Financial Controller

The Company

There's a particular satisfaction in preparing accounts for people who genuinely understand them. The board here includes people who've signed audit opinions themselves, so a technical position either holds or it does not, and whoever wrote it is in the room when it gets tested. That lifts the standard rather than the stress, because the questions are good ones.

Behind that sits a business with unusually little to worry about. Earnings that barely move with the economy, an owner group that plans in decades, and a finance function that has never once been asked to rescue anything. What it is being asked to do instead is build. Sharper reporting, controls designed for the next decade rather than patched for this one, and the new climate disclosure standards done properly while there is still time to do them properly. The work is funded and deliberately paced, and this Financial Controller role is where most of it gets done.

The Role

Reporting to the General Manager of Finance, this Financial Controller role owns the financial control environment end to end. The year end and half year statutory statements, the board reporting that carries them, the technical positions on the transactions that do not fit the template, the external audit and the general ledger underneath all of it. This is a hands on seat. The team is small and capable, and the expectation is that you are involved in and run month end and review the reconciliations yourself rather than direct them from a far away distance.

Two things make it more interesting...there is genuine treasury work attached, which is exposure most Financial Controllers in a business this size never get near. And the climate and sustainability disclosure build is live, with a leading share of it sitting in this seat, at a point where almost nobody in the market has done it before. Tax is outsourced by design, so you need to understand the complexity rather than be the expert in it.

Duties will include, but not be limited to:

• Delivering the year end and half year statutory financial statements, and the board reporting that goes with them

• Running month end, from journals and accruals through to the review of balance sheet reconciliations

• Producing monthly and quarterly performance reporting that explains what is happening rather than restating the numbers

• Writing technical accounting position papers on the transactions that do not fit the template

• Supporting the treasury function, including cash flow reporting, alongside external advisers

• Running the external audit so the process keeps moving and the findings actually get actioned

• Keeping the general ledger tight, with every balance accurate, compliant and supported

• Reviewing and approving accounts payable transactions and general journals in line with policy and delegations

• Designing and embedding the finance systems, processes and controls the function will run on for years

• Leading a share of the sustainability and climate disclosure reporting as those standards take effect

• Partnering with the General Manager of Finance and the wider leadership on analysis, insight and scenario modelling

• Leading and developing a small finance team while staying in the detail yourself

About You

You are the kind of Financial Controller who would rather prepare the statements than form an opinion on somebody else's. You might be a Senior Manager in a firm right now, watching the partner track lengthen and quietly aware that the part you actually enjoy, the judgement calls on the hard transactions, would be better spent on one set of accounts that genuinely matter. You might already run a finance team in a commercial business and want the technical depth that treasury and climate disclosure bring. Either way you are comfortable taking a position on an unusual transaction and defending it to people who will test it properly. You lead by doing the work beside your team rather than delegating it, you would rather improve a process than maintain it, and you can turn a complicated accounting answer into a calm plain one for people outside finance, which matters here more than it sounds.

Skills & Experience

To be effective in this Financial Controller role, you will likely bring:

• CA or CPA qualified, with a background in external audit or complex financial reporting, from practice or from industry

• Confidence owning statutory financial statements, board level reporting and the technical positions behind them

• Experience leading or supervising a small finance team while staying hands on with month end and the general ledger

• Strong to advanced Excel and Netsuite (preferred but not essential), but experience on a modern cloud based ERP is required. If you are an Audit first mover...you're forgiven

• Exposure to treasury, or to sustainability and climate disclosure, which stands out but is not expected. Its definately a nice to have, but a keen interest is just as good

• The judgement to know when to back your own call on a technical question and when to ask

What's on Offer

This is a Financial Controller role with the technical breadth of a much larger business and the proximity of a small one. You would report to a Chartered Accountant who still gets into the detail with you, and sit close enough to the CFO that a properly argued technical position gets backed rather than second guessed. What you prepare goes to a board that reads it properly, which is unusual access at this level and reads permanently well on a career.

• Brisbane CBD, three days in the office and two from home

• A technical remit that runs wider than the title, across statutory reporting, treasury and climate disclosure

• An improvement programme that is funded and deliberately paced rather than squeezed around a crisis

• A competitive package aligned to the experience you bring

Apply Now

If you want a Financial Controller role where you own the statements rather than audit them, and the hardest problems on your desk are the interesting kind, apply today.

Click Apply Now to submit your application or contact Matthew Taylor at P&C Partners for a confidential discussion. If you are sitting in a firm right now and would rather nobody knew you were looking, that is exactly how this will be handled...