Finance Analyst
Reporting to: Financial Controller
Location: Leicester (with occasional on-site interaction as required)
Role Overview
An established organisation is seeking a Finance Analyst to support the Finance function by delivering accurate, timely, and insightful financial analysis to support business decision-making.
The role focuses on management reporting, cost analysis, KPI dashboards, and data analytics, working closely with Finance, Operations, and Production teams. It is well suited to someone with a strong analytical mindset who enjoys working with ERP-derived data and translating complex information into clear commercial insight.
Key Responsibilities
Financial Analysis & Reporting
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Assist in the production of monthly management accounts, including variance analysis and commentary.
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Prepare and analyse cost of goods sold (COGS) and margin information for month-end reporting.
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Perform detailed cost analysis, including product costing, job costing, and investigation of variances.
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Support the Financial Controller with financial analysis, periodic returns, and audit requirements.
Costing, WIP & Operational Insight
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Analyse costing data from the ERP system to ensure accuracy, completeness, and integrity.
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Liaise with Production and Operations teams to establish accurate work-in-progress (WIP) figures.
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Maintain costing data throughout the month to support timely reporting and forecasting.
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Investigate anomalies and discrepancies in operational and financial data, providing clear explanations and recommendations.
Data, Analytics & KPI Reporting
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Design, build, and maintain Excel-based reports and KPI dashboards to support financial and operational decision-making.
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Extract and manipulate data from ERP and other business systems using Excel, SQL, and Power Query.
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Produce regular reporting, including weekly sales and orders, reconciling operational data to the general ledger.
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Improve the automation, reliability, and presentation of management information and analytics.
Business Partnering & Continuous Improvement
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Work closely with stakeholders across the business to understand reporting requirements and provide analytical support.
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Contribute to improvements in data quality, reporting processes, and financial controls.
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Support ad-hoc analysis and project work within the Finance team as required.
Skills & Experience
Essential
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Strong analytical skills with high attention to detail and accuracy.
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Advanced Excel capability, including pivot tables, formulas, and data handling.
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Experience analysing financial and operational data within a manufacturing or similar environment.
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Ability to interpret ERP system data and translate it into meaningful commercial insight.
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Confident communicator, able to explain financial information clearly to non-finance stakeholders.
Desirable
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Experience using SQL / T-SQL for data extraction and analysis.
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Practical use of Power Query or similar data transformation tools.
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Costing or management accounting experience within a production environment.
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Exposure to KPI development, dashboarding, or business intelligence reporting.
Personal Attributes
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Curious, proactive, and improvement-focused.
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Highly organised, able to manage multiple analytical tasks concurrently.
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Comfortable working with large and complex datasets.
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Commercially minded with a strong problem-solving approach