Manager – Statutory Accounting & Reporting

WPP Shared Service Centre (SSC)

The WPP SSC provides transactional financial services to WPP companies in the UK, including:

-             Accounts Payable, including Intercompany transactions

-             Accounts Receivable (Billing, Credit Control & Cash Allocation)

-             Treasury

-             Accounting and Reporting

-             Statutory Reporting

By consolidating activities, the WPP SSC takes advantage of volume to deliver increased efficiency.  This is achieved by standardising, streamlining, and aligning relevant processes, and introducing tools and technology to drive effectiveness across our operations. By taking over transactional financial activities, the WPP SSC enables our agencies to focus on commercial activities, client management as well as revenue and cost management.

In 2021, the WPP SSC UK organisation transferred specific process and transactional activities to the WPP SSC in India. The WPP SSC teams in the UK and India work together to provide services to WPP companies in the UK.

Why we're hiring:

The WPP SSC is on a global transformation journey, and this is an opportunity to join the UK team to help us deliver exceptional financial services to our UK companies.

What you'll be doing:

Management and delivery of the Statutory reporting for all UK registered entities at Companies House.  This role will report into the Head of Global Statutory Reporting.

• The team manages the delivery of approximately 150 UK statutory accounts annually;
• End-to-end production of statutory accounts using both an excel template for data collection and input on our statutory reporting software system, including generation of iXBRL files;
• Key contact along with the Head of Global Statutory Reporting for CFOs, Finance Directors and Financial Controllers on statutory reporting requirements, issues and associated questions;
• Working with the Head of Global Statutory Reporting to onboard a number of new operating companies supported by GBS UK for their statutory reporting needs;
• Key point of contact for external auditors on statutory audit related issues and questions; to provide guidance and advice on auditing, audit tests and SoX guidelines across GBS UK;
• Collation of corporation tax packs, working with the operating company teams on submission to the Group’s tax consultants to ensure timely submission of corporate tax returns;
• The department also assists with the dissolutions of WPP Holding and operating companies in conjunction with WPP Legal, WPP Tax and the operating companies;
• Review accounting step plans for dissolutions and assist WPP Legal in writing up the legal documentation surrounding dissolutions;

What you'll need:

• Qualified accountant (ACA/ACCA) with strong technical accounting skills
• Experience of reporting under IFRS and in a SOX control environment;
• Experience producing UK statutory accounts for multiple entities using statutory reporting software (ideally Caseware or Workiva);
• Experience dealing with external auditors and ability to drive the audit process;
• Excellent communication skills – able to communicate effectively both internally and externally, verbally and in writing, as well as at different levels of an organization;
• Commercially focused with a proactive service-oriented approach;
• Able to build and maintain strong internal and external working relationships;
• Excellent IT skills (Microsoft Office at intermediate to advanced level), particularly MS Excel, which should be intermediate/advanced (pivot tables; conditional formatting etc.)
• Strong analytical and problem-solving skills with a high level of attention to detail;
• Managing of own workload to ensure consistent service levels;
• There may also be a requirement to work additional hours occasionally due to tight deadlines and month-end processes.

Who you are:

You’re open: We are inclusive and collaborative; we encourage the free exchange of ideas; we respect and celebrate diverse views. We are open-minded: to new ideas, new partnerships, new ways of working.

You’re optimistic: We believe in the power of creativity, technology and talent to create brighter futures or our people, our clients and our communities. We approach all that we do with confidence: to try the new and to seek the unexpected.

You’re extraordinary: we are stronger together: through collaboration we achieve the amazing. We are creative leaders and pioneers of our industry; we deliver extraordinary every day.

What we'll give you:

Passionate, driven people – We champion a culture of people that do extraordinary work.

Scale and opportunity – We offer the opportunity to create, influence and deliver projects at a scale that is unparalleled in the industry.

Challenging and stimulating work – Unique work and the opportunity to join a group of creative problem solvers. Are you up for the challenge?