Expense Analyst - Continental Europe Finance

Stagecoach East ,
London, Greater London

Overview

Job Description

Company Description Job Title: Expense Analyst - Continental Europe, Finance Job Code: REF21583N Skill Category: Finance Location: London Job Type: Permanent Posting Start date: Tuesday 26th May 2020 Closing Date: Tuesday 23rd June 2020 Salary: 40,000 - 60,000 Job Description This role will be responsible for all Expense reporting and associated analytics relating to the Continental Europe (CE) P&L. It will manage the month end process, including processing of all expense journals, updating all expense reports, all headcount analysis and, providing expense driver analysis. The role will also be the liaison point for all cost centre managers within CE and will oversee all expense Budgets and forecasts. Duties: * Overall responsibility for expense reporting for Continental Europe P&L (including Balance Sheet as appropriate) * Managing the quarterly expense forecasts and annual budgets, including all relevant expense drivers (e.g. headcount, professional fees, Marketing, Travel & Expenses etc) * Supporting the financial control and financial governance activities for the Division (working with the Financial Control Team) - this role needs to provide and demonstrate a tight cost control environment to support the Quarterly SOX sign off by the CE MD * Supporting the development of a best in class MI infrastructure on expenses for the CE P&L that helps the management team gain a deep understanding of its cost base. This will include a suite of insightful KPIs that help the business to monitor and drive performance * Liasing with Functional Finance Business Partners to obtain analysis and commentary on "Vertical" costs that relate to the CE P&L * Managing all MDF and VIK reporting and planning - needs to build out a clear infrastructure for reporting * Providing guidance on finance policies, practices and processes to the function * Working with HR to ensure accurate headcount reporting * Challenging investment decisions to ensure quality decisions are made by management * Consolidation and production of all CE expenses for the annual budget and quarterly forecast process for CE, including coordination of the Functional budgets that are included in the cluster P&Ls * Reviewing and challenging of all cluster expense budget and forecast submissions to ensure they are fully understood and are of high quality * Ensuring all relevant expense targets are embedded into the annual scorecard * Working with HR to ensure that phasing of recruitment budget/forecast is accurate and timely * Ensuring Operating Expense requirements are identified, understood and challenged, and making recommendations with respect to performance against targets, budgeting process and financial viability of new functional initiatives * Ensuring all Discretionary spend requests are clearly identified by activity and by return on Investment * Integrating and consolidating the results of Cybersource and MS&A into Continental Europe Reporting and Planning * Providing timely/ accurate customised MI (Cluster MI Packs) and Expense Analysis relating to Continental Europe Sales for all Management Reporting purposes * Delivering proactive and insightful analysis of key trends in Expenses to enrich commentary and understanding of the key business and financial Risks & Opportunities * Maintaining a detailed knowledge and understanding of the division's business drivers and develop a comprehensive understanding of how this fits into the overall business strategy * Building robust monthly headcount reporting with HR including PN number, Budgeted vacancies, new approvals and leavers. Should include status of recruitment for each open position * Building robust reporting of Value in Kind (VIK) activity, including breakdown of balance sheet deferrals, status of project delivery and amount of VIK signed in year (as a % of Incentives) * Developing accurate reporting of Growth Initiatives, ensuring sensible investment asks, headcount requests and credible revenue returns Qualifications Qualifications: * Qualified chartered accountant with considerable post qualified experience * Extensive experience of month-end, budgeting , forecasting, reporting and consolidation * Advanced skills in Expense & HC reporting and analysis * Advanced user of power point, Excel, Hyperion, Oracle, GBI, COGNOS, Ariba, Noetix * Previous SOX related experience * Strong stakeholder management and Previous Business partnering experience * Appetite to build best in class MI infrastructure with previous experience of Headcount dashboard preparation highly desirable * Previous experience of working with teams based in different locations * Strong drive for process improvement * Proven record of analysing business performance, identifying trends and issues and challenges the norm by recommending appropriate actions. * Team oriented, collaborative, strong inter personal skills * Broad understanding of the payment landscape and visa products and solutions * Big 4 audit and Banking experience is ess