Operating Company

GroupM UK

Job Title

Financial Accountant

Department / Team

GroupM Controllership

Reporting To

Head of Financial Reporting & Control

Location

Red Lion Square, London

About GroupM

GroupM is part of WPP plc and is the world’s leading media agency group.

Comprising central teams and the agencies in our group - EssenceMediacom, Mindshare, Wavemaker and m/SIX– GroupM’s purpose is to inspire and empower our clients and agencies to deliver market-leading business growth. As the world’s largest media investment management business, we do this through the intelligent application of our scale.

We invest in people, content, technology, and data to drive growth for our clients’ businesses, providing intelligence to find or create valuable audiences and outcomes. Our leadership, inventiveness and scale drive success for our clients, our partners, and our people, and we strive every day to be renowned as the UK’s most trusted, innovative, and successful agency network.

About the Team

This role sits within the Controllership team of the GroupM UK Finance team. The Controllership team are responsible for all Controllership activities across the GroupM UK market. It headed up by the Group Financial Controller and contains c70 staff.

About the Role

The role is a newly created role within the GroupM UK Finance team.  The role reports to the Head of Financial Reporting & Control and will support across several Financial Reporting, compliance and central accounting activities. 

The Financial Accountant will support the on all audits across the Group including group audit, stats audits, WPP internal audits and SOX.  There will be a strong emphasis on providing first-class support across the wider controllership and Finance teams, providing the team with the resources and information required for their roles. The role will be the go-to person for technical accounting support

The role will have a particular focus on balance sheet, working with the Controllership team to understand the balance sheet in greater depth and tracking balance sheet risks and opportunities, helping the team resolve issues and following up on agreed actions.

The role will support the month end close process, working with GroupM EMEA to track flash and actuals submissions and reviewing P&L and balance sheet submissions across the team and reporting key highlights to the Group Financial Controller. 

The role will assist the Head of Financial Reporting & Control in implementing a robust Transfer Pricing process in FY24.

Responsibilities

• Support all audits across the GroupM UK market including Group audit, stats audit and SOX, supporting the team in resolving auditor queries quickly, coordinating audit deliverables and timetabling
• Ownership of content and disclosures of Financial Statements across the UK market, reviewing accounts for consistency and harmonising accounting policies and disclosures
• Providing technical accounting guidance and support across the finance team under IFRS
• Building strong relationships with various stakeholders including auditors, Risk & Compliance teams, the wider finance team and WPP teams, working closely with GroupM EMEA and FP&A during the monthly flash and actuals close processes
• Reviewing monthly P&L and balance sheet submissions in detail, highlighting key variances and updates to the Group Financial Controller and identifying areas where action is required or further review
• Support the Head of Financial Reporting & Control with regular balance sheet reviews with the Controllership team with the aim of understanding the balance sheet in detail, identifying opportunities to standardise processes, maintaining a log of balance sheet risks & Opportunities and driving the timely resolution of balance sheet issues
• Support on SOX on an ad hoc basis as required due to team absences identifying opportunities to centralise controls where possible
• Supporting the Head of Financial Reporting & Control in embedding robust Transfer Pricing procedures across the UK market to meet WPP requirements
• Tracking tax compliance ensuring all VAT and Corporation tax returns are completed on time
• Identifying opportunities to standardise processes and approaches across statutory accounts, accounting policies and financial reporting processes working with the T&I team to initiate projects

Other attributes & skills required in the role

• Qualified accountant (ACA, ACCA, or equivalent) with at least 2 years PQE
• Significant and recent experience required from audit practice to be able to understand audit approaches and challenge as appropriate
• IFRS accounting
• Advanced Excel skills
• Strong communicator and interpersonal skills required
• Excellent oral and written skills.
• Strong analytical skills, proactive and investigative mind-set
• Desire for continuous improvement
• Experience of Auditor transition desirable