Partnership Accountant

About the Team:

The Finance team supports all aspects of the firm’s financial requirements, from strategic support to transactional processing. The Financial Planning and Analysis (FP&A) team, based in Cardiff and Manchester, is responsible for management information, financial reporting, VAT/PAYE compliance, payroll oversight and all partner-related transactions.

About the Role:

The Partnership Accountant is responsible for all aspects of partner-related transactions, reporting and modelling, with weekly, monthly and quarterly deliverables.

Please note, this is an 18-month Fixed Term Contract.

Working collaboratively with other team members in Cardiff, Manchester and London, responsibilities will include:

• Preparing the annual partnership profit model for inclusion within the Firm’s financial statements.
• Preparing the annual partner current accounts model and working papers and issuing current account statements in October and February.
• Acting as main point of contact for the firm’s tax advisors, providing documentation for the UK partnership tax returns, and arranging senior management approval.
• Managing all partner personal tax activities: collating UK and Ireland tax liabilities (January and July) and ensuring HMRC deadlines are met; acting as main point of contact for partners’ personal tax advisors; preparing tax analysis workings, estimates and equalisation calculations; maintaining tax payment trackers; and assisting with ad-hoc tax queries.
• Maintaining the partnership points tracker, partner-related nominal account codes and performing quarterly balance sheet reconciliations.
• Calculating quarterly distribution payments and assisting with monthly drawings calculations, including arranging payment and posting to Elite.
• Production of earnings confirmation letters (or similar) for partners.
• Reviewing partnership agreements and calculating ad-hoc payments as required (e.g. during the partner appraisal process).
• Preparing ad-hoc profit share modelling and other partner financial modelling as required.
• Dealing with ad-hoc internal partnership queries and other tasks, including general partnership administration tasks, as they arise.

About You:

You will have a professional manner, excellent communication and interpersonal skills, and have previous experience working within an office. You’ll have a flexible nature and will enjoy working within a fast-paced team, and will be highly organised. You’ll also possess strong numeracy and attention to detail skills, which will be key within this role. We are looking for someone who is passionate about being a team player, who is keen to support others.

Our ideal candidate will be able to demonstrate:

• Qualified or part qualified and studying towards ACCA/CIMA (or equivalent), with a track record in a similar role.
• Previous law firm or partnership accounting experience is desirable but not a requisite.
• Strong Excel skills (including Lookup, Pivot and Chart functions), data extraction and analysis techniques, and experience with practice management/accounting systems (e.g. Elite/SAP). Experience with Microsoft Reporting Services or similar is desirable.
• Excellent organisational skills with the ability to prioritise and manage competing deadlines.
• Strong attention to detail and commitment to accuracy, balanced with a pragmatic approach to delivery.
• Proactive communicator who identifies and implements process improvements.

Additional Information:

At Lewis Silkin our ethos is simple. We strive to do the best for our clients, our people and the communities in which we operate. We recognise that an inclusive workplace allows for all kinds of ideas and thoughts, a variety of points of view that can trigger discussions or deliver innovative results, and a wide range of versatile skills and expertise. We are proud of the diversity within Lewis Silkin and of our culture that allows people to be themselves at work, ensuring we provide the best possible service to our clients. We are committed to supporting candidates throughout the recruitment process by supporting anyone who requires adjustments, in order to ensure they have the opportunity to perform at their best. All applicants will be considered equally and fairly. If you’d like to request any adjustments throughout the recruitment process, or would like to discuss flexible working patterns, please email the recruitment team in confidence ([email protected]).