Client Accounting Manager, Finance

The Company

Christie’s, the world’s largest Art Business, is an incredibly exciting & enriching place to start or continue your career. Whether you work within one of our Specialist Art Departments or in our more Operational focused teams we are all working together with one common goal in mind: to continue the success of this over 250 year old company, steeped in history, bringing constant innovation whilst not forgetting our age old values; Respect, Passionate Expertise, Exceptional Client Service, Teamwork, Integrity, Business Judgement & Innovation. Colleagues across all departments are truly passionate about what they do and it is constantly inspiring to work with industry leaders across all segments of the business.

Why This Role Matters

You will be responsible for supporting the Head of Client Accounting in the management of all aspects of the client transaction when buying and selling at auction. The role will effectively perform an account management function which focuses on the transaction journey initially from a consignment/selling perspective but then through the journey to when the lot is sold and ultimately settled. The responsibility of the role is to manage the journey to make the client transaction as seamless and effective as possible ensuring that at all times, legal, company and statutory requirements are met. This role will be responsible for a team of Account Managers who will be allocated and deployed to respective clients and sales as appropriate.

How You’ll Make an Impact

• Lead all elements of the client transaction experience

• Oversee the performance all pre-sales checks, in accordance with revised processes and policies as revised and defined, including but not limited to: Credit checking, Extended payment term requests (in conjunction with Commercial Finance), Ensuring all PI’s are received and entered into JDE (per process definition)

• Resource plan and allocate the management for all client account transactions for a quota of sales to the Account Managers to ensure the responsibility and completeness of the following activities: Chasing buyer debts over a certain day (to be defined), Processing adjustments to seller transactions

• Arrange and process any offsets of proceeds against debts, Debt chasing of all seller debts (to be defined)

• Manage the proactive communication of the position of a sale and other appropriate information with regards to the buyers and sellers to the Specialist departments and other appropriate

• stakeholders.

• Field, resolve or escalate where appropriate both internal and external inquiries regarding client transactions.

• Oversee debt collection ensuring overdue balances are being followed-up in a timely manner and correct steps are being made.

• Bad Debts – assist in the creation and management of the Monthly Bad Debt Provision reporting.

• Managing Stakeholder Relationships

• Develop and maintain strong links with Finance counterparts.

• Production of regular and ad hoc reporting and analysis to facilitate effective resolution of stakeholder requests.

• Process Improvement Champion

• Identify inefficiencies/bottlenecks in end-to-end processes within the team and actively ‘challenge the status-quo’.

• Champion the changes required to drive the success of the new Finance structure.

• People Management and Leadership

• Resource planning with the Head of Client Accounting to ensure adequate staffing for all key auctions and events.

• Oversee all Account Manager activities to ensure timely delivery of all tasks and escalation and resolution of issues.

• Be an advocate for the Client Accounting team, best practice and compliance. Drive right behaviours, development plans and leadership effectiveness.

What You’ll Bring to the Team

• Knowledge of basic accounting required.

• Customer service experience to an excellent level

• Language skills preferred.

• Ability to work under pressure and on own initiative in a responsible and professional manner.

• Knowledge of Outlook, Word, Excel and JDE preferred.

• Keen attention to detail and accuracy.

• Excellent communication and interpersonal skills, including superior written and spoken communication.