Finance Transformation

**Role background and Purpose**

Halfords is the UK’s leading provider of Motoring and Cycling services and products. The Group is listed on the London Stock Exchange and reported annual revenue of £1.7bn in its last set of results.

Halfords operates a largely centralised Finance team of circa 110 based in Redditch. As Halfords continues to grow, we are embarking on an exciting finance transformation journey aimed at modernising our processes, systems, and controls. With a strong focus on innovation, we’re making great strides in enhancing key finance operations. Building on this momentum, we are now advancing our Record to Report (R2R) workstream, with the goal of delivering even greater accuracy, efficiency, and control within our financial reporting processes.

A potential ERP implementation is on the horizon, which will provide the tools to significantly transform the finance function and achieve our vision for a future-ready finance team. This is a pivotal time to join the finance transformation team within Halfords as we accelerate our transformation, with a focus on establishing best-in-class processes that will support our growth and enhance overall financial governance. As a Process Specialist in R2R, you will play a critical role in shaping this transformation, driving impactful changes, and delivering sustainable improvements.

**Key Responsibilities**

The R2R Process Specialist provides process insights, supports redesign, and helps ensure that the transformed processes are both efficient and effective in meeting the objectives set out in the process vision. A critical resource in turning high-level process improvements into actionable, practical changes, the R2R Process Specialist supports the Process Owner across all areas of delivery with specific responsibility for:

- Identifying inefficiencies within processes, recommending improvements and performing gap analysis vs future state using relevant data to measure and analyse performance (through process KPIs where possible).
- Design documentation (including SOPs) for new processes.
- Capturing finance process requirements and communicating them to technical partners.
- Completes change impact assessment for new processes vs legacy.
- Designs test scripts for new process, executes SIT and co-ordinates UAT for the specific process workstream.
- Designs and delivers training for new processes to support the change management team.
- Supports throughout hyper care and bedding in the change
- Reviews migrated data and validates / approves the data loaded to the new system
- **Qualifications**:
- A relevant finance or accounting qualification is required. (ACA/ACCA/CIMA etc.)
- **Experience**:
- A finance team member with experience in significant improvement or change projects within a complex finance environment.
- Several years’ experience working in finance /accounting teams exposed to R2R report processes.
- Experience in project management is preferred but not essential.
- **Skills**:
- Credible voice recognised as an expert in financial reporting matters (ideally within finance and beyond).
- Excellent analytical and problem-solving abilities, focused on efficiency and accuracy. Must be confident with large sets of data.
- High level of communication skills, with the ability to present to finance and non-finance stakeholders and to influence and collaborate across teams.

**Personal Attributes**:

- **Impact-Focused**:Focused on delivering improvement, doesn’t accept status quo.
- **Positive & Engaging**: Brings enthusiasm and energy to the role, inspires confidence in the finance transformation.
- **Detail-Oriented**: Takes care to ensure improvements are impact assessed properly and changes well understood and managed.
- **Proactive/Tenacious**: Takes initiative in identifying opportunities for process improvement and implementing them
- does not give up
- **Collaborative**: Builds strong working relationships across departments.
- **Adaptable**: Thrives in a dynamic environment and is comfortable managing multiple priorities.