Closedown Accountant

Key responsibilities

• Deliver allocated elements of the year-end closedown timetable.

• Prepare accounting entries, reconciliations and supporting working papers.

• Produce or review relevant notes and disclosures for the Statement of Accounts.

• Complete control-account and balance-sheet reconciliations.

• Investigate and resolve historic balances, miscoding and unreconciled items.

• Review accruals, provisions, reserves and other year-end adjustments.

• Support capital, grant, Collection Fund, pensions or group-accounting workstreams where relevant.

• Ensure working papers provide a clear audit trail and meet external-audit requirements.

• Liaise with service accountants and budget holders to obtain outstanding information.

• Respond to external-audit queries and provide supporting evidence.

• Track outstanding actions, risks and dependencies against the closedown timetable.

• Apply the CIPFA Code and relevant local-authority accounting requirements.

• Recommend improvements to closedown processes, controls and documentation.

Essential experience

• Recent hands-on closedown experience within a local authority.

• Experience preparing Statement of Accounts working papers and disclosures.

• Strong understanding of the CIPFA Code and local-government accounting.

• Experience completing complex balance-sheet and control-account reconciliations.

• A successful record of responding to external-audit queries.

• Strong Excel, ledger-analysis and problem-solving skills.

• Ability to work accurately under demanding statutory deadlines.

Desirable experience

• CCAB or CIMA qualification, or substantial specialist closedown experience.

• Experience supporting delayed or challenging local-authority audits.

• Knowledge of capital accounting, Collection Fund, pensions, leases or group accounts.

• Experience with the authority’s finance system and closedown software.

• Availability to increase commitment around key reporting deadlines if required