Job description

Role purpose

The Finance Business Partner – Retail and Operational Support Teams is to support the delivery of the following strategic priorities of Scope:

Goals:

• Transform attitudes
• Closing the disability employment gap
• Ending the disability price tag

Story of change, vision:

• Insights and impact driven
• Known for what we do
• Confident colleagues

Accountable to:

Head of Finance

Main responsibilities – what you are responsible for delivering   

At Scope, we work together, in our teams and across all teams. Together, we commit to being collaborative, trusting and respectful. To being open about our work and to being flexible and open to change.  And to building our confidence by improving what we do by developing and learning, continuously.

• Collaborate with the relevant departments to understand their financial needs and goals and contribute to the implementation of financial strategies.
• Provide proactive insight, strategic advice, financial analysis, and commercial challenge to manage financial (drive business) performance and deliver impact based on data and evidence.
• Work with budget holders and their teams to ensure financial data and analysis is integral in decision-making. Provide financial advice and guidance to support business decisions. Coach teams to make sure actionable insight is shared and acted upon.
• Manage transparent budgeting and forecasting processes with budget holders with clear accountabilities.
• Take ultimate responsibility for reports delivered to teams. Understand the underlying transactions, metrics, hierarchies, and data.
• Agree sets of routine reports with senior leaders. Recommending reports that add value and challenging any that don’t.  Provide insight and context, interpreting data and adding value for stakeholders.
• Review financial proposals for investment and manage reporting on new projects, ensuring that all relevant costs are included.  Assess ROI on strategic spend and maintain performance reporting.    

Main relationships, internal and external stakeholders

• Finance and Procurement colleagues
• Budget holders
• Requisitioners and colleagues with finance responsibilities
• Executive Directors of the relevant departments
• Charity Retail Association
• Auditors
• Key suppliers

Person specification

Knowledge and experience

Essential

• Experience of providing insight to budget holders and senior leaders that positively influenced decisions.
• Experience in guiding budget holders through the budget setting process. With clear assumptions and accountabilities, within the timetable set and with clear documentation.
• Knowledge of retailing accounting, in particular like-for-like analysis, giftaid, lease accounting, fixed asset depreciation and provisions.
• Proactive attitude to teamwork and communication

Desirable

• Understanding of the social model of disability.
• Knowledge of charity accounting, including donations, restricted funds, gift aid and VAT partial recovery.
• Accountancy qualification
• Presence in the head office to work with teams on a regular basis

Skills and competencies

Essential

• Able to fully understand the complexity of retail accounting and take responsibility for the accuracy of monthly figures reported. 
• Can manage large amounts of detailed data
• Understands and can discuss detailed analysis as well as big picture strategic questions with an understanding of materiality for different audiences.
• Able to interpret and analyse financial results and performance metrics to help budget holders and to identify and understand key performance drivers.
• Demonstrable proactive approach to designing and requesting reports from the data team and ensuring they are presented in a user-friendly format before distributing to internal customers. 
• Able to review all results within the timetable available and apply understanding to identify errors and correct them before reports are issued.  Able to learn from previous issues so that they are not repeated.  
• Can build trusting relationships with budget holders and senior management that allow mutual exchange of information and ideas and robust challenge of performance and decisions.  Inspires confidence in teams and Executive Directors to consult on all financial issues and to request information for decision making.  
• Can give clear briefs to finance colleagues to build and deliver accurate and insightful reports, analyse results, investigate variances and make accounting adjustments.
• Can write clear commentary on budget assumptions and variances that explains the underlying causes of differences beyond the numerical amounts.  Can clearly present financial analysis to senior colleagues.
• Ability to track performance on projects on a timely basis and proposed improvements based on commercial insight.  And assess the financial and process aspects of new projects prior to set up. 
• Joint accountability for completion of monthly management accounts with other finance managers.

Desirable

•  Advanced excel, word and powerpoint user
• Experience of SUN and [Q&A]
• Use of Microsoft Dynamics CRM system