Accounts Payable Assistant

Practice Group / Department:

Norton Rose Fulbright is a global law firm with more than 3,000 lawyers advising clients across locations in the United States, Europe, Canada, Latin America, Asia, Australia, Africa and the Middle East. We provide the world's preeminent corporations and financial institutions with a full business law service.

With over 50 offices and 7,000 employees worldwide, our culture is the thread that connects us, as well as our values of unity, quality and integrity. Our strategy and culture are connected – defined by shared ambition, global collaboration and a one-team mindset. We believe pioneering work happens when people are empowered to think beyond boundaries, explore new opportunities and grow through diverse experiences. Alongside the right skills and experience, we look for people who are innovative, commercially minded, and motivated by the impact of the work they do – ready to share in our ambition and help shape what comes next.

Because while individuals can do well, together we achieve something extraordinary.

The Role

The role sits within our Finance Department in Newcastle, reporting to the UK Accounts Payable Manager.  The role is in a team that provides support to the accounts payable function for the UK covering a range of finance and administration related tasks to ensure invoices and payments are processed in a timely, accurate manner and that Norton Rose Fulbright LLP complies with all statutory and regulatory requirements.  The firm uses SAP as its ERP solution and will utilise Emburse software to handle the workflow of invoices and expenses.  The team also provide Accounts Payable support and best practice options to the wider EMEA region.

Key Responsibilities

• Reviewing and actioning requests for new UK vendor set ups and changes to vendor data, ensuring full authenticity checks are made in line with compliance requirements (including Bribery Act 2010, Money Laundering, Sanctions).  Passing reviewed requests to the global team for action in SAP and monitoring/chasing outstanding requests
• Reviewing UK  expense report submissions from the business, ensure correct receipting, expense type selection, VAT treatments are applied and that expenses are claimed in line with UK policy.  Liaising with the business and the EMEA Emburse support teams as required
• Reviewing UK non-chargeable invoices ensuring correct vendor selection, invoice types, codings and VAT treatments are applied.  Liaising with the business and the EMEA Emburse support teams as required
• Reviewing UK chargeable hard cost disbursement invoices ensuring correct vendor selection, invoice types, coding to correct client matters and VAT treatments are applied.  Liaising with the business and fee earners, secretaries, and billing team
• Inbox management – responsible for reviewing and actioning emails sent to the UK AP inboxes (expenses, invoices and disbursements), including the routing of invoices to approvers as required, reconciling key vendor and ad hoc statements that may be received and following up on outstanding items and dealing with all other queries in a timely manner
• Providing support to and liaising with the payment team on payment requests and timings, outstanding bank reconciliation items
• Other ad hoc tasks as may be required

Key Skills and Experience

• Able to work as part of team, sharing knowledge and ideas with peers, proactive and working towards shared goals
• Keen sense of responsibility, ability to set a professional example and ensure the team commits to and delivers to defined scope and timeframes
• Excellent interpersonal skills with the ability to communicate in a professional, approachable manner at all levels, and to non-Finance professionals, both verbally and in writing.
• Able to follow standard operating procedures whilst being able to exercise good judgement and decision making when presented with anomalies and non-standard requests
• Comfortable working within a fast-paced, flexible environment supporting Finance and the business in the completion of objectives
• Knowledge of SAP, Emburse or other invoice/expense workflow solution useful
• Able to use Microsoft Office suite (intermediate excel (including formatting), Word and Outlook). 
• Knowledge of hard cost disbursements and client billing processes useful but not essential
• Experience of a professional services environment useful but not essential

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To attract the best people, we strive to create a diverse and inclusive environment where everyone can bring their whole selves to work, have a sense of belonging, and realize their full career potential. 
Our new enabled work model allows our people to have more flexibility in the way they choose to work from both the office and a remote location, while continuing to deliver the highest standards of service. We offer a range of family friendly and inclusive employment policies and provide access to programmes and services aimed at nurturing our people’s health and overall wellbeing. Find more about Diversity, Equity and Inclusion here.

We are proud to be an equal opportunities employer and encourage applications from individuals who can complement our existing teams. We strive to create an inclusive and accessible recruitment process for all candidates. If you require any tailored adjustments or accommodations, please let us know here.