Job Description

Introduction

Who we are:

The Economist Group is a global media and information-services company that exists to champion progress with customers currently spread across 159 countries and an active subscriber base of 1.2 million. We provide individuals and organisations with the expertise, insights and perspective to press forward.

The Finance team's vision is to partner with the Group in driving profitable growth, through finance excellence. We support our businesses to make effective commercial and operational decisions; provide information and analysis to management and the Board to support strategic decisions; manage working capital to quickly convert profit into cash; develop and maintain a strong control environment to comply with legal, statutory and tax legislation in all territories we operate in.

With over 100 Finance professionals operating from offices in London, New York, Hong Kong & Gurugram, we are rapidly building a substantial presence in Gurugram to become our largest finance hub. You will be joining our global organisation at a pivotal moment, working with finance and business colleagues from around the globe to deliver the Finance vision.

The Business:

• an iconic brand with a history dating back 179 years
• a truly global business with customers in over 150 countries
• a unique combination of B2B and B2C Businesses

The Finance Team:

• be part of our Finance Transformation programme, reshaping our processes and the technology we use
• work closely with finance and business colleagues from around the globe
• ability to influence in an organisation of 1,600 people

Accountabilities

How you will contribute:

Currently we are looking for an Accounts Payable Executive. The position will report into the Banking and Accounts Payable Manager and sits within a global team of 5 colleagues within the Accounts Payable function. The role will work closely with the regional finance operations lead in New York.

The role will provide Accounts Payable cover requirements from the group globally, particularly requests from New York. As such, while the role is based on local hours (9:00-5:30pm in Gurugram) some flexibility will be required to cover day-to-day contact with New York and occasional meetings with other global offices.

Key Accountabilities:

For the US business of The Economist Group

• To scan and process all invoices into the PeopleSoft Financial system accurately, approx. 50 per day for coding and approval
• To set-up new vendors (contributors, employees and suppliers) and to ensure that proper authorization is in place including specific US requirements such as W9 for US citizens and businesses, and W8BEN for non US citizens W8BENE for non US businesses
• Perform verification of correct bank details
• To assist in the upload of all electronic invoices to the accounts payable system and ensure that paperwork is properly authorised, uploading documents to the document management system
• Batch amendments to ensure accuracy before passing to the business when required
• To administer staff expenses to ensure prompt reimbursement
• To deal with invoice queries from within the business and from external suppliers
• Provide additional team support when workload permits
• To work on process improvement projects to increase the efficiency of the team
• To process subscription refunds
• To process weekly pay-cycle and manual payments when required
• Liaising colleagues and suppliers in US as necessary

Experience, skills and professional attributes

The ideal skills for this role are:

Skills / Attributes

• Education and training

- Bachelor's Degree

• Previous work experience

- Working in an Accounts Payable environment

-

- Working within a team environment

- Computer literate

- Working with foreign currencies

• Knowledge

- General knowledge of Accounts Payable procedures

- General understanding of double entry book-keeping

- Basic accounting procedures

• IT

- Excel, Word and knowledge of PeopleSoft would be an advantage

• Personal attributes & Interpersonal skills

- Attention to detail

- Accuracy of processing

- Organised

- Team player but also ability to work independently

- Good communication skills

- Able to meet deadlines

- Good interpersonal skills

- Proactive and tenacious when resolving problems

- Reliable

- Adaptable