Finance Systems Support Analyst

Freshfields Overview

Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer is a major international law firm, providing business law advice of the highest quality. We want to be the law firm that clients turn to for legal advice where it most matters, wherever in the world that may be. The Firm has over 2,400 lawyers in 28 offices around the world, providing a comprehensive service to national and multinational corporations, financial institutions and governments.

Our people make our firm - we are a people business and want to create a welcoming and supportive environment where all can flourish. We see diversity as a strength which creates fresh perspectives and generates new ideas. We enjoy our work and are determined to do an outstanding job. We deliver best when working in teams.

We think and work globally - we don’t just say we are one firm; we act like one firm right across the world. We work wherever our clients need us. This is how we define ourselves, not by reference to where we have offices. Cross-border work isn’t just what we do, it is what we excel at. We understand what it really takes to work across different legal systems and commercial environments and to bridge language and cultural gaps.

We aim to add value in everything we do - we are passionate about helping our clients succeed. We use our experience and creativity to help clients make judgements and achieve their goals. In everything we do, we seek to make a real difference to the communities in which we operate.

Location Overview

The Freshfields Global Europe Centre provides both business and legal services to the firm. Our services are delivered in a way which supports the global nature of our firm and our clients, enables our fee earners to deliver exceptional service to our clients and to do that in a way which is efficient and effective. Our Europe Centre is the first site to be established in the emerging Freshfields Global operating model. Our aspiration is to establish further sites in the US and Asia-Pacific in the coming years.

The Finance Systems Support team is responsible for supporting teams using the core finance systems throughout the Firm, from billing and reporting through to development of the ebilling system.

Function Overview

The Finance Support function in Manchester provides centralised global support to the firm across its network of offices. Teams currently include Billing, Procurement and Management Accounting.

The Billing team is an essential part of the wider Finance department of the firm and is expected to deliver an exceptional service to our fee earners and clients. The Billing function is extremely fast-paced and our role is to assist fee earners across the network with all aspects of invoice review and processing.

The Global Procurement team, located in Manchester and Frankfurt, is responsible for leading sourcing initiatives, developing and implementing category strategies within the firm. In addition, the team provides support and guidance to the rest of the business with regard to supplier relationship management, spend analytics, procurement compliance and training.

The Group Management Accounts team works alongside the firm’s Chief Financial Officer, senior management partners and global support heads to provide the financial information required to run the business. In addition to the prompt provision of financial data and analytics, the team is expected to manage, develop and control the production of management data across the firm’s local finance functions, providing them with support and guidance through continual review and development.

Role summary/purpose of job

Working within the systems area of the finance support department. You will be part of a team providing technical support to all of the global and London based finance support IT systems. The team’s main focus is the firm’s practice management system (PMS), related fee earner tools and reporting systems for which it operates a helpdesk supporting a mixture of back office operational users through to fee earners on a worldwide basis, offering advice, support and solutions to queries.

Key responsibilities and deliverables

• Provide support to a variety of user issues via email, visit or phone call, providing solutions and escalating where required in order to provide an effective and intelligent helpdesk facility, delivering high service levels at all times.

• Administer the call logging and change control system and ensure that knowledge is documented and spread amongst the team

• Keeping users up to date with progress on their calls.

• Provide ad-hoc business and technical help to users on the usage of the finance systems.

• Act as intermediary between the finance support and IT technical support, providing technical and process advice with regards to all of the global and London based finance support IT systems.

• Liaise directly with the PMS third party suppliers documenting and implementing fixes as appropriate.

• Provide immediate solutions to systems issues arising and liaising with other support teams to ensure their prompt resolution.

• Aid in the implementation of new upgrades, functionality and system wide changes, from a finance support perspective.

• Work closely with the development teams and third party providers, feeding back issues and defects discovered through testing and coordinating their resolution

• Contributing to, and participating in, the build and release management process with development teams

• Monitoring the reporting system

• Providing immediate solutions to user issues and escalating complex queries to the rest of the team.

• Generating non-standard reports to users upon request.

• Aiding in the design, testing and rollout of new reports, systems and interfaces.

• Involvement in other related projects that the wider team are undertaking.

• Provide analytical support to users

Key requirements (Communication/skills/experience)

Essential

• Financial skills including;

  • Experience of financial systems within a professional services environment, ideally from a legal background.

  • Understanding of the finance function processes and revenue recording systems

  • Proven ability to comprehend financial terminology

  • Previous experience of management information systems

  • Ability to investigate and explain the causality of figures reported.

• Systems skills including;

  • Extremely Computer literate

  • Advanced level Excel (pivot tables, vlookups, complex formulae)

  • Intimate knowledge of practice management systems from a systems point of view

  • Be able to communicate with internal IT and external suppliers on technical related issues

  • Experience of 3e or Elite Enterprise Practice Management Systems

• Task Management & Presentation Skills

  • Self-motivated with the ability, and resilience, to drive projects to their completion.

  • Ability to operate autonomously throughout the project life cycle through to delivery

  • Enthusiastic and focused.

  • Ability to prioritise and work to tight deadlines

  • Ability to multi task and manage multiple projects.

  • Confident, able to lead meetings and projects

  • Excellent communication skills (written and verbal) with confidence and ability to deal with partners, senior lawyers and staff at all levels.

  • The ability to simplify explanations and inspire confidence.

  • Proven organisational skills and attention to detail.

  • A flexible attitude to tasks and to clients.

  • Strong numerical skills.

  • Experience of working in a legal or professional services firm

  • Positive can-do attitude

  • Team player – reliable, flexible and willing to help

  • Strong analytical capability able to rapidly understand the root cause of issues in order to resolve

Desirable

• Project management skills, including good listening skills, empathy and a structured, open minded approach to solving problems and running projects.

• Knowledge of servers and database structures.

• Knowledge of SQL and the ability to combine results with other sources

• Previous use of an OLAP analysis tool along the lines of Power BI

Inclusion

Freshfields is an equal opportunities employer and all applications received by the firm will be considered by the firm on the basis of their merit alone and we welcome applications from all suitably qualified individuals regardless of background. All offers of employment will be conditional on the candidate having/securing the right to work in the UK and providing the firm with evidence of that right (as required by the Immigration, Asylum and Nationality Act 2006) prior to employment commencing. Please note that, in line with the requirements of the UK Border Agency, non-EEA candidates may not be appointed to a post if a suitably qualified, experienced and skilled EEA candidate can fill the position.

Freshfields is a Ban the Box employer. We ask applicants to disclose criminal convictions only when a conditional job offer is made. A conviction does not automatically lead to withdrawal of the offer: we make decisions on a case by case basis and take a number of factors into account (e.g. the role you are applying for and the circumstances of the offence). You would have the opportunity to discuss the matter with us before we make a decision.

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