Finance Assistant

£33,000 – £38,000 a year

Full-time | Monday to Friday | Office-based

Colchester, Essex

The role

We are looking for an experienced, detail-focused Finance Assistant to join our finance team in Colchester on a 6-month Fixed Term Contract. This is a hands-on, day-to-day role supporting the existing finance team with invoice processing, payment runs, bank reconciliations, and VAT returns.

You will work alongside the Finance Lead and the wider finance team, helping to clear a purchase invoice backlog.

What you'll be doing

• Processing purchase invoices in Sage 50, matching to POs and delivery notes where relevant
• Assisting with the sales ledger, raising invoices and supporting credit control
• Reconciling supplier statements and resolving queries with suppliers
• Assisting with weekly and fortnightly payment runs
• Posting and reconciling bank accounts, credit cards, and petty cash
• Assisting with quarterly VAT returns
• Coding project-related invoices to the correct job/cost centre
• Helping to maintain supplier records, including verification checks before new payment details are used
• Providing clean, well-organised records to support the Finance Lead, auditors and tax advisers

What we're looking for

Essential

• Proven experience in a UK SME
• Strong working knowledge of Sage 50 (purchase ledger, sales ledger, bank, VAT)
• Solid understanding of UK VAT
• Confident with Excel, pivot tables, lookups, reconciliations
• Highly organised, accurate, and able to hit weekly and monthly deadlines
• Discreet, dependable, and comfortable working with confidential financial information

Nice to have

• AAT qualified (Level 2, 3 or 4), or qualified by experience
• Experience with document-capture tools (e.g. AutoEntry, Dext, Paperless)

What we offer

• Competitive salary
• Company pension scheme
• 25 days' holiday plus bank holidays
• On-site parking in Colchester

Location & hours

• Based full-time at our Colchester office/workshop
• Monday to Friday, standard office hours