Accounts Assistant
Consula is recruiting on behalf of a well-established Shropshire employer looking to appoint a motivated and detail-oriented Accounts Assistant to join their dedicated commercial finance team. Our client has cultivated an enviable regional reputation for operational excellence, integrity, and consistent commercial growth, and they pride themselves on maintaining a professional, forward-thinking workplace where teamwork and accountability underpin everything they do. As they continue to expand their local and regional operations, maintaining financial robustness remains vital to their continued success.
The Accounts Assistant plays an indispensable role within our client's core infrastructure, ensuring that every financial transaction is recorded with accuracy, compliance, and rigour. Without the diligent support of their transactional team, strategic decision-making and seamless day-to-day commercial operations simply would not be possible. Working closely with the wider department, you will ensure supplier relationships remain strong, income flow stays healthy, and month-end routines run effortlessly.
Set in the heart of Shropshire, our client's office provides a truly attractive working environment that seamlessly combines the charm of a bustling historic market town with modern amenities and scenic countryside right on the doorstep. With excellent road and rail connectivity across the county and the wider West Midlands, it is a fantastic location to build a long-term, balanced career.
Location: Shropshire
Salary: £28,000 – £31,000 per year
Employment: Permanent
The Role
As an Accounts Assistant, you will play a central part in the day-to-day running of our client's busy finance function, ensuring transactions are accurately recorded and operations run smoothly.
- Managing end-to-end purchase ledger processing, from matching purchase orders and invoices to preparing weekly supplier payment runs.
- Handling sales ledger administration, including raising accurate customer invoices, issuing statements, and actively credit controlling outstanding balances.
- Performing regular bank reconciliations across multi-currency and sterling accounts to maintain up-to-date cash flow records.
- Reconciling key supplier statements and promptly resolving complex ledger discrepancies or disputed charges.
- Assisting the Finance Manager with month-end routines, including posting journals, accruals, prepayments, and nominal ledger reconciliations.
- Processing and auditing employee expense claims and corporate credit card expenditure in line with internal financial policies.
- Acting as the primary point of contact for internal colleagues and external vendors regarding accounts queries via telephone and email.
- Maintaining accurate digital financial archives and supporting internal and external year-end audit preparations.
- Generating regular aged debtor and creditor reports to highlight potential risks and cash flow bottlenecks to management.
About You
- Essential: Proven hands-on experience within a fast-paced accounts or transactional finance environment.
- Essential: Strong fundamental knowledge of double-entry bookkeeping, purchase ledger, sales ledger, and credit control procedures.
- Essential: Competent user of modern accounting software packages such as Sage, Xero, QuickBooks, or equivalent ERP systems.
- Essential: Proficient in Microsoft Excel, including the confident use of VLOOKUPs, pivot tables, and formula-driven spreadsheets.
- Essential: High degree of numerical precision, exceptional attention to detail, and a meticulous approach to data entry.
- Essential: Excellent communication skills with the confidence to deal tactfully with suppliers, clients, and departmental managers.
- Desirable: Actively studying towards or holding an AAT qualification, or possessing an equivalent professional finance qualification.
- Desirable: Proactive mindset with a genuine willingness to review existing administrative processes and recommend practical improvements.
A Typical Day
You will start your morning reviewing incoming bank feeds, matching receipts, and updating cash sheets before settling down to process supplier invoices awaiting approval. Mid-morning might involve a quick touchpoint with the Finance Manager to run through urgent payment schedules, followed by focused contact with customers to reconcile accounts and chase overdue debts. In the afternoon, you could find yourself resolving a supplier pricing query with the operations team, posting routine month-end adjustment journals, and compiling an aged debtors summary before wrapping up your day with clean ledgers and completed reconciliations.
What You Can Expect
- A secure, permanent role within a progressive and stable Shropshire organisation that values team contribution.
- 28 days annual leave including bank holidays.
- A supportive management team that genuinely invests in your professional development and AAT study ambitions.
- Modern, comfortable offices with free on-site parking and excellent local transport links.
- Regular team social events and a friendly, down-to-earth working culture.
- A varied workload where no two days are the same, with real scope to shape and improve processes.
- The chance to build a long-term career with an employer that promotes from within wherever possible.
If you are an organised, numerate accounts professional looking for your next challenge in Shropshire, we would love to hear from you. Apply through Consula today and Doug, our AI talent partner, will be in touch to guide you through the next steps.