Finance Systems Manager

The role can be based in any of our Birmingham, Cambridge, Leeds, Manchester, Norwich or Oxford offices.  This is a full time, permanent role. 

The role

Reporting to the firm’s Financial Controller, this is a newly created role to support our Finance team achieve their part in the firm’s 2025 strategy to be a leader in client experience and drive profitable growth.  This is a great opportunity to join a high performing team and further your career in an ambitious and growing top 50 national law firm.

As a Firm of over 1,200 staff and partners and with fees planned to be over £145m in FY23, maintaining and improving our Finance systems is key.  Having successfully implemented a new Practice Management System (PMS) in 2019, we are now seeking a dedicated Finance Systems Manager to manage our PMS and other finance systems and deliver further enhancements.  This is an exciting opportunity for an experienced Finance Systems Manager to step into this newly created role at Mills & Reeve.

The successful candidate will manage the firm's financial systems, looking for and implementing continuous improvement initiatives, maintaining processes and the flow of finance related data between systems (including Elite 3E, Elite Templates, Proforma Tracker / Billstream, CreditForce, eBilling Hub, Cosine Matter Planning, Advance Finance Systems, Bighand Quantum, Concur and Online Banking Platforms). You will be required to manage the day to day as well as delivering projects and helping to define and implement the Firm’s strategic plans for their financial systems estate.

The person

The Financial Systems Manager will be key to facilitating and developing the use of systems and technology across the firm, promoting best practice and liaising with senior stakeholders to ensure business needs are met. You will be the bridge between finance, IT, external suppliers and the wider business and help translate finance business requirements into deliverables.

It is likely that your background and experience will include the following areas of expertise:

• A minimum of 3 years experience supporting the finance systems in a legal or professional services firm
• Project management skills.  Evidence of managing and prioritising a pipeline of work, consisting of BAU support, small change, project work and ad-hoc requests
• Good understanding of system governance and controls
• Strong knowledge of the Elite 3E application
• Experience of, but not limited to, budgeting and planning tools, e-billing hub, credit control (preferably creditforce), expense management and time recording systems (preferably Intapp).
• Strong Excel and data analysis skills
• Ability to build strong relationships with the business; helping maintain a professional, high-quality service supporting the firm's existing systems, whilst also being a key resource for future upgrades and the delivery of roadmap system improvements
• Knowledge and experience of how to manage all parts of the full system lifecycle

The role additionally requires someone who:

• has experience in change management
• is proactive, adaptable and has a ‘can-do’ attitude; a willingness to roll up their sleeves and undertake a range of activities at critical times of the month/year
• has a strong desire to learn and has a laser focus on accuracy of output;
• is reliable, has energy and drive;
• has a client service mindset; and
• has a passion for continuous improvement.

The activities

The Firm has well-established and experienced finance and IT teams. The Finance Systems Manager will partner with these teams and other key stakeholders to deliver:

• Day to day management of an effective controls environment relating to security, segregation of duties, access and data integrity aspects of the finance systems will be a key responsibility as well as ensuring compliance with the firm policies on ISO 27001 and ISO9001.
• Develop a matrix, in consultation with our Project Management (PM) and IT teams, to show where responsibilities lie for escalating and fixing issues, to include a communication plan to relevant stakeholders.
• Be a key member of the Firm’s PMS Governance Team and ensure actions are taken forward and completed to deadline.
• Be the finance lead in planning and delivering upgrades to our finance systems, working with key stakeholders and the finance team to ensure deadlines are met and issues resolved.
• Actively involved in the identification, tracking and follow up of system issues, either liaising with external suppliers to resolve bugs, or with our internal IT team to ensure the systems are working correctly.
• Train and coach the Finance team in best practice and consistent use of our systems on an ongoing basis, and develop a training programme for new starters in the team for systems relevant to their role.
• Act as point of liaison with IT and Data & Digital teams, to ensure that a consistent firm approach is taken with regards to our systems.
• Assist in the management of relationships with 3rd party suppliers.

Pre-employment screening

Please note that, in the event that we make an offer of employment, we will conduct pre-employment screening that includes checks relating to your professional and academic qualifications, references from previous employers, your eligibility to work in the UK and any disciplinary history recorded with the Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA). You will also be required to complete a self-declaration to assess your character and suitability.

Disclosure and barring service check and security clearance

This post is also subject to a satisfactory response from the Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) (to check for any previous criminal convictions) and, given the nature of the work-type, you may also be required to undergo national security vetting to SC level – the latter can be undertaken following commencement of employment.

And finally

Mills & Reeve is committed to building a diverse workforce and fostering an inclusive environment in which all our people can thrive. We hire people from a wide variety of backgrounds because it makes our firm stronger, and we have a collaborative culture that celebrates different perspectives and values respect for one another, working together, and openness and integrity. Our approach to flexible working means that we work in a way that achieves the right balance for our people, our clients and for our business.