Deputy Manager - Reconciliation

1. Operational Oversight & Financial Integrity (Daily/Weekly)

• Reconciliation Governance: Oversee daily, weekly and Pull ahead accounts reconciliation workflows. To provide final approval for subledger adjustments in accordance with the Finance Manual (FM).
• Stakeholder Management: Act as the primary escalation point for complex queries, providing expert guidance to internal teams and external partners.
• Team Leadership: Manage a department of 19 (4 Team Leaders, 15 staff), providing coaching, performance management, and resource allocation to ensure operational excellence.

2. Month-End Close & Compliance (Monthly)

• Aging & Risk Mitigation: Enforce strict adherence to aging policies, ensuring no unreconciled items exceed the 90-day threshold. Validate all required logs for consistency, accuracy, and audit readiness.
• Process Quality Assurance: Conduct deep-dive reviews of monthly processes, specifically focusing on timing items, required adjustments to ensure alignment with the Finance Manual. 
• BlackLine Management: Ensure all reconciliations are finalized within agreed BlackLine timelines. Proactively identify and communicate ledger differences or process deviations to senior management.
• Change & Incident Management:
  • Communicate process modifications to the Change Management Champion within 48 hours to ensure seamless implementation.
  • Identify and report "Things Gone Wrong" (TGW) or process gaps within two business days.
  • Review SharePoint Issues and Incidents to determine the necessity of "Operation Identified Comments" (OIC).
• Performance Reporting: Deliver comprehensive monthly quantitative and qualitative metrics to management, detailing final completion status and departmental performance.

3. Strategic Compliance & Innovation (Quarterly/Annually)

• Internal Control Governance: Coordinate and submit Quarterly Compliance and Risk (CaR) updates to Ford Credit Europe and Global Internal Control.
• Audit Readiness: Target "Nil" major comments from the General Auditor’s Office (GAO) by maintaining a robust control environment. Lead the team in providing high-quality audit inputs within a 3-day turnaround.
• Continuous Improvement: Drive a culture of curiosity and innovation by leading the "Culture Truths" initiative, ensuring each team member contributes at least two process improvement ideas annually.
• Document Retention: Collaborate with Operations to ensure the on-time completion of the Annual File Review and adherence to Document Retention Management policies.
• System Optimization: Perform periodic reviews of reconciliation purposes and procedures within BlackLine to ensure they remain fit-for-purpose.

4. Risk Remediation (As Needed)

• GRC Management: Ensure "Operation Identified Comments" (OIC) are promptly created within the Governance, Risk, and Compliance (GRC) system and remediated through appropriate controls within a five-month window.
• Subledger Integrity: Validate that all subledger items are processed with respective controls and receive necessary approvals as per the Finance Manual.

5. Process Optimization

• Drive the evolution of the reconciliation process beyond basic oversight toward a proactive, risk-based methodology.
• Identify opportunities for automation and standardization across the six EU locations to enhance efficiency and accuracy.

• Strong accounting knowledge: To perform detailed reviews of sub-ledgers and general ledgers. Ensures aged items are analysed on a timely basis and maintains a thorough understanding of Finance Manual and its requirements."
• System Proficiency: Good knowledge of SAP and Blackline, with extensive experience managing complex system interfaces and data integration across multiple platforms. 
• Cross-Functional Leadership: Skilled at leading collaborative meetings to address reconciliation bottlenecks, ensuring stakeholders understand their roles in the resolution process. 
• Problem Solving: Ability to diagnose root causes of financial discrepancies and implement long-term fixes rather than temporary workarounds
• Automation & Innovation: Proven ability to identify manual inefficiencies and implement automated solutions to streamline financial workflows and reporting.