Finance Systems Analyst (Data & Reporting)
About us
Praetura was established to offer a competitive and sustainable alternative to bank lending for UK businesses, offering funding lines including asset finance, asset-based lending, commercial loans and invoice finance.
We remain independently owned to this day, giving us the flexibility to support our people, the businesses we believe in and the freedom to operate in a manner that best sets us up for success.
Our team, which is based out of our offices in Wilmslow and Blackburn, is led by experienced financial services specialists, and encompasses a broad variety of backgrounds, skills and expertise.
We believe that the right funding, from the right lender, at the right time, has a transformative impact on the trajectory of a business. But if we change what’s possible for businesses, it’s our people that change what’s possible for ours.
About the Role
Our Finance and Treasury teams produce the figures our funding stakeholders rely on, some daily and some monthly, and much of that work is still done in spreadsheets. We are automating it. This role makes sure that the automated reports reconcile to the current ones, that every difference is explained, and that Finance is comfortable before anything switches over.
You will be the link between Finance and the data engineers: the person Finance comes to when a figure looks wrong, and the person the engineers come to when a definition is unclear. New reports are added regularly, and the business keeps evolving, so the work is ongoing.
We move quickly and there is little process for its own sake. We want someone who would like to see the manual data transformation gone, but who also understands that speed can never come at the expense of accuracy.
What You Will Be Working On
For each existing report, you will:
- Document how it is produced today, including the manual steps and adjustments that are not written down anywhere
- Agree the definitions with Finance and write them precisely enough for an engineer to build from and an auditor to follow
- Reconcile the first automated run to the existing report, and establish whether each difference is a bug, an error in the existing report, or a change of definition
- Run old and new in parallel until Finance is satisfied, keep the evidence, obtain sign-off and manage the cut-over
For new reports, you will:
- Document precisely the nature of the requirement with Finance in a way which can be briefed to engineers
- Be the gatekeeper between the engineers and Finance to ensure seamless delivery of the final report to meet business requirement. You are accountable for explaining the status of where a report build is at any time.
You will work mostly with the Finance and Treasury teams and the data engineers.
Data: SQL on Amazon Redshift
Reporting: Excel, Power BI
What We Are Looking For
- Experience of a data migration, systems implementation or reporting change where figures had to reconcile and be signed off, ideally in financial services
- A working understanding of ledgers, receivables, arrears and reconciliations
- Working SQL, or the aptitude to pick it up quickly - you need to be able to check a figure yourself
- Strong Excel
- Precision: you trace every difference to its cause
- Able to explain a difference to a Finance Director and a defect to an engineer
- Keen on technology and automation, comfortable moving quickly, and careful not to break things
- Patience for detail - willing to dig into a calculation until you understand it and every figure is right
- Comfortable asking questions of stakeholders to fully understand requirements when scope / definition is unclear, and good at explaining things clearly
- A self-starter who is confident working without close supervision
- Must be UK based
Nice to have:
- Experience of lending to businesses
- Experience of reporting to funders or on bank covenants
- Experience and knowledge with accounting concepts
- Python
- Building reports in Power BI
Interview Process
- Initial conversation about your background and a migration or reconciliation you have been through
- Practical take-home task: a Finance spreadsheet and its new automated version disagree. You work out why, write a short specification, and plan the switch. It takes around four hours, and we give you a week to fit it in. You can use AI tools.
- Follow-up session with two of the team: you walk us through your findings, then one of us plays the Finance Director who does not believe your number - also a chance for both sides to ask questions
What We Can Offer You
- Competitive salary plus discretionary annual bonus
- Company pension scheme
- Your birthday off
- Private healthcare for you and your immediate dependants
- Enhanced family-friendly policies
- Financial, physical and mental wellbeing support
- Death in service insurance
- Cycle to Work scheme
- Free parking
- Free breakfast, drinks and snacks
- Regular social events, including summer and winter parties
At Praetura, we understand that everybody has different needs, and we're committed to being an inclusive employer.
We have an equal opportunities policy and believe everybody should have the opportunity to perform at their best. If you require any reasonable adjustments during the recruitment process, please let our People team know in your application or contact [email protected]
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