Financial Accountant

We’re ZEISS Vision Care UK, based in Birmingham; an exciting place to work, where individuals make a real difference every day. As part of the ZEISS group, we are an international leader in the field of optics, with over 34,000 employees across 50 countries around the globe.

As the branded leader in lenses, we offer premium and pioneering products; innovation is at the heart of everything we do. Our brand enhances the lives and vision of millions of people around the world. In fact, 2 people every second put their trust in ZEISS lenses.

We are proud of our heritage and have been at the forefront of scientific discovery and innovation since our creation in 1846. We are a foundation; this means we reinvest 12% of our revenue to fund research and education, supporting progress within the optical industry and across the community.

We are more successful today than we have ever been, having celebrated double digit growth for the past ten years. We‘re not stopping here because we are focused on accelerating our growth even further, aiming to double our revenue by 2025. If you want to be part of making this difference, then ZEISS Vision Care UK is the right place for you!

Your Role

This is a critical role within the Carl Zeiss Vision UK finance team, which requires a driven, ambitious and enthusiastic qualified accountant to develop best-in-class practices and policies governing accounting and tax matters.

The role is responsible for ensuring the timely and accurate closing of the books and day-to-day compliance of all accounting and tax matters. It also provides responsibility to monitor the Company’s working capital.

The role provides a great opportunity to help shape and contribute to the future of the finance transformation agenda within Carl Zeiss Vision UK and provides a great opportunity for someone passionate to make an impact in the company and the finance function.

The role of Financial Accountant will involve:

• Ensure completion and submission of required financial information for Group reporting purposes under IFRS.
• Ensure appropriate reviews are performed on the prepared accounting schedules and supporting documentation used for month-end processing.
• Ensure Balance Sheet reconciliations are prepared and reviewed timely.
• Evaluate, develop, improve, and maintain appropriate control framework for accurate financial reporting.
• Evaluate, develop, improve, and maintain procedures for increasing efficiency with a mindset of continuous improvement.
• Prepare annual statutory accounts under FRS101.
• Being the primary contact for external and internal audits
• Responsible for the transactional accounting/finance activities
• Own the General Ledger and finance master data
• Oversight and control of journal entries
• Liaising with the payroll assistant and ensure payroll journals are posted in a timely manner.
• Manage cash flow with Group Treasury on a bi-monthly basis.
• Analysing financial data and creating relevant reports for management, stakeholders and external parties (such as vendors or customers).
• Responsible for forecasting, monitoring, and managing the company’s free-cash-flow and working capital position. Prepare relevant cash-flow analysis for Group functions.
• Responsible for lease accounting under IFRS 16
• Maintained the In-house leasing tool and ensure it is reconciled to SAP and external leases (vehicles and buildings)
• Collate and prepare (liaising with professional advisers where necessary) applicable tax returns and filings ready for the UK&I Financial Controller to review and approve.
• Quarterly UK VAT returns
• Quarterly Hungarian VAT returns
• Corporation Tax computations and returns
• Annual PSA submission to HMRC relating to employee benefits-in-kind

Your Experience

As a Financial Accountant you will have:

• Proven academics: Degree qualified or equivalent
• Chartered or Certified Accountancy Qualification: CA/ACA/ACCA/CIMA
• Continuous improvement mindset
• Excellent up-to-date knowledge and understanding of FRS101 and IFRS
• Sound understanding of best-in-class financial control environment requirements
• Excellent knowledge of UK VAT rules and filing requirements
• Good working knowledge and prior experience of IFRS 16 lease accounting
• Excellent stakeholder management and engagement skills
• Excellent communication and influencing skills
• Strong verbal and written communication skills
• Resilient, Self-aware and open to change
• Competent in problem solving, planning and decision making
• Proficient in all MS Office applications

You will ideally have:

• Hands-on experience in using SAP
• Previous experience of Hungarian VAT rules and filing requirements
• Good working knowledge of intercompany recharges
• Good working knowledge of payroll journals and payroll related HMRC submissions
• Experience with data visualisation tools (Tableau, PowerBI or equivalent)

Our Benefits

• 10% Employer pension contribution (providing a 4% employee contribution).
• Bonus scheme.
• Private BUPA healthcare for you and your family.
• Life insurance.
• Professional body subscription paid for by ZEISS.
• 25 Days annual leave (plus bank holidays), increasing with service.
• Free ZEISS lenses for you and discounted ZEISS lenses for your friends and family.
• Employee health and well-being programme including premium access to the Calm app.

Apply now to take the next step in joining ZEISS, where you can push technological boundaries, shape markets and contribute to the advancement of society.

Your ZEISS Recruiting Team:

Kate Campbell

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Diversity is a part of ZEISS. We look forward to receiving your application regardless of gender, nationality, ethnic and social origin, religion, ideology, disability, age or sexual orientation and identity.