Financial Assistant

Baltic Exchange is the world's leading source of independent maritime market data and we have an exciting opportunity for a highly motivated professional to join our Finance Team on a temporary basis for 12 to 15 months.

We sit at the heart of the maritime industry, bringing together the shipowners, charterers, and brokers who make up the market of the seaborn movement of bulk commodities. Representing a global community of shipping interests, the Baltic Exchange provides a framework for its members to commit to a high standard of business practice. Our indices and assessments are used as a settlement tool for freight derivative trades, for benchmarking physical contracts and as a general indicator of freight market performance extending coverage to the wider logistics chain including Containers and Air Freight.

Headquartered in London, we have regional offices in Singapore, Shanghai, Athens, Stamford, and Houston. Since 2016, The Baltic Exchange is part of the Singapore Exchange (SGX) Family.

Reporting to the Financial Controller, CSU, the position of Finance Assistant, will support the Financial Controller with managing the review and processing of invoices, evaluating invoices and other data for accuracy and completeness, and obtain missing or correct data when necessary. The role will work closely with other functional teams to ensure data quality and consistency and members of the business for both vendor and customer billing.

The successful candidate will take on the following responsibilities:

• Assist in monthly billing process by ensuring timely and accurate invoicing to customers.
• Handle inquiries, supporting all invoicing and billing support functions for external and internal customers.
• Coordinate with internal groups (Sales, Client Services, Technology) to resolve issues.
• Dealing with all vendor invoices, processing and settlement.
• Ability to work independently and within tight deadlines.
• Review sales contracts to ensure accurate billing.
• Research account disputes and billing discrepancies
• Assist in monthly revenue process, including estimating monthly accruals and analyzing all variances.
• Various banking matters including preparing payments in the online banking portals and bank reconciliations
• Responsible for other control accounts
• Keep professional and personal skills required by the post up to date.

Applications are welcome from candidates who meet the following essential requirements:

• Previous billing experience including interaction with a large customer base.
• Customer service experience with ability to manage difficult customer situations.
• Knowledge of billing procedures
• Strong communication, problem solving and analytical skills required.
• Ability to work independently and to adapt to a fast changing environment.
• Intermediate to Advanced skills in Outlook, Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and the remainder of the MS Office suite.
• SaaS experience is a plus (contract based revenue/billing preferred)
• Studying towards qualification/ part qualified or AAT qualified
• Broad knowledge and experience of the finance function.
• Ability to prepare, refine and present accurate financial data in a clear, concise, logical format.
• Confident in the efficient and effective use of accounting systems (ideally Microsoft Business Central) and reporting methodologies.
• Experience of accounting systems and sales ledger systems implementation helpful.
• Strong organisation skills with the ability to prioritise, plan workloads and work to tight deadlines.
• Ability to seek continual improvement in systems and processes.
• Co-operative, ‘can-do’ attitude.