Job title:
Statutory Reporting Accountant



Location:
Potters Bar

Job type: 1 year fixed term contract or secondment

Who we are

Canada Life UK looks after the retirement, investment and protection needs of individuals, families and companies. We help to build better futures for our customers, our intermediaries and our employees by operating as a modern, agile and welcoming organisation.
Part of our parent company Great-West Lifeco, Canada Life UK has operated in the United Kingdom since 1903. We have hundreds of respected and supported employees committed to doing the right thing for our customers and colleagues.
Canada Life UK is transforming to create a more customer-focused business by providing our customers with expertise on financial and tax planning, offering home finance and annuities propositions, and providing collective fund solutions to third party customers.

What we're building

We now need a Statutory Reporting Accountant to support the transformation and the future growth of the business within the finance function, so it can be a trusted and commercial partner that influences the business to make good financial decisions, by delivering excellent support, expertise and high quality management information.

Job summary

To manage the completion of the annual statutory reporting requirements of the UK division and to ensure that the UK corporate division is kept up to date with changes in statutory reporting requirements.


What you'll do

• Preparation, drafting, and co-ordinating the review and signoff processes of the UK Division statutory accounts including all commentary and disclosures for all companies within the deadlines set by regulation and local management.

• This includes co-ordinating the necessary statutory accounting inputs required from all relevant departments, and posting and reconciling all relevant adjustments between Canadian IFRS management reporting and UK statutory reporting.

• Ensure that appropriate systems, controls and governance are in place to support statutory reporting.

• Complete full balance sheet reconciliations between local and statutory reporting. Review and obtain sign off for the reconciliation. Ensure that all validation errors are resolved prior to submission.

• Work with external auditors to ensure clean audit reports are obtained for all companies within set deadlines. Own the statutory 'Prepared by client list' of information requested by the external auditors and ensure information is provided to the external auditors in a timely and accurate manner to minimise audit costs.

• Ensure that all auditor identified accounting adjustments are reflected in the company ledgers and that operational processes are updated to ensure repetition is avoided.

• Ensure all future changes in financial reporting are anticipated and operational process changes and information gathering is completed in sufficient time to meet internal and external deadlines.

• Produce iXBRL tagged versions of the statutory accounts for submission to HMRC with the tax returns

• Look to reduce the number of Canadian IFRS to UK GAAP adjustment entries and look to streamline and improve the process

Who you are

• Strong technical accounting knowledge, specifically preparation of UK GAAP statutory accounts

• Qualified accountant with financial services experience

• Good proficiency levels in Excel and Word

• Excellent self-organisational skills, ability to work on own initiative and manage projects that run over several months

• Excellent verbal communication skills

• Proven track record of ability to work to deadlines

• Ability to communicate complex accounting issues to finance and non-finance staff

What you'll like about working here

As a Canada Life UK colleague, you'll receive a competitive salary and comprehensive reward package including income protection, private medical insurance and life assurance, along with a generous pension and bonus scheme. You'll also receive the support you need with your personal and professional development.
Our focus is to have an engaged, committed and motivated work force, operating in a high performing and collaborative culture. We want to create an organisation that offers opportunities for all our people to develop their skills and talent, and build rewarding careers with us.

Diversity and inclusion

Canada Life is committed to a diverse and inclusive workplace. Our role as an employer of choice is to provide the right environment for talented people to do their best work, by respecting, understanding and valuing individual differences.