Commercial Finance Manager
Manchester City (Hybrid)
£55,000 – £65,000 + Benefits
This is an exciting opportunity for a commercially strong finance professional to join a fast growing creative business. Reporting into the Financial Controller, you’ll take ownership of the day to day finance function and play a key role in supporting the business through its next stage of growth.
The business is scaling quickly and has a genuine startup feel. This hire will sit between the Financial Controller and the Finance Assistant, taking ownership of the operational finance layer and freeing up senior finance capacity to focus on board level and strategic work.
They need someone who can bring real commercial understanding to a people based business, support decision making across the agency, and help make the finance function more robust while the business continues to grow.
What You’ll Be Doing
- This is a hands on, broad ranging role where you’ll own key areas of finance, including:
- Month-end close – take ownership of the monthly close, ensuring accurate and timely reporting across the business.
- Budgeting and forecasting – support budgeting, reforecasts and rolling revenue forecasts, helping leadership understand performance and what’s coming next.
- Business partnering – work closely with commercial and operational teams, providing insight and challenge to support better decisions across the agency.
- Commercial KPIs and analysis – develop and report on the metrics that matter in a people business, including forecasting, utilisation, client recovery, client growth and staff ratios.
- Revenue recognition – own revenue recognition and ensure revenue and margin are understood accurately by client and department.
- Strategic financial analysis – provide meaningful commercial insight to support pricing, resourcing, client decisions and wider operational planning.
- Board support – contribute commercial insight and analysis to board reporting, helping leadership see risks, opportunities and performance clearly.
- Team development – manage and develop the Finance Assistant, setting clear priorities and building strong processes across the function.
What We’re Looking For
- Strong commercial finance experience gained within a fast-paced, people-led services business
- A genuine understanding of how an agency makes money, including utilisation, recovery, client profitability and staff cost
- Hands on finance experience that goes beyond standard month end accounting
- Confident working at pace in a fast moving, entrepreneurial environment
- Strong commercial instincts, with the ability to challenge forecasts and explain numbers clearly to non-finance stakeholders
- Experience with Xero; familiarity with HubSpot and project management systems would be useful
- Comfortable with systems, process improvement and potential system migrations
- Experience leading or developing a junior team member
- ACCA, CIMA or qualified by experience – the right commercial experience matters more than qualifications alone
The Package
- Salary: £55,000 – £65,000, depending on experience
- 30 days plus bank holidays
- Working pattern: Hybrid, typically two days per week in the Manchester office, with flexibility to one day per week for candidates based further away
This is a genuine opportunity to join a growing creative agency at an important point in its journey, shape the finance function and make a real commercial impact. If you’re a hands-on, commercially minded finance professional with people services experience, this could be the role for you.
Applications are now open via Platinum Recruitment. For more information, contact Rob at Platinum rob@platinumrecruits.co.uk.