Cash Forecasting & Reporting Analyst

Job description

·  Salary
Competitive plus excellent benefits
·  Role area
Finance
·  Contract type
Permanent
·  Job reference
HRGWI448113
·  Location
Milton Keynes
MK9 2NW
· 
At Sainsbury's Argos, the great digital transformation is under way. It's our aim to become the digital market leader in choice, value and convenience, so our Finance teams are more important to us now than ever before. They're the people who provide support across the business and help make the crucial decisions that will allow us to develop into a leading digital retailer.

Sainsbury's Argos is at the heart of the Group's growth strategy. Since joining Sainsbury's, Argos has revolutionised the way we do business, bringing expertise, technological innovation and hugely talented people to the team. We have outperformed the market in a number of key business areas by presenting customers with convenience, choice and value. As well as opening c.280 Argos stores in Sainsbury's supermarkets, customers can also pick up their Argos and Tu clothing orders from 320 collection points in our supermarkets and Convenience Stores, where customers can also collect eBay and DPD parcels. Our own delivery network is also breaking new ground. We are the only retailer in the UK who can deliver to 92% of UK postcodes within four hours.

Role Overview:

Cash & controls is a key priority in our business and the Cash Forecasting and Reporting Analyst plays a significant part in influencing decisions involving cashflow. You will co-ordinate, analyse and validate the Corporate view of our Balance Sheet, Statutory cashflow and Direct cash position, responsible for the planning and supervision of the cash forecasting cycle, management reporting and analysis.

For the Balance Sheet, you'll deliver the financial plans for Sainsbury's Argos – budgets, forecast, strategic plan and reporting, ensuring that this is co-ordinated and well managed. You'll work to improve the understanding of our Balance Sheet & the processes and controls surrounding it, working with a wide array of finance & non-finance personnel from across Sainsbury's Argos to ensure best practice and strong controls.

What I need to do:

Lead a team of 2 direct reports to deliver the cash and control agenda. Responsible for the leadership and driving the development of the team.
Responsible for tracking and driving through the Sainsbury's Argos cash generating initiatives. Work closely with finance business partners to manage latest position versus forecast and manage risk and opportunities and communicate this clearly into the FD, Exec and our Group colleagues.
Maintain and continue to improve the way in which the Sainsbury's Argos business understands, forecasts & analyses the Balance Sheet and Cashflow Statement. Be a champion of the processes around this and gain buy in from all the relevant stakeholders to do this.
Champion a control conscious environment. Responsible for tracking, monitoring and managing risk around our internal and external audit action points. Providing the right level of control and procedure on our Balance Sheets and effectively managing risks and ops.
Ensure the statutory cashflow story is aligned to that provided in the Weekly Direct Cashflow reports. Ensuring all financial statements are triangulated in the forecasting process will be key to make this happen. When differences do occur, investigate the non-triangulation and implement process improvements
Work closely with the Group Cash and Balance Sheet team to manage latest view of cashflow and improve forecasting accuracy, especially in the run up to our key half year and full year reporting cycles.
Delivery of key financial planning cycles for the balance sheet and cashflow including budget, forecast and strategic plan. This will include management of the timetable, setting up appropriate review meetings and co-ordination of all the inputs.
Gaining agreement on the Balance Sheet numbers to be used in the financial plans. This includes the management of views from all the respective Analyst teams & Managers. These will be co-ordinated and reconciled into a single version that the business can buy into.
Reconciliation of the cash spends on assets, ensuring consistency with published numbers. Understanding the relationship between the balance sheet movement and cash is critical. This role will provide reconciliation and validation of the numbers for the business.
Preparation of presentations is an important requirement of the role. This will include co-ordinating the inputs from relevant teams across the business, ensuring consistency of the information, ensuring that the presentation tells the right “story” and manages the conflict between these areas. In budget and forecast preparation time this will form a major part of the day to day activities of the role holder, including producing FD and Exec pack presentations, Redbook pages, Balance Sheet packs and Weekly cash packs.
Continuous improvement of the processes that are involved in financial planning. This includes those that extend beyond the finance community such as Stock control, trading and distribution operations. This role must ensure that the balance sheet planning and reporting processes can be responsive and flexible to the business needs and includes ad hoc activity to support the balance sheet analysis process.
Enable comprehensive analysis of the balance sheet, including ensuring that information is available and is both robust and timely. This will accumulate in the balance sheet reporting pack on a periodic basis. Further analysis will be required for half year and full year close. Preparation and presentation of period results to the FD.

To be successful in this role, you'll have the following experience and skills:

Graduate or equivalent, Qualified Accountant – minimum 1-2 year PQE
Experience of cash forecasting is not essential, but a working understanding is required.
Commercial experience, where relevant, is required (being able to understand the implications on the business of its Cashflow)
Ability to communicate well across financial and non-financial stakeholder groups
Ability to co-ordinate information from multiple data sources and individuals whilst maintaining consistency
Ability to work accurately and to tight deadlines in a dynamic environment
Must be an intermediate Excel user as a minimum and comfortable with modelling and possess clear presentation skills (being able to logically layout data for presenting)

What you'll get in return:

If being part of a hugely influential team wasn't enough, you'll also receive a host of great benefits. As well as a competitive salary and bonus scheme you will receive a huge range of learning and development opportunities, holiday allowance, a save-as-you-earn scheme, pension and staff discounts at Argos, Sainsbury's and Habitat.

We know that candidates may be put off applying for a job unless they can tick every box. While we can't always accommodate every flexible working request, we do support part-time and job share roles so are happy to be asked how we can work around your availability. So if you are excited about working with us and think you can do much of what we are looking for but aren't sure if you are 100% there yet… why not apply and see how it goes?

Here at Sainsbury's Argos we're a proud equal opportunities employer that values diversity at every level of our business. Inclusion and Diversity are fundamental to our culture and values, fostering an innovative, collaborative and fast paced work environment that means we can build a better future for our colleagues and our customers. Everyone is welcome at Sainsbury's Argos. Want to find out more? Then visit our Diversity & Inclusion page on our Careers site – www.argos.careers/diversityandinclusion