Finance Officer

We’re supporting a well-established education organisation (a Multi Academy Trust) to appoint a Finance Officer on a contract basis. Working closely with a senior finance lead, you’ll help ensure robust financial controls, accurate month-end reporting, and strong compliance across a group of schools.

This is a hands-on role suited to someone who is confident with reconciliations, journals, and management accounts, and who can support stakeholders with finance queries and policy guidance.

Management reporting

• Produce management accounts for allocated sites/schools.
• Contribute to reporting of income and expenditure across the organisation.
• Support financial reporting activities to maintain service levels across the finance function.

Budgeting, forecasting & grants

• Monitor budgets for allocated schools/sites and support reforecasting.
• Provide guidance to budget holders with queries.
• Maintain grant spend trackers to ensure reporting aligns with funding terms and conditions.

Payroll / VAT

• Complete payroll reconciliations and ensure budgets are updated accordingly.
• Support VAT reconciliations/submissions and associated reporting.

Team support / process improvement

• Allocate and oversee day-to-day tasks for a finance support colleague (where applicable), assisting with more complex queries.
• Support onboarding of new sites (systems implementation, training, and policy understanding).
• Contribute to ongoing improvement of finance systems and processes.

Essential

• Proven experience in a finance role with strong reconciliations / month-end capability
• Confident producing or supporting management accounts
• Strong Excel skills and comfort working in finance/accounting systems
• High attention to detail and ability to work to deadlines
• Clear communication style (able to advise non-finance stakeholders on policy/process)