Commercial Accountant

Our client is one of the leading law firms in the Southeast, and one of oldest law firms in operation in the world, With over 140 fee earners, their specialist practice areas include Commercial, Corporate, Employment, Construction, Real Estate and Agriculture & Rural Affairs The Commercial Finance Accountant supports the firm’s financial performance by providing commercial insight, analysis and business partnering to practice groups and senior stakeholders. The role helps drive profitability, pricing discipline and informed decision-making through analysis of revenue, margin, matter performance and departmental results. It also maintains oversight of working capital, including WIP, billing, debtors and lock-up, to support strong revenue conversion and cash flow discipline. Responsibilities Act as a finance contact for allocated practice groups and senior stakeholders. Attend departmental meetings to review performance, risks and opportunities. Provide insight on revenue, margin, utilisation, recovery and client performance. Challenge and support partners in understanding the commercial drivers of their results. Help translate financial information into practical actions to improve performance. Produce revenue, profitability and performance reporting by department, client and fee earner. Analyse trends in fee income, margin, recovery and commercial performance. Investigate drivers of underperformance, margin erosion and variances to plan. Prepare dashboards and commentary for practice leaders and finance management. Identify opportunities to improve performance and support evidence-based decision-making. Assist in the preparation of revenue forecasts, departmental budgets and reforecasts. Monitor actual performance against budgets and forecasts, highlighting risks and opportunities. Support forecasting of billing, cash collections and short-term revenue performance. Provide forward-looking analysis to support commercial planning and resource decisions. Support partners with financial analysis for pricing proposals and fee arrangements. Analyse profitability of key clients, significant matters and service lines. Provide modelling to support new business opportunities and investment decisions. Contribute financial input to tenders, client proposals and other commercial initiatives. Maintain oversight of WIP, billing, debtors and lock-up across practice groups. Review aged WIP, debtor trends and billing pipelines to identify risks to cash conversion and revenue realisation. Work with partners and colleagues to support timely billing and collection activity on key matters and accounts. Provide reporting and insight that supports initiatives to improve working capital and strengthen cash flow discipline. Identify process improvements that strengthen financial reporting, commercial insight and working capital management. Support the development of consistent financial metrics, reporting approaches and performance measures across the firm. Contribute to projects that improve pricing discipline, matter management and financial decision-making. Work collaboratively with colleagues across Finance to support joined-up processes and improve end-to-end performance. Candidate Profile ACA, ACCA or CIMA qualified preferred; strong part-qualified candidates will also be considered. Relevant experience in commercial finance, management reporting, FP&A or finance business partnering. Experience within a professional services environment desirable, ideally with exposure to practice group or departmental performance reporting. Experience of working with and influencing non-finance stakeholders Strong financial and commercial analysis capability, with the ability to interpret trends, risks and opportunities. Advanced Excel skills and strong financial modelling ability. Experience using practice management systems and reporting tools to support performance analysis and decision-making. Good understanding of revenue, profitability, budgeting, forecasting and working capital performance, including WIP, billing and debtors. Important Notice It is Career Legal’s policy, as a matter of courtesy, to respond to all applications within three working days. However, because of the volume of applications, we are sometimes unable to respond to individual candidates. If we have not contacted you within three working days your application has been unsuccessful and your details have not been retained. Please apply for any other position that you may see in the future. Thank you.