Description:
As the Finance Manager - Customer Operations, you will lead a team of Service Charge Accountants, driving continuous improvement in service charge and re-charge management processes. You will ensure high standards of quality and efficiency in financial operations related to service charges, utility billing, and insurance recharges for The Crown Estate's assets.
Key Responsibilities:
- Team Leadership: Lead and manage a team of Service Charge Accountants and Finance Administrators, ensuring the delivery of high-quality services in line with SLAs.
- Service Charge Management: Oversee all aspects of service charge management for The Crown Estate assets, working closely with the wider property team.
- Recharge Management: Act as the focal point for recharges, including utility billing, insurance billing, waste billing, maintenance re-charges, etc., liaising with stakeholders such as Property Managers, Asset Managers, financial teams, Sustainability & Net Zero teams, and the Insurance team.
- Financial Oversight: Manage inputs to Managed Workspace Management and revenue budgeting.
- Work Allocation: Allocate work to the team and serve as the point of contact for escalations and issue resolution.
- Mentorship: Mentor team members to enhance their knowledge, skills, and capabilities.
- Quality Assurance: Approve team outputs to ensure quality and consistency.
- Collaboration: Establish close working relationships with asset, property, facilities managers, and management accountants, ensuring integration of all matters impacting service charge management.
- Budget Management: Own the service charge budget and reconciliation processes, including production of templates and backup data.
- Reporting: Establish robust processes to report recoverable, non-recoverable, and void costs as live data streams, including robust forecasting.
- Risk Monitoring: Monitor processes for financial and procedural risks, ensuring supporting colleagues and service partners complete tasks appropriately.
- Performance Reporting: Provide performance reports and insights to assist with property management strategy and overall governance of the London portfolio.
- Audit Management: Manage the relationship with auditors, ensuring all reviews and audits are delivered to SLA with minimal challenges.
Knowledge, Experience, and Skills:
- Experience: Minimum of 5 years in a Service Charge Accountancy or advisory position.
- Property Knowledge: Experience with commercial and residential property types.
- Leadership: Proven experience in line managing operational teams to achieve excellent results.
- System Knowledge: Knowledge of MRI Horizon property management system or equivalent, and experience with reconciliation tools like Blackline.
- Regulatory Knowledge: Excellent understanding of the RICS Service Charge Code & Professional Statement requirements, case law, and precedent.
- Best Practices: Experience in managing and implementing best practices, procedures, and reporting frameworks.