Transactional Team Leader

Transactional Team Leader

Working Pattern: Monday – Friday, 40 hours

Location: Geary’s Bakeries Ltd | Unit D | Optimus Way | Glenfield | Leicester | LE3 8JR

The role

The Transactional Team Leader is responsible for the day-to-day leadership of the transactional finance function and for maintaining strong financial control across the underlying ledgers and balance sheet. The role ensures that core finance processes are completed accurately, consistently and to deadline, and that issues are investigated and resolved at source. The postholder will act as the main link between the Head of Finance and the transactional finance team, taking ownership of balance sheet reconciliations, working capital reporting, VAT preparation, fixed assets, purchase-to-pay controls, statutory submissions and audit support.

The main responsibilities include:

Team leadership and operational delivery

• Lead, support and develop the transactional finance team, setting clear priorities, responsibilities and performance expectations.

• Plan and manage workloads across accounts payable, accounts receivable and associated transactional processes to ensure deadlines are met.

• Act as the first point of escalation for complex customer, supplier and internal finance queries.

Month-end and balance sheet control

• Own the monthly balance sheet reconciliation process, ensuring all reconciliations are complete, accurate, reviewed and supported by clear evidence.

• Review aged and unusual balances, investigate reconciling items and ensure corrective action is agreed and completed promptly.

• Drill into detailed customer and supplier reports to identify errors, duplicated items, unapplied cash, debit balances, overdue items and other exceptions.

• Support the month-end close, including journals, schedules, cut-off reviews and control activities within the role's remit.

Working capital and cash management

• Own the monthly calculation, tracking and reporting of working capital KPIs, including debtor days, creditor days and aged balances.

• Analyse the operational and commercial drivers behind movements in customer collections and supplier balances.

• Identify overdue debt, payment delays, billing issues, blocked transactions and supplier-account risks, and coordinate action with the relevant owners.

VAT, statutory reporting and compliance

• Prepare monthly VAT returns and supporting reconciliations for review and submission.

• Ensure VAT treatment is accurate, consistent and appropriately evidenced, escalating complex or uncertain matters where required.

• Prepare Office for National Statistics submissions where relevant and retain appropriate supporting records.

• Support other statutory, regulatory and compliance reporting within the finance function.

• Maintain process documentation and evidence required to demonstrate that key compliance controls have operated.

• Monitor purchase order compliance and report clearly on exceptions, unmatched invoices and outstanding commitments.

• Work closely with Goods In, Procurement, Engineering, Operations and budget holders to resolve goods receipting, invoice matching and approval issues.

• Challenge recurring process failures, identify root causes and agree corrective actions with named owners and deadlines.

• Provide practical guidance to non-finance stakeholders on finance processes and control requirements.

• Build constructive working relationships across the business while maintaining appropriate financial challenge and control.

Decision-making and authority

• Allocate and reprioritise work within the transactional finance team to meet business and reporting deadlines.

• Investigation and correction of unsupported, unreconciled or unusual balances.

• Escalate material control failures, compliance concerns, cash risks and unresolved stakeholder issues to the Head of Finance.

• Challenge non-compliance with purchase-to-pay, receipting and approval processes and agree corrective action with stakeholders.

Key working relationships

• Head of Finance and wider Finance team.

• Goods In, Procurement, Engineering, Operations and departmental budget holders.

Measures of success

• Balance sheet reconciliations completed accurately and on time, with aged reconciling items actively managed down.

• Debtor days, creditor days and aged balances reported consistently, understood and supported by clear actions.

• VAT returns, ONS submissions and audit schedules prepared accurately and delivered to deadline.

• Customer and supplier exceptions investigated promptly, with clear ownership through to resolution.

About Us

At Geary’s Bakeries, we’re on a crusade to make proper bread more accessible to more people. We’re passionate about re-imagining the way Great Britain thinks about their everyday loaf. This passion is at the heart of everything we do, and have done, since 1906.

We are ‘born and bread’ in Leicestershire and proud of our long-standing heritage. Today, we operate from three sites on a 24/7 operation. We’re made up of towards 900 people: a friendly, diverse and outgoing team, passionate about making a difference to the bakery industry.

The business has grown rapidly from £5m in annual sales to £125m+ in the last 15 years with strong and consistent profitability. We have an ambition to increase sales to more than £200m+ in the next 3- 5 years. A clear Vision and Strategy has been articulated, and this is being backed with major capital investment and a renewal and upgrading of the people, processes, and systems.

Our brilliant benefits include free delicious bread, BUPA Cashback Plan, Death In Service, a Cycle to Work scheme and a chance to win a £10k worth prizes annually! Plus, if you refer a friend to join our team, you could earn up to £500!

#wearegearys

About You

At Geary’s, we look for people who show up every day to do their best. We’re a passionate, friendly team and look for the same qualities in our new recruits. We firmly believe your attitude and approach is just as important (if not, more so) than the skills and experience on your CV.

What we’re looking for:

• Experience in manufacturing, FMCG or a supply chain environment.

• Experience with Sage 200 or a similar ERP system.

• Experience maintaining fixed asset registers and supporting external audit.

• Experience producing working capital, cashflow or purchase order compliance reporting.

• AAT qualified or qualified by experience. No qualification beyond AAT is required.

• Experience in a Transactional Team Leader, accounts manager, accounts supervisor or senior transactional finance role.

• Strong practical understanding of accounts payable, accounts receivable, working capital and balance sheet control.

• Experience preparing and reviewing balance sheet reconciliations and VAT returns.

• Experience leading, supervising or developing colleagues within a finance team.

• Experience investigating detailed ledger reports and resolving accounting discrepancies.

• Strong Excel and analytical skills, with the ability to identify root causes and communicate clear conclusions.

• Hands-on and willing to work at a detailed level while maintaining oversight of deadlines, risks and priorities.

• High level of accuracy, organisation and follow-through.

• Confident in challenging explanations, escalating risks and holding others accountable for agreed actions.

• Clear and credible communicator able to influence stakeholders outside Finance.

• Practical problem solver with a strong financial control mindset.

• Able to manage competing priorities and remain effective during month-end, audit and other peak periods.

All applicants must have the right to work in the UK, at point of interview, and for the tenure of employment contract. As part of the recruitment process, you will be asked to provide documented evidence of your eligibility to work in the UK.

If you have not heard from us within seven days, unfortunately you have not been successful on this occasion, but we wish you every success in your search for a new position.

No agencies