Finance Manager

The main purpose of the Finance Manager role is to assist the Head of Finance (HOF) in ensuring that Bridgewater Housing Association delivers excellent strategic and financial planning; effective financial management and control; value for money; internal customer service; and the highest standards of governance, performance management and accessible services.

The Finance Manager should assist the HOF to be an inspirational leader and provide strategic direction to the Finance and ICT team focussing on Value for Money, organisational development, continuous performance improvement, and driving innovative solutions to embed and maximise digital services while ensuring compliance with statutory, legal, and regulatory requirements.

The service will deliver a culture of ownership and continuous improvement, working with a wide range of service partners and agencies to develop joint planning objectives, ensuring that the association and local authority policies and strategic objectives are met.

You will strategically assist in managing the delivery of financial services across the business. You will motivate and inspire teams to deliver outstanding performance, high customer satisfaction and value for money services. You will work as part of the team to deliver high performing services and contribute to the delivery of the association’s strategic objectives. You will be responsible for assisting the HOF in working in partnership with external organisations and fostering excellent internal and external working relationships to enhance performance, compliance and services.

The core skills are communication, supervisory management, motivation and having an enthusiasm and ability to support teams through policy, procedural direction and guidance towards success and achievement. It is important to possess a detailed knowledge of accountancy procedures and financial and governance legislation. Good general knowledge of service level agreements, contracts, and procurement methods in respect of housing services is required. A high level of verbal and written skills to assist in the production of the management accounts, financial statements, policies, procedures etc. to the Board, staff, and key stakeholders is required for the role.

The job also involves working across a range of IT systems and software packages, therefore having strong IT skills and being comfortable picking up new software is important. Customer service is at the forefront of all that we do and therefore having professional communication skills (both verbal and written) is key to the role. A knowledge of housing databases and SAGE software will be desirable.

You must have good analytical skills to consider difficulties and find solutions to them, excellent communication and negotiating skills to build effective relationships with key stakeholders, including Board and staff of Bridgewater.

In addition, the Finance Manager must possess the following skills:

• Relevant Professional Qualification/Accounting Degree and/or professional accounting qualification i.e. CIMA, ACCA, ICAS, CIPFA
• High level of Information Technology skills including the use of accountancy software, spreadsheets and databases.
• Effective supervisory and leadership skills; a demonstrated ability to build productive teams of staff performing varied functions.
• Effective leadership and positive management style; to promote and drive continuous improvement, change management, achieve Association goals, and maintain staff morale

The Finance Manager should assist in managing the process for internal and external audits of the Association and in conjunction with the HOF assist in the preparation of the Annual Financial Statements, Budget, Management Accounts and all regulatory returns to SHR, OSCR and the FCA.

All staff of the Association must understand and implement the core values of Bridgewater Housing Association and understand and adhere to the Terms and Conditions of employment and the Association’s Code of Conduct. Adherence to Equality practices and relevant GDPR and FOI legislation will be expected.