Financial Accountant

Smart Data Foundry Limited; City of Edinburgh; On-site; GBP 35,000 - 45,000; Full time

Job summary

A finance and data consultancy in Edinburgh is seeking an experienced accountant for a 14-month maternity cover role. The successful candidate will prepare monthly financial reports, lead account payable/receivable activities, and assist in budgeting and forecasting. Applicants should be either finalist qualified accountants or hold equivalent experience. Strong communication skills and proficiency in Excel are essential for this position.

Qualifications

• Experience in accounts preparation including accruals and prepayments.
• Experience in cash flow forecasting.
• Experience in accounts payable and payroll activities.

Responsibilities

• Prepare monthly financial reports and quarterly grant returns.
• Lead the account payable and receivable activities.
• Assist in budgeting and forecasting.

Skills

High accounting and finance technical skill-set

Strong communicator

Good planning and organising skills

Ability to operate in a fast-paced environment

Excellent verbal and written communication skills

Self-motivated and proactive

Education

Finalist qualified accountant or equivalent experience

Accountancy degree (minimum 2.1)

Tools

Excel (v-lookups, pivot tables)

Dynamics Business Central

Power BI

Job description

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Smart Data Foundry provided pay range

This range is provided by Smart Data Foundry. Your actual pay will be based on your skills and experience — talk with your recruiter to learn more.

Base pay range

Direct message the job poster from Smart Data Foundry

This role is for 14-month maternity cover with expected start date in early January 2026

About Smart Data Foundry

Smart Data Foundry has a purpose to unlock the power of financial data as a force to improve people’s lives.

What we do

We enable the research ecosystem to flourish through the provision of research ready real financial data.

We create data-driven insights based on real financial data that identify areas to inform policy change and enhance regulation.

Role Purpose

This role is for 14-month maternity cover

This role contributes to the accurate and timely preparation of the monthly financial reports and quarterly grant returns; leads the account payable and receivable activities and assists the Head of Finance in budgeting and forecasting and the procurement process.

Key Responsibilities

Financial Reports Responsibility

• Work closely with the Management Accountant on the timely preparation of Smart Data Foundry’s monthly financial results, including completion of journals (payroll) and the provision of variance analysis reporting to budget and forecast
• Update monthly project reporting to obtain monthly cost of sales and understand profit/loss on individual projects
• Assist with the annual statutory audit through the provision of requested workings and supporting documents as requested by PWC
• Support the Head of Finance in preparing the quarterly Board financials reports and any ad hoc information, including the preparation of the annual statutory accounts document
• Review and reconcile monthly payroll reports from Smart Data Foundry’s payroll agency and ensure the staff costs align to the monthly financial results
• Prepare monthly reconciliations (such as deferred revenue, debtors, creditors) and other balance sheet accounts to support the monthly results.
• Prepare the quarterly grant claim forms on a timely and accurate basis with back-up reconciliations and supporting invoices to provide, where requested, to external auditors and the grant monitoring officers
• Contribute to defining the allocation methodology for both resource and costs being claimed across multiple grant awards and ensuring compliance to the grant award terms and conditions
• Assist with the annual grant audit through providing the supporting documents as requested by the external grant auditor including responding to ad-hoc queries
• Respond to any ad-hoc queries from the Smart Data Foundry grant providers on a timely basis

Cash Flow Management

• Regularly update the 13-week cash-flow forecasts to proactively manage the cash positions and support cash injections and outflows between the investment and current bank accounts
• Contribute to the completion of ad-hoc cash management exercises

Supplier and Customer Engagement

• Lead on all account payable and receivable activities, alongside other finance team members, with the aim of ensuring the accurate and timely processing, supplier payment and cash receipts
• Support the Head of Finance and internal stakeholders in ensuring procurement process is followed effectively and resolving any ad‑hoc queries

Monthly Timesheets

• Assist the rest of the finance team with coordinating the timely receipt of individual monthly timesheets and importing into Microsoft Dynamics finance system
• Where required, identify and support the implementation of process changes to improve the efficiency and timeliness of timesheet recording

Customer Pricing

• Support the calculation of new business customer pricing covering a range of potential new contracts including grant bid opportunities and new customers

Budgeting and Forecasting

• Assist the Management Accountant and Head of Finance in the delivery of the annual budget and quarterly forecast outputs
• Collaborate with, and where necessary, challenge internal stakeholders on delivery of their financial and business targets

Finance Support Partner

• Provide finance partnering support to Smart Data Foundry to increase financial awareness, cost management and profitable income growth
• Manage and respond to financial and accounts queries raised by a variety of stakeholders including Smart Data Foundry colleagues, the University, external auditors and grant bodies
• Adopt a continuous improvement approach to all outputs and processes to increase automation and improve efficiency levels of day to day working practices

This role requires a finalist qualified accountant who is either studying towards a formal accountancy qualification (such as ICAS, ICAEW ACCA, ICMA) or holds qualification through relevant experience.

Alternatively, the job holder could hold an accountancy degree (minimum 2.1).

The following skills are an essential requirement for the role

• High accounting and finance technical skill-set
• Strong communicator, specifically possesses a good grasp of building relationships with their team and a variety of stakeholders on both a virtual and in-person basis
• Good planning and organising skills specifically with adhering to timely completion of monthly/quarterly routine tasks
• Delivery of high quality financial outputs
• Ability to operate in a fast-paced and environment
• Enthusiastic with a ‘can do’ positive approach

This role requires experience in -

• Accounts preparation including accruals and prepayments
• Excel (v-lookups, pivot tables), Dynamics Business Central and Power BI
• Cash flow forecasting
• Accounts payable and payroll activities
• Forecasting and budgeting
• Ability to deal with ambiguity and react quickly in an evolving and fast paced environment.
• Ability to work autonomously, under pressure and with conflicting and changing priorities.
• Excellent verbal and written communication skills
• Personable approach with ability to develop positive working relationships at all levels within an organisation
• Self-motivated and proactive

Seniority level

• Associate

Employment type

• Full-time

Job function

• Finance and Accounting/Auditing