with best practice as required by the business.

Other:

- This role works closely with senior management within and beyond Finance. The role includes other tasks as may arise from time to time that are appropriate to the role.
- To provide input to the Financial Controller in areas such as processes and efficiencies, governance and Internal Audit.
- To provide input to the Head of Finance regarding structures of budgets and the alignment of actual costs to them and any related issues (for example, the creation of new codes).

Qualifications, Training, Professional Memberships or Accreditations

Essential:

- Fully Qualified ACA/ ACCA/ CIMA.
- Strong academic record to degree level
- Budget preparation, forecasts and cost variance analysis.
- Preparation of financial business cases.
- Good understanding of relational databases and data warehouses.
- Sage 200 accounting package experience.
- Microsoft Excel - intermediate to advanced level.

Desirable:

- Relevant post-graduate qualification is beneficial.
- Experience of charity fund accounting, grant accounting, partnerships and allocation mechanisms.
- Some exposure to value for money and impact studies.
- Has experience of one or more ERP / ERM systems.

We are a disability confident employer, feel free to make us aware of any reasonable adjustments you might need.