Management Accountant

Management Accountant

Salary: £50,000 per annum | Company Benefits
Location: Walsall, West Midlands | Hybrid
Contract: Full-Time | Permanent | 37.5 hours per week
 
About Us:
 
Echo Managed Services and its subsidiary Aptumo support water companies globally to deliver effective customer service and drive retail operation efficiency through end to end customer service and water billing software offerings.

The Role: 
 
At Echo Managed Services, we're looking for a commercially focused Management Accountant to join our Finance team and play a key role in supporting the financial performance of our software business.

As the Management Accountant, you will take ownership of monthly reporting, financial controls and project accounting activities across our software business. You will be responsible for ensuring financial information is accurate, timely and meaningful, while providing valuable insight into project performance, profitability and future forecasts.

This is a varied role that combines technical accounting, commercial analysis and stakeholder engagement, making it ideal for someone who enjoys understanding the story behind the numbers.

Key Responsibilities:

Management Accounting:

• Prepare accurate monthly management accounts and supporting analysis.
• Post and review month-end journals, including accruals, prepayments, depreciation and amortisation.
• Reconcile and maintain key balance sheet accounts, resolving discrepancies promptly.
• Perform detailed revenue, cost, margin and variance analysis.
• Review accrued and deferred income to ensure accurate revenue recognition.
• Support budgeting, forecasting and cash flow planning activities.
• Assist with year-end reporting and external audit requirements.
• Develop meaningful financial reports and performance dashboards.
• Support continuous improvements to financial processes, controls and reporting.

Project Accounting:

• Take ownership of financial reporting and controls across software projects.
• Partner with Project Managers to establish budgets, forecasts and financial milestones.
• Track project expenditure against approved budgets and explain variances.
• Monitor project profitability, revenue, costs and margins.
• Review project timesheets, resource allocation and supplier costs.
• Support accounting treatment of software development costs, including capitalisation and amortisation where appropriate.
• Monitor work in progress, accrued income, deferred income and unbilled revenue.
• Identify financial risks, cost pressures and forecasting changes early.
• Drive improvements in project reporting consistency, accuracy and efficiency.

About You:

You'll be a detail-oriented and proactive finance professional with a strong foundation in management accounting and a genuine interest in understanding business performance.

You'll be comfortable working with large datasets, collaborating with non-finance stakeholders and taking ownership of key financial processes. Most importantly, you'll be naturally inquisitive, commercially aware and motivated to improve the quality of financial information across the business.

Essential Skills & Experience:

• Qualified, part-qualified or actively studying towards ACCA, CIMA or equivalent.
• Experience preparing monthly management accounts.
• Strong understanding of accruals, prepayments, depreciation, amortisation and balance sheet reconciliations.
• Experience of project accounting, budgeting, forecasting and variance analysis.
• Advanced Excel skills, including: 
  • Pivot Tables
  • XLOOKUP (or similar)
  • SUMIFS
  • Logical formulas
  • Data reconciliation and analysis
• Strong analytical and problem-solving skills.
• Ability to communicate financial information clearly to non-finance audiences.
• Excellent organisational skills with the ability to manage multiple deadlines.
• High levels of accuracy, ownership and attention to detail.

Desirable Experience:

• Experience within a software, technology or project-based environment.
• Knowledge of software revenue recognition and project profitability reporting.
• Experience managing work in progress, accrued income, deferred income and unbilled revenue.
• Understanding of software development cost capitalisation and amortisation.
• Experience using accounting systems such as Xero, Oracle or similar ERP platforms.
• Knowledge of Power BI, Power Query, Power Pivot or other reporting tools.
• Experience enhancing financial reporting and automating finance processes.

What Success Looks Like:

In this role, success means:

• Delivering accurate, timely and insightful monthly financial reporting.
• Providing clear visibility of software project performance, profitability and risk.
• Building trusted relationships with project managers and operational stakeholders.
• Improving the quality, consistency and efficiency of management reporting.
• Driving better decision-making through robust financial analysis.
• Continuously developing your technical and commercial expertise while taking ownership of an increasingly influential role.

What You'll Get:
 

• Family-Friendly Leave: Enhanced Maternity, Adoption, Paternity & Shared Parental Leave, Fertility Support, and up to 5 paid Carer’s Days
• Financial & Life Assurance: Company Pension Scheme with salary sacrifice options
• Health & Wellbeing: Employee Assistance Programme and 24/7 Virtual GP access for you and your dependents
• Lifestyle & Perks: Cycle to Work Scheme and My Premier Benefits discounts, cashback, and vouchers
• Professional Development: Hands-on training and ongoing career development opportunities
• Inclusion & Belonging: Active People Networks – Disability & Neurodiversity, Unity+, Women’s Network, Parent & Carer Networking Group and more
• Performance & Recognition: Annual salary review, Reward & Recognition Scheme, and Long Service Awards.

At South Staffordshire Group, inclusion matters. We have a wide range of employee networks which are employee-led communities that bring our people together, support different perspectives and create a strong sense of belonging. Our people are encouraged to get involved as members or allies.

We are committed to building a team that reflects the diversity of the communities we serve. 

We warmly welcome applications from candidates of all backgrounds, including all genders, ethnicity, sexual orientations, and physical and neurodiverse abilities.
We are happy to discuss reasonable adjustments and encourage you to let us know how we can best support you throughout the recruitment process.