Management Accountant in Chester House, Epsom Ave, Handforth, Cheadle, Greater Manchester, SK9 3DF

This is a fantastic opportunity to come and work for a company voted 5th in the Great Place to Work (Best Large Workplaces) awards 2018, and Number 15 in Europe in 2017! We have over 450 stores, over 310 Groom Rooms and we’re the UK's number one pet care business. Our business is fast-paced, innovative and fun and it's our people that make the difference.

As a result of our rapid growth we are now recruiting for a Management Accountant for an 18 month fixed term contract ,to work at our Support Office in Handforth, Cheshire. You will report directly into the Head of Central Finance, with key responsibilities as set out below;

Key Responsibilities

• Working to rigid deadlines, you will play a key role in assisting the Head of Central Finance to produce a timely period end result (Retail P&L and Balance Sheet).
• Preparation of the period end board pack, detailing financial performance and KPI’s for the group (distributed to both Executive and Non-executive Directors).
• Involved in the end-to-end period-end process, you will be responsible for a number of cost lines, which will involve posting journals and calculating accruals & prepayments.
• Maintain balance sheet control through preparation of balance sheet reconciliations
• To provide accurate, relevant and timely management information to senior management to monitor the business performance and assist the decision making process to enable its successful future development.
• Preparation of operating cost budgets and periodic rolling reforecast. This involves liaising with directors/departments heads to produce forecasts on key costs lines
• Weekly and periodic reporting, in addition to ad hoc reporting and providing support to department heads as required (including actual vs. budget, reforecast and prior year, with variance analysis and commentary).
• Involvement in the annual audit process, including preparation of schedules and balance sheet reconciliations.
• Working towards management responsibility

Skills required:

• The successful candidate will have experience of working within a face paced management accounts environment, ideally, but not exclusively of working within the retail industry.
• The successful candidate will ideally be a qualified accountant (CIMA or equivalent).
• You will have previous experience of supervising others
• Strong organisation is essential and the successful candidate should be able to demonstrate skills associated with managing and prioritizing workload
• Strong Excel skills (confident with pivot tables, lookup formulas and manipulating data) are essential
• You will have excellent communication skills which will enable you to build strong internal relationships, with the ability to influence and challenge key stakeholders across the Business, including non-finance department heads.
• Experience on SAP would be beneficial, but not essential.

The Benefits

• Competitive salary
• Annual bonus scheme
• 36 days paid annual leave (including bank holidays), rising to 38 days after 2 years service.
• Birthday leave – 1 day extra leave to celebrate your Birthday!
• Pensions - You’ll have the opportunity to join the Pets Pension from day 1 of joining us and the company will contribute to your pension plan so long as you meet the auto-enrolment criteria.
• Colleague Discount- 20% discount for you (plus one family member).
• “Treats” benefits- an online range of offers and discounts which are available exclusively to Pets at Home Colleagues
• Life assurance
• Charity Leave- You are entitled to have one paid day’s leave each year to work for your favourite animal related charity.
• Celebrating Special Celebrations? You’ll get 1 extra week off and a gift to celebrate your wedding or civil partnership, and a gift from us if you are expecting or adopting a baby!
• Free Car Parking
• Required to attend the support office 2-3 days per week