"Financial Controller"

The Financial Controller provides day‑to‑day operational oversight of the Finance Bursary team and is responsible for the effective management of the College’s day-to-day financial operations. This includes overseeing accounts payable, accounts receivable, vat returns, ONS returns, monthly management accounts, and preparing accounts to trial balance for the college and its trading subsidiary.

The Financial Controller line manages the Finance Assistant responsible for the Student Billing function. 

The post holder will be responsible for the month end close down processes and timely production of the monthly management accounts pack. They will support the Finance Director for budget reporting, to standardise regular month end journal entries and to identify the critical tasks at month end. The Financial Controller is the most senior role in the Finance Bursary after the Finance Director and is expected to deputise for the Finance director when required.

Working closely with colleagues across the college the Finance Controller would support existing projects to integrate fully the sub ledgers relating to students, conference business, other transactions and the development office. The role ensures ensuring that processes linking the sub ledgers are robust, compliant with financial accounting standards, vat and internal controls.

The College operates in a complex VAT environment and uses the partial exemption method. The FC is responsible for ensuring that all transactions in the accounting system comply with current VAT regulations, for preparing the VAT return and keeping up to date with current VAT rules and changing College processes to maintain compliance.

The Finance Controller is responsible for developing and maintaining the annual financial timetable, ensuring all deadlines are clearly defined, appropriately allocated, and consistently met. This includes monitoring progress and adjusting workflows accordingly to ensure operational and statutory deadlines are met. 

In addition to the Bursar and the Finance Bursary team, key working relationships are with the HR Department, Domestic Bursar, IT Manager, Conference Office, Principals Office and Development Office.

Key Responsibilities

• Support the Finance Director in managing the Finance Bursary team
• Line management of the Finance Assistant – Student Billing
• Supervise the finance operations for Accounts Payable, Accounts Receivable, Student Billing and month end close
• Responsible for the month end close including closing before the agreed monthly close date target
• Production of quarterly management accounts reported to Estates and Finance Committee and to Governing Body to strict timetable
• Responsible for collating a commentary on the management accounts each term in collaboration with the Finance Director
• Providing feedback and support (Finance Partnering) to Heads of Department
• Support the Finance Director in completing the budget process
• Production of monthly management accounts for budget holders– including managing improvements to reporting
• Responsible for all invoice production
• Responsible for journal entries into Iplicit including the journal log
• Integration of the sales sub ledger (Kinetics) for conference and accommodation
• Integration of the sales sub ledgers Uniware & Accurate solutions
• Integration of donations sub ledger (Raisers Edge) and donations reporting
• Oversight of the Student Billing termly fee process
• Own the full finance timetable
• Responsible for completing the VAT returns for the College and limited trading subsidiary
• A variety of other finance tasks including clubs, societies, banking etc
• Support the Finance Director in developing further improvements in processing following the implementation of the new finance system (Iplicit – launched October 2025)
• Any other task at the direction of the Finance Director