Operating Company

GroupM

Job Title

Management Accountant

Department / Team

GroupM Finance

Reporting To

Financial Controller

About GroupM

GroupM is the leading global media investment management operation serving as the parent company to WPP media agencies including Mindshare, Wavemaker and MediaCom, each global operations in their own right with leading market positions. GroupM’s primary purpose is to maximize performance of WPP’s media agencies by operating as leader and collaborator in trading, content creation, sports, digital, finance, proprietary tool development and other business-critical capabilities. GroupM’s focus is to deliver unrivalled marketplace advantage to its clients, stakeholders and people. Discover more about GroupM at www.groupm.com.

The Role Objective

The main purpose of the role is to assist in the preparation of the monthly management accounts for reporting to both GroupM management and WPP group (EMEA). This requires detailed variance analysis and exception reporting and Liaising with Finance Plus on Payables, Receivables.  To be successful in this role, engagement with various parts of the business is required, often at different levels of seniority.

Responsibilities

Month-end process/ year-end & variance analysis

• Calculation of accruals & prepayments of costs and inter-company, using IFRS principles. Prepare and post journals
• Assist in preparation of monthly Management Accounts reconciled to TB
• Monthly variance analysis (by comparing to budget/forecast) and exception reporting on both costs and revenue
• Assist in preparation of the month end file ensuring compliance with IFRS.
• Monthly & quarterly balance sheet reconciliations
• Ensure all supporting schedules tie back to main P&L and Balance Sheet.
• Action any queries post month-end; i.e AP mis-posting etc.
• Assist with the SOX and year-end audit by providing all relevant information to the auditors.
• Preparation of various revenue reporting schedules

Group / WPP reporting

• Liaise with EMEA to resolve reporting queries
• Submit commentaries to EMEA on a monthly basis
• Deal with EMEA’s new reporting requirements
• Prepare and submit quarterly packages
• Prepare and submit the year-end packages

Business Partnering

• Business partnering through engagement with business on a regular basis including face-to-face meetings
• Adding value to operational teams through analysis, reporting etc.

Other and periodic

• Ensuring compliance with company policies and SOX requirements
• Continuously reviewing current processes and making improvements to allow better control or improved efficiencies
• Ad hoc projects as directed by FC/SFC/ Sr Revenue Analyst
• Review of monthly payroll, when required.
• Assisting AP team with coding of invoices
• Dealing with Finance Plus on ad hoc queries

Skills and Behaviours

Desirable

• Experience working with DDS / Media Ocean
• Experience working with Cartesis / BFC
• Media industry experience
• Part qualified accountant or studying towards professional qualification (ACA/ACCA/CIMA)

Essential

• Intermediate / advance level of Excel (knowledge of sumIFs, sumIF, Pivot tables, VLOOKUP is essential)
• Organized with good attention to detail
• Quick to learn and adaptable to changing work allocation and able to prioritise workload to meet challenging deadlines
• Strong analytical and reconciliation skills
• Strong communication & relationship building skills
• Enthusiastic with a can do attitude
• Ability to work independently and as part of a team