Audit Associate (Financial Services)

About the firm

HaysMac is an award-winning firm of chartered accountants and tax advisors, with 40 partners and over 500 staff, providing advice and services to entrepreneurs, fast-growing and owner-managed businesses, charities and not for profit organisations across the UK and internationally. From our trainees to our partners, our culture of support and progression means we grow together as one firm to best help our clients.

We are a top 20 London accountancy firm, a leading member of MSI Global Alliance, and advisers to some of the UK’s most exciting businesses and charities. Our team of over 500 people all work together in our modern offices located in London and Cape Town.

We are looking to recruit an Audit Associate to build on continuing growth in the Financial Services (FS) sector. We’ve grown our specialist Financial Services team rapidly in recent years, not only to fulfil our clients’ year-end audit and compliance obligations, but increasingly to satisfy demand from businesses wanting a complete accounting service.

Main Duties and Responsibilities

You are our future; so, we want to give you the best opportunity to partner with us and grow!

At HaysMac, Audit is about more than just reviewing financial records and a company’s control environment. It has a true societal impact and purpose – aiming to provide solutions to our clients and adopting an added value approach.

Joining as an Associate, you will have access to personal development programmes and high-quality training whilst continuing to work towards your ACA/ACCA professional qualification, alongside mentoring and support from peers and leaders alike. You will be assigned a line manager and a buddy from day one to empower you to take control of your career, with opportunities for promotion every quarter based on your performance.

We host events organized by the Connect Committee so you can socialise with your colleagues outside of work, and network with other people at HaysMac such as cycling at the velodrome, puppy yoga and pottery painting. Our Corporate Social Responsibility programme supports local charitable causes, and we welcome and encourage our staff to participate in charity events and fundraising they are interested in. As a firm, we are also committed to environmental and sustainability initiatives, implementing energy-efficient practices throughout our operations, and encouraging everyone to play their part in the office with reducing our carbon footprint.

Responsibilities are generalised and are in no way exhaustive:

• Carry out audits using a bespoke risk-based audit approach.
• Act as assistant or middle person on larger clients, completing relevant sections of the audit file as discussed and agreed at the planning meeting.
• Act as senior on smaller clients reporting directly to the manager. For these audits, the individual would be responsible for the planning of the audit file right through to the completion sections including drafting the financial statements, the management letter and the letter of representation.
• Supervise and effectively delegate work to less experienced members of the audit team as agreed by the senior.
• Communicate with the audit senior regularly on the audit and make recommendations to them on how our clients can improve their accounting systems and controls.
• Appraise less experienced members of the audit team following completion of the jobs worked on with them.
• Work between the office and client premises (overnight stays may be required), with the ability to work from home where agreed.

Person Specification

• Flexible work attitude, pro-active team player.
• Ability to work well under pressure and adhere to tight deadlines.
• Able to learn and pick things up fast.
• Familiar with and have an awareness of the laws and regulations that apply to accounting and audit and are required to ensure compliance.
• Good interpersonal skills.
• Good telephone manner and communication skills.

Work Based Competencies

• Experience of leading small audits from the planning stage to the completion stage.
• Experience supervising junior members of the team.
• Studying towards the ACA or ACCA qualification.
• Proficient in using Microsoft Excel, Word and Outlook.
• Experience of data analytics tools.

Everyone is welcome to apply for our roles, and we are determined to ensure that no applicant or employee receives less favourable treatment because of gender, race, disability, sexual orientation, religion, belief, age, marital status, background, pregnancy, or caring responsibilities.

We also recognise the importance of diversity of thought within our teams and are fully committed to embracing the talents of people with autism, dyslexia, ADHD, and other forms of neurocognitive variation.

We will always seek to make appropriate adjustments to recruitment, workplaces, and work processes to be fully inclusive to people with different needs and working styles.

If you need us to make any reasonable adjustments for you from application onwards, please email [email protected]