Financial Controller
- Recruiter
- MRK Associates Ltd
- Location
- St Albans, Hertfordshire
- Salary
- £75,000 - £80,000 per annum + bonus
- Posted
- 17 Sep 2021
- Closes
- 12 Nov 2021
- Job Title
- Financial Controller
- Category
- Accountancy Practice
- Experience Levels
- Qualified Accountant
- Contract Type
- Permanent
- Hours
- Full Time
Villa Plus is the UK’s leading European villa provider offering hand-picked, quality villas to discerning customers looking for a private European break. Established in 1986 and based in St. Albans, Villa Plus has local operations in every destination which provide owners with long-term relationship management and our customers with a high quality service.
Starting with only a few villas in the Algarve, Villa Plus in 2019 offered 1,800 villas across 19 destinations in seven countries, and from 2009 to 2019 grew turnover from £28M to £98M. No different to the rest of the world, the UK and travel sector was significantly impacted by Covid across 2020 and 2021 but the business has used this time to reassess strategic objectives and add new business models and revenue streams.
Future plans for the business include offering European villa holidays to consumers across the continent, whilst expanding its villa estate. With the markets returning to levels of normality, Villa Plus has entered the post-Covid era on a very positive financial footing with numerous options for growth. The future is extremely exciting.
The need for a strong Financial Controller has materialised in line with this projected future growth as the business is about to embark on a finance transformation project to ensure the foundations are in place to build upon and to make the finance function best in class. The Financial Controller will lead the selection process and partner the Head of Transformation on the implementation of the new ERP system, integrate this with a new booking system, develop stronger controls, create more efficient processes, build better reporting and develop the finance team.
The successful individual will be ACA, ACCA or CIMA Qualified working in a fast-paced dynamic environment most likely from industries such as retail, travel, FMCG and hospitality. With lots of changes to be made to the department, a lean finance team and a current Excel driven function, this individual will need to be very hands on with strong levels of process expertise. Previous experience of being involved with improvement projects and a system implementation or upgrade will be necessary.
Duties:
- Implement the ERP system in the UK and overseas, completely redefining our finance processes.
- Lead the UK accounting team through this period of change and develop and support them to manage the new systems and processes.
- Liaise with our overseas destination managers in defining the requirements for the ERP system, and train and support them in using the new system.
- Lead the introduction of a direct debit payment facility for our customers, and other projects.
- Manage the day-to-day operations of the UK accounting team and ensure that all processes are completed efficiently and accurately.
- Produce monthly management accounts, including liaison with overseas and UK managers to produce detailed overheads forecasts.
- Produce the year-end accounts to TB level and liaise with our auditors to produce the statutory accounts, ensuring compliance with accounting standards.
- Manage the monthly payroll, including administration of PAYE and pensions.
- Supervise the production of VAT returns.
- Make refund claims to airlines; follow up on previous claims to ensure that all funds are received; and conduct a review to ensure that we have made all possible claims during the pandemic.
- Monitor and control payment card chargeback claims by customers, refunds, and credit vouchers, to detect duplicate refunds.
- Produce routine reports to regulatory and trade bodies (CAA and ABTA).
- Produce other regular and ad hoc reports and analysis.
- Analyse, control and challenge overhead costs, particularly in the overseas destinations.
- Drive the improvement of processes and reports within the accounting team, with a focus on the forecasting and control of overhead costs in the overseas destinations.
This is a great opportunity to move into a Financial Controller position that is going to be integral in driving change through the business and setting them up for significant growth in the future.
MRK Associates has been retained to work as a recruitment partner for Villa Plus and any speculative CVs sent to Villa Plus directly will be forwarded to MRK Associates.
Every application will receive a response as this is the recognised working practice at MRK Associates.
MRK Associates – AGY