Financial Accounting Manager

at  AO Shearman

The Belfast Finance department provides services to the A&O Shearman network of offices covering management and financial accounting & reporting, revenue control (includes eBilling), credit control, accounts payable and tax. Offices currently served are London, Belfast, US, South Africa, Dubai, Israel, France, Luxembourg, Belgium, Netherlands, Germany and Spain.
There is a strong client service ethic and we work to Service Level Agreements, targets and deadlines to deliver in line with client expectations.

At A&O Shearman our company values are extremely important to us, we would like the successful candidate to be able to demonstrate evidence of their experience in:

• Quality – Provide exceptional service to staff and clients
• Growth – Lead the market
• Value – Champion operational efficiency and effectiveness
• Efficiency – Promote standardisation and integration across the firm
• Talent – Recruit, motivate, retain and develop the best people
• Risk – Enhance the A&O Shearman Brand and mitigate ris

We have an opportunity for an experienced Financial Accounting Manager within the Belfast Financial Control team who would be responsible for managing and co-ordinating all of the statutory reporting and audit requirements of the Belfast Financial Control team, along with ensuring the processes within the team are compliant with A&O Shearman group finance policies. You will act as a key member of the team and work closely with the existing Belfast Financial Control managers along with the UK CFO, UK Financial Controller, Group Financial Control team, and the inhouse legal team. This role will act as the main point of contact within the Belfast Financial Control team for the external auditors and will be responsible for planning and co-ordinating the audit process.

The role includes:

• Responsibility for all aspects of the planning, preparation and completion of multiple sets of annual statutory accounts. These include UK and Jersey audited and unaudited statutory accounts, along with Israeli audited statutory accounts;
• Liaising with external auditors and managing the audit process for all sets of audited statutory accounts;
• Planning and managing all aspects of the audit requirements for the team in relation to the A&O Shearman group audit;
• Co-ordinating the year end process of preparing disclosures that the Belfast Financial Control team are responsible for delivering in relation to the A&O Shearman group financial statements;
• Responsibility for the annual dividend and recapitalisation process involving the UK corporate entities within the A&O Shearman group;
• Responsibility for the implementation of any new accounting processes or implementation of any new accounting policies or standards. This will involve liaising with the A&O Shearman Group Financial Control and PAT (Partner Affairs and Tax) teams where required;
• Review existing processes within the Belfast Financial Control team to ensure they are compliant with A&O Shearman group accounting policies;
• Responsibility for identifying opportunities/areas of process improvements within the Belfast Financial Control team which should be implemented. This would include devising, documenting and implementing the new processes.

At A&O Shearman our company values are extremely important to us, we would like the successful candidate to be able to demonstrate evidence of their experience in:

• Quality – Provide exceptional service to staff and clients
• Growth – Lead the market
• Value – Champion operational efficiency and effectiveness
• Efficiency – Promote standardisation and integration across the firm
• Talent – Recruit, motivate, retain and develop the best people
• Risk – Enhance the A&O Shearman Brand and mitigate risk