As the South West’s principal centre for the performing arts, Theatre Royal Plymouth welcomes many thousands of people through our doors every year with our intention of creating a special experience for everyone: our team, our participants, artists and visiting companies, and 350,000 ticket holders.
Are you a ‘creative accountant’? We are looking for a top-notch accountant who enjoys theatre and the wider arts scene. Working in a vibrant creative atmosphere, you will be the person keeping TRP on track financially, and making sure we fulfil the promise of our new business plan.
You will be a qualified accountant with experience of multi-million-pound organisations. As part of our Leadership Team you will be a strategic thinker and leader. You will be an excellent communicator, willing to share knowledge and support colleagues with clarity and honesty. You will have experience of running a finance team and be confident in the IT aspects of finance systems as well as having a more general understanding of IT infrastructures and cybersecurity.
If you share our values and believe that theatre can change lives, then we want to hear from you.
The Role
Primarily, the Head of Finance, Risk & IT will:
- Ensure the finance system and its related processes run in a timely and accurate manner.
- Oversee the monthly production of management accounts, write the interpretive commentary and complete the funds reconciliation.
- Ensure that TRP reports and pays VAT, PAYE, NI and pension contributions in a timely and accurate manner and is compliant with all legal obligations in this respect.
- Ensure that all employees of TRP and any relevant casts are paid in a timely and accurate manner.
- Ensure that all suppliers to TRP are paid in a timely and accurate manner.
- Ensure that invoices for supplies by TRP are raised promptly and debts collected in a timely manner.
- Review and sign off settlement paperwork for performances in accordance with contracts with visiting companies
- Fulfil all financial reporting requirements for Arts Council England and, when required, Trusts & Foundations
- Carry out the budget setting process and any reforecasting that is required during the year
- Prepare and submit the annual returns for Arts Council England and the Charity Commission
- Prepare the statutory accounts for TRP and Talklight Ltd (TRP’s trading subsidiary) and take them through the statutory audit process.
- Prepare and submit all Theatre Tax Relief claims – currently through TRP’s tax advisers.
- Negotiate the insurance cover required for TRP and all its activities.
- Be a signatory for the bank accounts and payment systems.
- Review investments to ensure that TRP’s money is always working hard for the organisation.
- Lead the IT Steering Group which oversees the strategic approach to IT at TRP, setting policy and ambition.
- Negotiate the contract for the IT infrastructure and provision of IT services, and, with the IT Controller, monitor the contract on an on-going basis.
- Manage the IT and telephony infrastructure (changes, upgrades, additions, removals, etc) together with the IT Controller.
- Attend the Audit, Finance & Operations Committee, contributing to the agenda and preparing reports as required.
- Be the key driver for any internal audit work whether this is done internally or by external experts.
- Provide analysis and interpretation of financial data for internal use and presentation to third parties eg insurance claims, financial summaries, environmental reports, trends etc
Principal Head of Department responsibilities and skills:
- Actively contribute to and collaborate with the Leadership Team to implement and drive forward our shared strategic vision working collaboratively with Leadership Team colleagues to achieve common goals and overcome challenges.
- Provide inspirational leadership and effective management within your team ensuring that they are motivated, developed and empowered to achieve excellence and that they receive regular, constructive feedback and support to continually improve.
- Ensure all systems, processes and procedures within your department are compliant with all relevant legislative and industry best practice standards and that these are understood and carried out in a manner that reflect our values.
- Champion TRP and ensure our strategic ambitions and creative projects are confidently represented within a range of internal and external forums and to facilitate and support the attendance and contribution of team members to internal TRP project groups and external networks.
- Facilitate regular two-way communication within your team ensuring that strategic objectives and operational priorities are understood and that any organisational change is clearly explained and implemented supportively and with empathy.
- Act as role model and champion of our core values and ensure that these are demonstrated positively and consistently across all areas of responsibility.
Principal tasks
- Hold financial responsibility for the work of your team: planning investment, setting budgets in line with business plan objectives, monitoring expenditure across the year, understanding and reporting variances that might arise.
- Plan and support the delivery of effective recruitment, induction, and development of new team members in line with TRP recruitment policies, particularly Inclusion and Diversity objectives, and to oversee the welcome, induction and settling in of all new team members.
- Plan team activity appropriately ensuring that time, budget, and resource is allocated fairly and consistently to support the achievement of daily tasks and agreed project work on time and within budget.
- Ensure your team receive adequate information and training and are suitably skilled and equipped to carry out their duties safely to an excellent standard.
- Set and monitor key performance indicators for the team in line with operational requirements and business plan objectives.
- Create a positive, supportive work environment for your team that provides opportunity for regular ongoing communication and feedback; supports individual and team wellbeing and creates the conditions for success.
- Build strategic relationships within our region, our industry and your area of expertise.
- Fulfil all other reasonable duties that may be requested by your line manager.