Job title: Accountant (Management Accounts Team)

Directorate: Chief Financial Officer

About us

HM Courts & Tribunals Service (HMCTS) is responsible for the administration of criminal, civil and family courts and tribunals in England and Wales. Our roles support our service users and colleagues, where people and businesses access potentially life-changing justice.  We’re looking for individuals who are committed to public service and want to make a difference in people’s lives in delivering justice. If you’re interested in developing a career with a real purpose, please apply.

About the role

Your role as Accountant will be to support the administration of the month end reporting cycle, ensuring timely, fit-for-purpose products. You will be required to work with other finance and operational colleagues to support all relevant finance processes and delivery of information. You will also play a key role in supporting, developing, and improving a range of transaction processes to ensure that postings to the HMCTS accounts are accurate and robust. As well as delivering processes, you may also lead and support the objectives for a small nationally based finance team. By providing effective, active and dynamic leadership, you will also be a change leader for the Management Accounting Team when impacting and implementing improvement plans for your team.

We take pride in being a welcoming, friendly team with a supportive culture and can-do attitude. We take learning and development seriously both for individuals and in driving continuous improvement.

Reporting to a Senior Accountant, your role will encompass several key aspects (but not limited to): 

• Supporting the preparation of month end accounts and providing narrative for their interpretation and presentation.

• Providing analysis and assurance on the integrity of transactions in the general ledger and month end accounts.

• Overseeing and leading on the preparation of journals, ensuring they are posted in accordance with policy and procedure and advising on the correct accounting treatment of transactions.

• Ensuring effective controls and procedures are in place to maintain the accuracy of data within your area of responsibility.

• Providing ad hoc financial analysis and insight for the area you support.

• Ensuring you and your team deliver month end activities in a timely manner and to the required standard.

• Working collaboratively with the Senior Accountant, Financial Controller and other senior finance staff to deliver and continuously improve finance processes and products owned by the MAT.

• You may also manage staff, coaching and motivating them and supporting their development.

• Working flexibly and undertaking any other duties reasonably requested by line management that are commensurate with the grade and level of responsibility of the post.

Who are we looking for? (Person Specification)

The ideal candidate for this position should demonstrate:

Essential

• Experience in the review and preparation of month-end management accounting activities and narrative input to the management accounts.

• Adaptable and willing, with the ability to work in a culture of change; continually improving (products, processes, and priorities) to meet the current and future needs of the organization.

• Experience of leading and managing a team, with excellent communication skills, both written and verbal in order to build and maintain strong working relationships with colleagues and stakeholders

• Strong IT capabilities, particularly in Microsoft Excel and other Office tools.

• Knowledge of using Oracle Financials (Hyperion), Smartview and Essbase MS Excel add-ins

Desirable

• CCAB part qualified desirable (CIPFA, ACCA, CIMA, ICAEW, ICAS, ICAI part or full membership highly desired), AAT qualified, or with considerable financial experience. 

How to apply

Application Stage

Please submit;

• An anonymised CV

• A Statement of Suitability demonstrating how you meet the essential criteria (up to 500 words)

• A behaviour example illustrating the Civil Service behaviour “Communicating and Influencing" (up to 250 words).

Please ensure you cover both ‘what’ you do but also ‘how’ you do it. (i.e., the effective skills, knowledge & experience needed to undertake the role).

We will aim to sift the CV, Statement of Suitability and “Communicating and Influencing" behaviour but, in the event of a large number of applicants, an initial short sift may be conducted on the “Communicating and Influencing" behaviour only. Candidates who pass the initial sift of the “Communicating and Influencing" behaviour will either:

• ⁠progress to a full sift where all application assessment criteria are then assessed.

• or progress straight to interview.

Interview Stage

If successful at sift, you will be invited to attend a remote interview, via Microsoft teams. During your interview, you will be assessed against the following Civil Service Success Profiles which will include:

• Questions in relation to the following Civil Service behaviours:

• Communicating and Influencing

• Working Together

• Delivering at Pace

• Strengths will also be assessed however these are not shared in advance.

Further details

Allowance

This post may be eligible for an allowance, for fully qualified accountants.

Travel requirements

There will be a requirement to travel occasionally to other HMCTS sites, typically for team meetings or away days where you will have an opportunity to meet other team members in person and collaborate.

About our benefits

We reward our people for their hard work and commitment. We have family friendly and flexible working polices that will help you achieve a healthy work-life balance. In addition, we offer a range of employee benefits which include generous annual leave, a highly competitive contributory pension scheme, childcare benefits, season ticket and bicycle loans.

Proud to Serve. Proud to keep justice going.