Cash and Billing - Senior Associate

At PwC, our people in finance focus on providing financial advice and strategic guidance to clients, helping them optimise their financial performance and make informed business decisions. These individuals handle financial analysis, budgeting, forecasting, and risk management. Those in accounting at PwC will focus on managing financial records, analysing data, and assisting in compliance with accounting standards. You will play a crucial role in providing accurate financial information and insights to support decision-making.

About The Role

The Working Capital team is part of Financial Operations and provides working capital support to client engagements from across the UK firm, structured by line of service. The services provided by the team includes both:

• transaction delivery - providing essential financial transaction delivery support to client engagement teams, including raising invoices, chasing outstanding debts and setting up job codes; and
• working capital optimisation - driving improvements in working capital performance through working with engagement teams. As a Working Capital Senior Associate, you will have responsibility for a portfolio of billing managers and/or partners within a business unit across one of our lines of service. In your role you will provide your billing managers and/or partners with both transaction delivery and working capital optimisation support, meeting with them on a regular basis to discuss their working capital performance and understand and deliver on their transactional delivery requirements. The role supports a number of Working Capital Managers (WC Manager) to bring together cross-functional capabilities and processes to deliver and drive commercial excellence across the firm.
  
  

What we are looking for?

• The role would suit a finance administrator or finance project coordinator, demonstrating a clear aptitude for analysing data, problem solving and budgeting. The candidate must also have excellent proven organisational skills, be able to multi-task and can build strong working relationships with client facing senior stakeholders (manager through to partner grade), including the confidence to challenge their working capital position.
• The ideal applicant will be passionate about the role they play in improving working capital performance and provide excellent client service, taking the time to learn about our clients and the services we provide. They will demonstrate drive, a customer focused approach, flexibility and agility whilst enjoying the demands that come with working in a fast-paced environment and exceeding KPIs.
• The suitable candidate will also demonstrate leadership qualities to manage their own time, whilst being willing to learn new tasks and taking on new responsibilities. They will also be open to sharing ideas and best practice with colleagues and peers alike.
  
  

Core Responsibilities

• Financial administration and analysis: including creating client codes, raising invoices and credit notes, chasing debts, maintaining financial trackers, running/analysing financial reports and, in some lines of service, budget preparation.
• Proactive working capital improvement: leading meetings with Partners, Directors, Senior Managers and Managers to discuss their working capital needs on their engagements, including providing insight into their financial metrics and progress against targets, whilst making recommendations to improve metrics.
  
  

Team Management

• Work with WC Managers to support LoS initiatives & priorities
• Keeping WC Managers informed of potential issues and risks to the Firm
• Ensure that WC Associates are fully up to date with all relevant policies and procedures
• Offering support and guidance on managing their workload
• Manage quality of WC Associate work and getting it right first-time approach upskilling where necessary
• Weekly review of timesheet completion & quality
• Identify, encourage and recognise examples of good team working and provide timely written and verbal feedback
• Management and approval of annual leave/planned and unplanned absences
• Manage office attendance and pre-approval of overtime
• Liase with AC Senior Managers and Leaders to ensure implementation of team strategies and initiatives
  
  

Stakeholder Management

• Attend meetings with Billing Partners and Billing Managers to discuss quality of service and provide viable solutions to their needs.
• Report key management information (e.g. working capital progress and predictions) to WC Managers throughout the month. Identifying trends, explaining variances and making suggestions for improvements.
• Engaging on a regular basis and working collaboratively with finance on key projects and targets.
  
  

Supporting the Working Capital processes and initiatives in the following ways

• Monitor Working Capital meetings to ensure they take place in a timely manner and the meeting content and output is consistent with guidance from leadership. This will include periodic shadowing of CAEs at monthly Partner/Manager meetings to ensure quality and consistency
• Review of trackers throughout the month to ensure completion and quality meets national & local requirements
• Review of MI dashboards to ensure status and updates are accurate and timely, responding quickly to address anomalies.
  
  

Training & Development

• Supporting the WC Managers to effectively manage team performance through a continuous process of planning, goal setting, coaching and assessment.
• Working with the WC Managers to review and deliver necessary training to align to business/process changes.
• Participate in the organisation and facilitation of structured training events and team building exercises
  
  

Onboarding

• Supporting the WC Managers and ensuring new joiners are allocated a local buddy and supporting them through training and onboarding processes
• If you are results driven and enjoy working in an ever-changing environment and you have the ability to help lead and drive commercial excellence, we want to hear from you.
  
  

Experience Required And Desirable Skills

• A finance/accountancy based degree and/or studying towards an accounting or finance professional qualification
• Minimum 5-6 years experience of delivering high quality finance support, preferably in a professional services (or similar) environment
• Team Managment experience, leading others to achieving KPIs. Conducting a regular review of quality and ensuring consistency throughout the team.
• Work effectively under pressure with excellent organisation skills and the ability to prioritise work, especially when there are conflicting demands.
• Strong numerical and analytical skills, being able to interpret financial data and produce relevant reports.
• Pragmatic in your approach to problem-solving.
• Attention to detail and the personal motivation to perform your role to the highest standards, taking ownership of your portfolio and assigned tasks
• Always punctual, flexible and responsive in how you approach your work and ensuring deadlines are met
• Excellent Communication skills - written & verbal - with ability to interact confidently and professionally at all levels
• Strong interpersonal skills - able to build and maintain trusted relationships with clients and colleagues