Financial Accountant

Practice Group / Department:

We're Norton Rose Fulbright - a global law firm with over 50 offices and 7,000 employees worldwide. We provide the world’s preeminent corporations and financial institutions with a full business law service. At Norton Rose Fulbright, our strategy and our culture are closely entwined. We know that our expansion will mean little unless it is underpinned by truly global collaboration and we understand that pioneering work only takes place when our people have room to move and think beyond boundaries. As well as the relevant skills and experience, we're looking for people who are innovative, commercial and value the work that they do. 

The Role

The role is based in Norton Rose Fulbright LLP’s Newcastle office and suits a qualified accountant who will support the delivery of financial accounting services across Norton Rose Fulbright’s Europe, Middle East and Asia (EMEA) offices.  The role will ideally suit an experienced financial accountant looking for a new challenge in a fast paced environment.

Reporting to the Financial Controller, and part of a service driven team with 4 other accountants, the role will primarily focus on accounting for the UK offices of EMEA (the UK offices being c55% of EMEA).  In addition, the role will coordinate and support accounting across EMEA’s 18 offices.

Key Responsibilities

Key responsibilities include but are not limited to:

• As part of the financial month end close by working day 4, ensure month end tasks are completed in line with the financial close timetable.  Specific responsibilities during month end include:
  • Posting journals for UK entities, liaising with allocated functions to ensure accuracy of postings
  • Coordination with EMEA offices, including performing a review of allocated offices
  • Preparation of Balance Sheet reconciliations for allocated accounts for review by the Financial Controller
  • Identifying and implementing opportunities to improve the quality of month end processes
• Completing various tasks outside of month end which are shared amongst the team and therefore may not be a key part of this roles tasks.  Examples of tasks that the team of financial accountants undertake are VAT returns, Statutory Accounts Preparation and audit support, etc. 
• Supporting the Financial Controller in coordinating accounting across EMEA. In doing so responsibilities include
  • Liaising with and responding to accounting queries from international financial accountants
  • Reviewing financial information submitted by the international financial accountants
• Assist with project work and ad-hoc reporting as agreed by Financial Controller

In undertaking the above activities, you are expected to:

• Work as part of the Newcastle based Financial Accounting team whilst developing effective working relationships with wider UK finance community. The UK finance community consists of Business Partners, Accounts Payable, Working Capital Management, Tax and Treasury professionals across Newcastle and London.
• Maintain and develop good working relationships with accounting teams in non-UK offices.  The non-UK offices have their own finance teams, but look to the UK team for guidance and best practice.

Skills and Experience Required

The individual should:

• Enjoy working independently, taking full ownership of deliverables
• Be self-motivated and self-disciplined, passionate about meeting deadlines and process improvement
• Have excellent communication and influencing skills
• Be a good problem solver, methodical in approach and an “eye for detail”
• Comfortable working in a fast paced and changing business

Experience required:

• Qualified accountant with at least 3 years experience working in a similar financial accounting role (essential)
• Working within a large, process driven business (preferred), with experience of professional services (essential)
• Proven track record of managing time and delivering against deadlines (essential)
• SAP ERP system (preferred)
• Working with Tagetik or other leading enterprise performance management systems, and extracting value from that system (beneficial)

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To attract the best people, we strive to create a diverse and inclusive environment where everyone can bring their whole selves to work, have a sense of belonging, and realize their full career potential. 
Our new enabled work model allows our people to have more flexibility in the way they choose to work from both the office and a remote location, while continuing to deliver the highest standards of service. We offer a range of family friendly and inclusive employment policies and provide access to programmes and services aimed at nurturing our people’s health and overall wellbeing. Find more about Diversity, Equity and Inclusion here.

We are proud to be an equal opportunities employer and encourage applications from individuals who can complement our existing teams. We strive to create an inclusive and accessible recruitment process for all candidates. If you require any tailored adjustments or accommodations, please let us know here.