Contract - European R2R Section Manager

At Honda we embrace inclusion in our various policies, so whilst our contracts state that the hours are as required to fulfil the role with a minimum of 35 hours per week, we offer flexibility for when you work.  The regular office hours are 08:00 – 16:00 Monday to Thursday with a half hour lunch break & 08:00 – 13:00 on a Friday.  However, we offer flexibility of when you work with our daily flex-time start of between 07:00 and 11:00 providing that there is no business requirement.

Whilst there is no contractual right to work from home, the flexibility we offer is that you can request to work from home for a maximum of 50% of the working days in any one month, again providing there is no business requirement to attend the office.

Role:
The HME Finance Operations team are responsible for transactional finance across the European region.  Working closely with finance colleagues in FP&A, Group Finance and the outsourced Shared Service Centre this role is an integral member of the Finance operations team.  

Responsible for key record to report activities to ensure timely and accurate month end close. Driving end to end process improvements and partnering with the business to ensure accurate, high quality financial data is provided in a timely and efficient manner.

The role is ideal for a qualified accountant looking to add value whilst driving key process improvements in a fast-paced European finance team.  

Main Responsibilities: 
Accounting Close
Responsible for ensuring Honda Motor in Europe maintains accurate books and records using current standard accounting practice.  Activities within the team are organised functionally and the job holder will be responsible for one or more of the below activites: 

• Manage month end timetables and ensure clear communication of all deadlines.
• Ensure accurate revenue recognition under IFRS 15.
• Ensure COGS, Inventory and Transfer Pricing are reported accurately and all necessary quality checks are in place.
• Ensure all after sales provisions are reported accurately and are aligned with latest accounting guidance.
• Ensure accurate Lease accounting under IFRS16.
• Ensure all sub ledgers are reported accurately and closed in a timely manner.
• Provide necessary approvals for manual entries created by team members.
• Provide necessary reviews/and or approvals for balance sheet substantiation activities, ensuring a high level of understanding for all balances.
• Ensure all improvement and follow up activities are completed in a timely manner.
• Provide expert input and support to FP&A month end reports.

Functional transition support

• Supporting the Pan European R2R process owner department manager in their transition towards a functional organisation activities.
• Support with the transition of R2R activities within HME & HME-UK and Control of month-end close activities.
• Act as interim manager of HME & HMEUK R2R team
• Work closely with the wider finance organisation to review R2R tasks and transition planning.

Management of Shared Service Centre

• Supervise relevant Shared service centre teams to ensure accurate and timely input of all relevant month end close activities.
• Monitor KPIs to ensure service is within agreed levels.  
• Work closely with Shared Service teams to address concerns and drive improvements to processes.

Process Support and Improvement

• Drive ongoing issue resolution and process improvement within the month end close processes.
• Provide key expertise to European finance improvement initiatives as required.

Data Quality 

• Drive improvements in data quality to enhance reporting and improve month end processes.  
• Act as the SME to ensure the data quality impact of any system changes is understood and addressed.

Governance and Compliance

• Ensure adherence to current Governance and Compliance frameworks (e.g. SOX), ensuring all relevant processes are up to date, compliant and documented.
• Work closely with Group Finance to understand and address impact of future changes.  

Relationship Management

• Work closely with internal and external stakeholders as a recognized Finance process expert.

Team Management

• Manage R2R Specialist, providing clear objectives, coaching and mentoring.

Qualifications, skills and experience:
Required

• A technically able qualified accountant with experience of a financial control environment.
• IFRS accounting knowledge essential.
• Experience of managing activities provided by a finance shared service provider.
• Experience of working in a multi-cultural environment preferably in Europe.
• Excellent communication & networking skills, quickly able to establish credibility with stakeholders.
• Self-driven and motivated to succeed with the ability to prioritise workload to tight deadlines.
• Experienced manager able to create high performing teams.
• Audit, risk management and compliance experience.
• Experience with the following system would be advantageous: Trintech Cadency, Hyperion, SAP, S4Hana, BOFC.
• Ability and willingness to travel. 

Desirable

• Personal motivation – ability to work on your own initiative. Demonstrate passion, enthusiasm and commitment. 
• Workload management and prioritisation – Ability to demonstrate methodical and systematic workload management.
• Communication – show ability to work with multiple stakeholders, recognising different needs.
• Influencing – position yourself to have influence and have real authority in the R2R process. 
• International business management skills – having the ability to work over cross border environments and the ability to adapt to and communicate in differing cultures to achieve standardised business solutions.

Honda is committed to the principle of equal opportunity in the workplace for all employees, temporary workers, contractors, applicants and visitors. Honda also encourages respect for the individual differences and talents of others while making full use of one's own abilities, based on Honda's philosophy of respect for the individual.

At Honda, we value and celebrate diversity and are committed to being a fair, non-discriminatory company that promotes and welcomes the uniqueness and differences of people around the world. We recognise that a diverse workforce allows for different ideas and perspectives, and we encourage everyone to share them. We strive to foster a culture of belonging that is consistent with Honda's core values and lived out in the way we work and respect each other. For us at Honda, diversifying our workforce means increasing its overall strength by providing people with equal opportunities - regardless of personal characteristics or previous careers.

This commitment flows directly from the Honda philosophy and the belief that we are all working towards a common goal. Honda recruits, hires, trains and promotes the most qualified/experienced individuals at all levels without regard to race, origin, religion or belief, gender, sexual orientation, age, disability or any other protected characteristic.