Role: Finance Assistant Location: Shoreham Role ID: 2024-2570 Our vision is to create a safe and sustainable world. Ricardo plc is a global strategic, environmental, and engineering consulting company. With over 100 years of engineering excellence and employing close to 3,000 employees in more than 20 countries, we provide exceptional levels of expertise in delivering leading-edge and innovative cross-sector sustainable products and solutions. Every day, we enable our customers to solve the most complex and dynamic challenges to help achieve a safe and sustainable world. Role Overview: The Finance Assistant will provide daily support and leave cover for the finance team, ensuring the smooth execution of financial operations within the Rail business unit. This role provides exposure to the foundational aspects of the finance function, through the allocation of tasks relating to accounts payable, accounts receivable, reconciliations, and banking, with a focus on accuracy and timeliness. Key Responsibilities Payment Processing Prepare and process vendor and expense payment run(s) in SAP. Set up and execute approved payment batches. Raise ICO Bank payments and attend to ad hoc UK payments. Working Capital Raise invoices for North America (NA) and Middle East (ME) entities. Send correspondence to allocated customers regarding overdue debt. Liaise with Project Managers to resolve any outstanding debt issues. Reporting Prepare Debtors and Creditors reports in SAP. Reconcile Debtors, Creditors, and Fixed Assets (FA) as part of the month-end process for the UK, EMEA, and North America. Undertake required surveys on a monthly, quarterly, and annual basis, in compliance with legal requirements. Journal Management Manage, post, and reconcile standing journals based on budget and monthly reviews for the UK and EMEA_NA regions. Month End Support Assist with the month-end close by preparing reports for review by line management. Complete Balance Sheet reconciliations as assigned, ensuring alignment with the reporting timetable. Ad Hoc Reporting Perform ad hoc reporting and provide team coverage directed by line management. Skills and Behaviours Ability to take initiative and work independently, with guidance and support as needed. Experience with SAP or other ERP systems (or a willingness to learn). Attention to detail with a proven ability to manage tasks efficiently and meet deadlines. Good communication skills, with the ability to liaise effectively with internal and external stakeholders. Working here You will be warmly welcomed into our workplace where every voice matters. We are diverse thinkers and doers, coming together to create a culture of inclusion. We will support you to find your place. We will encourage you to use your passion and expertise to make a positive impact through the projects you work on. Your knowledge and desire to bring about change will be invaluable in helping deliver innovative solutions that support communities across the globe in becoming safer and more sustainable. Work life balance We offer flexible approaches to work, whether that is working from home, being in the office, or as a hybrid worker. We're happy to discuss flexible working arrangements. Wellbeing is at the core to our culture, allowing employees to flourish and to achieve their full potential. Benefits We want you to know how much you are valued. Your remuneration and benefits package will reflect that. You will receive a range of benefits which include support for your physical and mental health. Our core benefits include 25 days' annual leave, plus 8 flexible bank holidays, a competitive company pension scheme, life assurance and professional subscriptions reimbursement. We also offer a wide range of flexible benefits to suit your lifestyle. Diversity, Equality, and Inclusion statement We are an Equal Opportunity Employer, we believe in each person's potential, and we'll help you reach yours. We have an ambitious diversity, equality, and inclusion approach as explained here. We value diversity; recognising that a more diverse workforce creates a richer and more varied working environment. Diversity also drives innovation, by allowing us to offer our clients the best consultancy service that we can. As part of our commitment to engage positively and pro-actively with all our employees and to ensure an inclusive culture, we are a recognised as a 'disability confident' employer. Next steps Once you have submitted your application a member of our Recruitment Team will be in touch. Please be aware that the timing can vary dependent on the volume of applications that we receive for each role and in some cases, we may start to review applications prior to the closing date. Ricardo is a Disability confident employer please advise the recruitment team via recruitricardo.com if you require any adjustments to support you throughout the recruitment process. LI-ZP1