dentsu Looking for Financial Planning and Analysis Assistant Manager at Bengaluru Full Time

– This role is part of the overall UK&I; FP&A; team based out of Bangalore. The responsibilities include supporting the budget, forecasting and month end process for the Service line staff costs and operational expenditure (opex). This role will involve preparation and actualisation of the base budgets and forecasts and review of same, including detailed variance analysis of staff and operational costs, identifying problem areas and proposing scenario-based solutions. Additionally, this role will be required to analyse time sheet utilisation, allocation and expense trends; and is expected to create and update trackers/ repositories in line with the timetable of the relevant process.

– The candidate will support the FP&A; Manager of a service line in driving all key deliverables in relation to financial reporting, analysis, budgeting/ forecasting for staff costs and opex for the service line in collaboration with Commercial Finance, Operational Finance and Client/Brand teams.

Job Title:

Assistant Manager – FP&A;

Job Description:

This person will be required to perform the following activities:

– Staff Cost – Direct and Indirect

o Build and maintain brand and capability level forecast spreadsheets based on data downloaded from Workday, contractor portal and Paragon

o Liaise with Operational Finance during the monthly Pre-Commit Payroll Review to ensure staff costs are correctly reflected in Payroll and variances are understood and explained

o Meet regularly with the HR Business Partner to align on variances and movements in staff costs due to leavers, joiners, pay rises, exit costs, bonus calculations etc.

o Based on discussions with HR, calculate bonus, pay rise changes and churn savings and embed these calculations in the forecast

o Consult with Operational Finance during the monthly Post-Commit Payroll Review to ensure all agreed staff cost changes and corrections have been updated in the payroll

o Actualise staff cost forecasts and liaise with Operational Finance to build commentary around variances for review with Commercial Finance

o Using Workday, contractor portal and Paragon, track staff cost utilisation across brands and capabilities, identifying gaps in time and capacity

o Work with Operations to build out the time utilisation tool to provide visibility of under-utilisation across the business

o Build time utilisation reports for Commercial Finance and Client teams’ review, providing insights on risks of overspend and opportunities arising from creating efficiencies

o Build comparison to target gross margin and calculate staff cost-to-income ratio for Commercial Finance review

o Work with the Payroll team to develop a service line-specific payroll mapped to individual brands / capabilities

– Operating Expenditure (Opex)

o Build out and maintain robust forecasts, budget and tracking models for all categories of operational expenditure including, but not limited to, the following: travel, entertainment, subsistence, system costs, BARB costs, new business costs, credit insurance, marketing and research costs, bad debts, recruitment, professional fees and office supplies

o Build reporting and insights of operational expenditure by supplier and spend type to provide the required level of granularity for Commercial Finance and business review

– Central LOB Costs

o Ensure costs that are not brand or capability-specific are posted to the service line’s central cost centre

o Build and maintain the central costs tracker to monitor spend and provide Commercial Finance with regular analysis and commentary on any movements and variances versus forecast and prior year

– Forecasting and Budgeting Activities – applicable to all costs

o Co-ordinate, communicate and oversee all FP&A; requirements in respect of the Service Line staff costs and opex

o Co-ordination, preparation and analysis of monthly forecasts, quarterly forecasts, and annual budgets for staff costs and opex, including appropriate liaison with and challenge to client leads

o Submission of Service Line staff cost and opex budgets and forecast to SAC Planning System

o Review and validation of output from above to ensure accuracy, consistency, and provide informed variance analysis

o Share forecasts and budgets with the Service Line Commercial Finance lead, communicating identified variances, risks and overspends and agree remedial action as appropriate

o Preparation of Power-Point presentations to support the Service Line reviews at Capability / Department level

o Monthly interaction with Client Accounting teams to understand deviations in actual performance and incorporate into monthly analysis and future forecast impact

o Feed into monthly close process to ensure cost accruals and inaccuracies have been resolved in liaison with Financial Control

o Provide monthly commentary analysis to Market FP&A; team and resolve any queries

o Produce monthly and other reporting requirements of the Service Line

o Provide finance support to Service Line related projects or initiatives, with capability to model business case scenarios

o Support and work collaboratively with wider FP&A; team, Commercial Finance and Operational Finance

o Interact with colleagues at EMEA or Global level in respect of spend or associated recharges

Key Requirements

– Qualified Accountant 5+Years PQE (ACCA/CIMA or equivalent)
– Previous experience of FP&A;
– Demonstrable experience of informed review and analysis of results and forecasts
– Problem-solving and analytical mindset

– Ability to effectively prioritize and execute tasks in a high-pressure
– Excellent communication skills, confident with working across functions and levels
– Advanced Excel and Modelling skills
– Experience of GL, SAC, Power BI, Planning & Consolidation Systems