Location: Leeds/ York/ Manchester
Is delivering high-quality financial impact on project accounting ‘your thing’?
If this sounds like you, we’re excited to invite you to join our team as a Project Accountant at our Manchester office.
As a Project Accountant, you will be at the core of managing and reporting on project costs and capital expenditures. This role is vital to ensuring the accurate financial monitoring and reporting of our projects, with a significant focus on enhancing our systems and processes around project accounting. You’ll be working closely with the Projects team, Finance Business Partners, and other key stakeholders to provide timely, accurate financial insights that support informed business decisions.
Your role will involve not just monitoring and reporting but also driving improvements in control and efficiency. You'll be responsible for identifying and mitigating financial risks, ensuring robust accounting records, and supporting the annual audit process.
In this position, you will also take the lead in coaching non-finance personnel on the financial aspects of their projects, fostering a culture of ownership and accountability for capital investments across the business. If you’re driven by the opportunity to improve financial processes and deliver high-quality project accounting, we’d love to hear from you.
Key responsibilities:
As a Project Accountant, your day-to-day responsibilities will include:
Owning the accounting for project expenditure, ensuring costs are accurately captured, allocated, and tracked against available funding.
Supporting Project Managers from a finance perspective to ensure projects are completed on time and within budget.
Delivering a capitalisation process in line with accounting policies and enhancing the fixed asset register for verification and audit purposes.
Producing timely periodic reports tailored to the needs of key stakeholders.
Preparing year-end audit and tax pack schedules, ensuring all documentation is accurate and in place.
Acting as a key point of contact for the Finance Director, senior management, and external stakeholders on project and CAPEX accounting.
Coaching non-finance personnel on financial documentation requirements and processes related to 3rd party projects and CAPEX.
Driving the ownership of capital investment within the business, influencing behaviours, and ensuring accurate forecasting of capital spend.
Delivering robust cash flow forecasts to the Financial Control team for effective cash management.
Monitoring the invoicing of funding to ensure timely support for working capital requirements.
Ensuring accurate asset depreciation accounting and forecasting, working closely with the business to ensure projects are capitalised at the right time.
Continuously exploring ways to improve financial processes, policies, and relationships within the business.
About you:
You are a qualified ACA/CIMA/ACCA accountant with a strong grasp of current accounting practices. You excel in providing accurate and timely financial information and have the ability to work independently, managing both your workload and that of your team. Your expertise in IT systems, especially Microsoft Excel (and preferably SAP), combined with your excellent communication and organisational skills, will be crucial to your success in this role.
We’re also looking for the following:
Proven experience in project accounting, including managing and reporting on project costs.
Strong knowledge of capital expenditure processes and accounting standards.
Experience in delivering robust financial reports and forecasts.
Ability to work to tight deadlines and manage multiple priorities effectively.
Excellent interpersonal skills, with the ability to communicate complex financial information to non-finance stakeholders.
Experience with SAP or similar ERP systems ideally.
Previous experience in a similar role within a large organisation is desirable.
A background in coaching or mentoring non-finance staff would be advantageous.
Come and be part of a finance team that is committed to excellence in project accounting and driving improvements across the business. Apply today!
Our Benefits:
Because we value our people and reward hard work, we’ve created a benefits package that we think you’ll love. So, you’ll be able to make the most of:
Opportunities to progress and grow - including comprehensive training schemes and a range of online learning courses.
Agile working for non-train crew - many of our roles can now be based at both home and the office, which is great if you are looking for flexibility.
Cycle to Work Scheme - save up to 42% on the cost of a bike, while also spreading your payments throughout the year.
Free Travel on Northern services - everyone who works at Northern, plus their partners/spouses and dependents, can travel for free right across our full network of services. *Certain eligibility criteria will apply.
75% discount with other Train Operating Companies - after 1 year with us, you’ll also get discounted travel on many other rail services in the UK and Europe.
Defined Benefit Pension Scheme - you’ll rarely find a pension as good as a Northern pension, and we top up your pension with a generous 1.5 times your contribution.
Exclusive benefits with Northern Perks - enjoy retail discounts, instant vouchers, cashback, wellbeing support and much more.
Proud member of the Disability Confident employer scheme
Disability Confident
About Disability Confident
A Disability Confident employer will generally offer an interview to any applicant that declares they have a disability and meets the minimum criteria for the job as defined by the employer. It is important to note that in certain recruitment situations such as high-volume, seasonal and high-peak times, the employer may wish to limit the overall numbers of interviews offered to both disabled people and non-disabled people. For more details please go to
Disability Confident.
