Finance and Accounting Manager

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Finance and Accounting Manager

Location: Basingstoke (minimum 3 days per week in the office plus remote work). Expected to visit Sony Weybridge office at least twice per month, plus occasional London office visits.

Contract: Permanent, Full-Time

Salary: Competitive

Start Date: Immediate

About the Position:

Hawk-Eye Innovations, Pulselive and Beyond Sports form a key part of the Sony Sports Entertainment Business Unit (SEBU) with a shared mission to deliver best-in-class officiating, broadcast, and digital solutions to the sports world.

As Hawk-Eye Innovations Finance and Accounting and Reporting Manager, you'll be a critical part of the SEBU team and will also be a conduit to the Global Finance Accounting Team and the wider Sony group (Global Finance and Accounting, Tax and Treasury and BPO).

The Accounting and Reporting function is performed by on-site resource, platform resource, BPO and Central Accounting Operations. You will have overall accountability for co-ordination and service delivery across all accounting and reporting functions and will take ownership of risk management and escalations.

Business partnering is critical to success within the role. It's important to establish strong relationships with Hawk-Eye P&L owners, office functions, as well as the Senior Management Team to understand reporting requirements, strategic direction, and to drive value. You will need to proactively understand organisation and process changes and ensure adequate systems, controls and compliance are in place to manage these.

This role requires a hands-on manager who will be responsible to ensure that accounting and reporting is recorded accurately and timely, to meet internal and external requirements.

Key Responsibilities:

• Manage month-end processes; planning/comms, validation of actuals, variance analysis reporting against forecast and budget.
• Ensure Balance Sheet integrity, calculation of key accruals and provisions, and support the Commercial Finance team during the budgeting, forecasting, and MRP processes.
• Review statutory accounts, corporate income tax returns, and VAT-related filings for the parent entity, its branches and its subsidiary entity. Support with data requests and validate the accuracy.
• Prepare and/or validate journal entries
• Maintain and reconcile balance sheet and general ledger accounts.
• Partner with Sony Global Tax Office and ensure tax compliance.
• Ensure timely identification of Risks and Opportunities.
• Drive the consolidation of all Sports Business's monthly trial balance into the parent entity accounts.
• Review and approve the R&D capitalisation and tax credit process.
• Establish Internal Controls, manage internal/external audits, and remediation plans.
• Drive Accounting team continuous improvements and harmonise practices, e.g., robotic process automation (RPA) and process outsourcing (BPO).
• Manage projects for system and/or entity integrations in line with Global Process Model. This includes the implementation of SAP4HANA ERP system.
• Drive compliance projects including Pillar 2 and ESG reporting.
• Review and approve the cash flow forecast and foreign exchange hedging (with Sony Global Treasury Services) and manage GL requests for Sony Global Tax Office.
• Responsible for ensuring the accurate preparation and timely submission of VAT returns, Intrastat and associated reporting requirements.
• Provide guidance to businesses on key policies, revenue and cost recognition, and fixed asset accounting.
• Manage escalations for the Accounts Payable function ensuring service delivery quality. Ensure BPO and platform are accountable for master data, invoice processing, payments, and travel expenses.
• Manage escalations for Account Receivable function i.e. Due Diligence, Master data, Credit Control activities, maintain the ledger, working with BPO provider.
• Ensure payroll is processed timely and accurately for the UK, its branches and subsidiary entity.
• Submission of quarterly/annual compliance questionnaires to parent entity and treasury
• Oversee the submission of the annual PSA agreement and India PAN return.

Your Skills, Knowledge, and Expertise:

• Professionally qualified accountant (ACCA, CIMA, or international equivalent).
• Experience of IFRS essential with strong technical knowledge and practical application of revenue and cost recognition methods, fixed asset and lease accounting.
• Advanced SAP expertise in FICO, SRM and VIM and Microsoft Office Excel/Google Sheets expertise is essential. Experience of SAP special purpose ledgers is desired.
• Experience with services solutions business.
• Experience with corporate income tax compliance for a global business.
• Proven experience at manager level.
• Proven results in motivating and maintaining high performance in teams.
• Driving & sustaining change in a lean accounting environment.
• Experience with working with Outsourced organisation partner.

Why Join Us:

This is a fantastic opportunity to be part of a global leader in sports technology and innovation. You'll work in a collaborative environment where your contributions drive meaningful change and impact across our global operations.

We value diverse perspectives and experiences. If you are passionate about finance and accounting and eager to grow with a supportive team, we encourage you to apply even if you don't meet every single requirement. Your unique skills and background could contribute significantly to our team's success.