Financial Planning & Analysis Specialist - Indirect

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 2 days per week, again providing there is no business requirement to attend the office.

Role:
The HME-Finance European FP&A team is responsible for the analysis of monthly results, top-level coordination of all budgeting and forecasting (short and long term), plus general commercial finance decision support to the European business. The team supports both Head Office and the wider European region, and its ultimate aim is to help maximise profit and achieve budget accuracy across the business.

This role sits within the management reporting and analysis section of the team and is responsible for supporting the above requirements, predominantly for the Indirect division but with dotted line support to the Customer division. This will include budgeting & forecasting, monthly analysis of results and ad hoc financial support to the Head Office business. All tasks below thus have the potential to apply to Customer as well as the stated Indirect.

The team works closely with Finance Operations with regards to the month-end process, highlighting areas that require attention and analysing the completed figures.

Main Responsibilities:
Analysis of Actual Results

• Collaborate with Financial Operations team (who are responsible for preparing the monthly results) to ensure accuracy of period-end financial closings for Head Office/HME-C by providing business expertise and commercial knowledge, before supporting FPA Section Manager - Indirect in review and analysis of final output.
• Support Section Manager in providing valuable and timely performance analysis, insight and reporting to senior stakeholders. Work with Business Planning teams to understand division results, both for Head Office and on consolidated European basis (e.g. costs, margins, profit by customer) and recommend improvement opportunities. This includes Balance Sheet.
• Support Section Manager in working with wider Finance team to ensure data quality supports accurate analysis.
• Work with Business Operations, so that root causes of issues are fully understood and recommendations proposed to improve performance and control. 
• Support Section Manager on a limited number of SOx controls that relate to analysis and reporting. 
• Assist Section Manager in production and analysis of Monthly Operating Report (MOR) presentation, particularly Indirect content.

Budgeting and Forecasting 

• Support Head Office Indirect business teams in preparation of their budgets, as agreed with FPA Section Manager – Indirect.
• Contribute to Indirect GA budgets for Head Office and work with BU Department Managers to ensure branch Indirect GA is prepared accurately and consistently. 
• Monitor and communicate budget performance against preset targets.
• Support Section Manager to review SGA budgets for quality (phasing, granularity etc.). Challenge assumptions where appropriate. 
• Support the rest of the FPA team in the development of accurate Balance Sheet budgeting, including loan forecast.
• Support business in preparation of budget packs and presentations to Leadership teams.
• Support the rest of central FP&A team to prepare final budget pack, summarising overall performance of the European region. 
• Identify root causes of previous budget variances to improve forecasting accuracy.

Performance Management

• Support business reviews with HME Indirect divisions.
• Provide insight regarding budget, including monitoring KPIs between branches.
• Act as an advocate and role model for understanding cost drivers and cost control.
• Support the rest of the Finance team to realise process improvements in working capital management. 

Commercial Finance Support

• Support financial aspects of relevant business projects relating to Indirect division.
  Support Group Finance re. audit requirements (internal and external). 
• Work alongside Section Manager and the rest of the FPA team in supporting projects such as trade S4 and budget software replacement, as directed by Department Manager. 

Qualifications, skills and experience:
Required

• A technically able part-qualified accountant, or someone looking to start their studies soon (CIMA/ACCA/ACA) with experience in Financial Planning & Analysis.
• Excellent communication, presentation & networking skills to quickly establish credibility with stakeholders.
• Self-driven and motivated to succeed with the ability to prioritise workload to tight deadlines in a methodical way. 
• Ability to work over cross border environments and the ability to adapt to and communicate in differing cultures to achieve standardised business solutions.
• Comfortable working with a variety of people of varying financial experience across Europe and able to bridge the finance/non finance gap
• Experience of understanding budgets with attention to detail for accuracy. 
• Ability to challenge and improve current process and provide more efficient solutions. 

Desirable

• SAP, ERP software and advanced Excel skills are highly desirable.
• A curiosity, willingness and aptitude to investigate and learn the latest tech solutions to support FP&A activities (e.g. Power BI, Power Query, RPA, AI, new EPM software etc.)
• Pan-e experience.

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.