Job Description

WPP is the transformation company. We use the power of creativity to build better futures for our people, planet, clients, and communities. Working at WPP means being part of a global network of more than 109,000 accomplished people in 110 countries. WPP has headquarters in New York, London and Singapore and a corporate presence in major markets worldwide. We create transformative ideas and outcomes for our clients through an integrated offer of communications, experience, commerce, and technology. WPP and our award-winning agencies work with most of the world\'s biggest companies and organisations \xe2\x80\x93 from Ford, Unilever and P&G to Google, HSBC, and the UN. Our clients include 61 of the FTSE 100, 317 of the Fortune Global 500, all 30 of the Dow Jones 30 and 62 of the NASDAQ 100. WPP are the leader in the Bloomberg Gender Equality Index and 8th in the FTSE 100 rankings for Women on Boards.

1. Purpose of Role To assist the Manager in recruiting, training and supervising the Media Billing & Payable Team. Effective experienced and qualified conscientious Supervisor or Team Leader who can demonstrate a successful proven track-record within a global organisation. Extremely Client focused, resilient and determined individual who can motivate a team into achieving group targets set. Must have strong business sense and commercial awareness. A proactive member of the Team. 2. Accountabilities Accounts Receivable and Billing

• Supervise the Media Billing team

• Assist the Media Billing Manager in recruitment, training & motivation and development needs of the team

• Regularly review and maintain on a central tracker report the inventory of all Opco Clients and their billable procedures and requirements

• Oversee the timely and accurate Draft, edit, and finalisation of media invoices for Client billing, working closely with the Account leads in the Opco

• Ensure the matching of Client-specific supporting documentation of tear sheets is performed in line with the Client process

• Ensure all media bills are submitted in a timely manner and in accordance to the agreed Client process

• Assist the Credit Control team in the collection process of any past due accounts, as needed and or resolutions of billing queries to ensure cash is paid to terms

• Review and oversee the integrity and deliverable of the Client Purchase Order (PO)/budget spend reconciliations, reviewing accuracy and quality of data prior to submission to the Client or Opco. Continually reviewing and working to improve existing data

• Oversee all Client reconciliations that are performed by the SSC tie back to the ERP \xe2\x80\x93 integrity of the data is essential. Any gaps must be investigated prior to the reconciliation being shared with a Client and or Opco

• Where a Client has a specific EDI platform, work with the Client, line manager and technical teams to ensure the interface development and configuration is fully automated

• Attend Opco and or Client meetings, where required

• Ensure and coordinate with the applicable MDM contact that the integrety of the Client master data records accurately reflect the agreed contractual terms and processes of the Client. Any changes to a Client process on terms and or address must be reflected in the Client master data records

• Ensure all Billing queries are fully documented and reported to the Media Billing Manager, Opco, Credit Manager and Financial Operations Manager

• Ensure the integrity of the Billings function in accordance to Group and SOX policy

• Participate in the month-end closing of the Group billing information and reporting

• Provide support and guidance to Opco Planning and Buying teams on Client billing, where deemed within F+ remit and or where required

• Provide assistance to the Media Billing Manager in identifying personnel development needs of employees

• Actively participate in staff meetings, staffing discussions and planning, team building

• Assist with Internal, External, SOX, Client audits as required by the management team

• Ad-hoc projects as directed by the Media Billing Manager

• Provide holiday and sick cover for the Media Billing Manager and or Biller as directed to do so

Weekly

• Perform weekly Billing review meetings with the Media Billing Manager and the Billing Associates to ensure Billings and reconciliations are being performed to the set timetables and to Client processes and expectations

• Ensure Client reconciliations are updated and reconcile back to the ERP

• Oversee the accurate and timely billing of the team in line with the agreed media billing timetables

• Attend weekly meetings with the Credit Manager to review Client queries raised via Credit Control

• To perform any other ad-hoc billing and Client reporting requests i.e. Unbilled review and feedback to Opcos

Monthly

• Attend and offer support during one to one meetings with the Media Billing Manager and each team member to review objectives and performance

• Assist in the full preparation of monthly, quarterly and annual billing reporting, consolidated into management reporting packs

• Ensure the team work to tight deadlines in order to achieve monthly billing and reconciliation targets set

• Assist with the month-end close related to Client billing portfolios, AR billing journals, reconciliations, reporting and other duties including SOX compliance

• Maintain accurate monthly reconciliations for assigned Client portfolios

• Ensure the Group Intercompany billing process is managed according to group directive

Accounts Payable & Invoice Processing

• Supervise the Media Accounts Payable team

• To support the Media Payable Manager in providing recruitment, training & motivation and development needs of the team

• Responsible for monitoring and supervising the payables team ensuring the accurate matching and reconciliation of Media payable activity in order that the Media Owners are paid to contracted terms and or by the specific country industry deadlines

• Management to a high standard of their own portfolio allocation of key media owner accounts

• Ensure that Media Owner invoices and statements are fully reconciled to a consistently high standard

• Liaise with other members of staff across various departments and also with the legal team of the organisation in the course of performing assigned duties

• Reporting of Payable progress throughout the month to the Media Payables Manager, particularly where the region adopts Pay when Paid, assisting with disbursement forecasts, month end Group AP, query reports and KPI reporting

• Participate in the design, implementation, and also maintainance of various systems to improve on service automation and streamlining

• Review and ensure the integrity of payment files, checks, approvals and encryption

• Overseeing the accuarte and timely reporting of Media Owner queries derived from account reconciliations and or escalations. Liaising with the applicable Opco contacts in order to resolve Media Owner queries quickly and efficiently

• Work with the Media Payable Manager in managing the integrity of the Payable function in accordance to audit control process\'s, SOX, Internal, External and Client

Ensure and coordinate with the applicable MDM contact that the integrety of the Vendor master data records accurately reflect the agreed contractual terms and banking information of the Vendor. Any change request to a Vendor record must be independantly verified and reflected in the Vendor master data records

• Asssist in recommending personnel development of employees, contribute to the staff meetings and staffing discussions and planning

• Ad-hoc projects as directed by the Media Payable Manager

• Provide holiday and sick cover for the Media Payable Manager as directed to do so

Weekly

• Review, approve and sign off all media owner reconciliations

• Review media owner queries, highlighted by statement reconciliation\'s to ensure they are being registered with the Opco

• Ensure the payable team are following up with the suppliers and applicable Opco buying contacts to resolve queries effectively and efficiently

• First point of contact to manage all media owner escalations on enquries regarding unresolved queries and or payment dates managing the expectations of the media owner

• Review and sign off the work of the payable team members to ensure that all payments are accurately recorded and agree to supporting documentation

• Ensuring the timely payment of media owners taking into consideration payment terms

• Liaising with the Opco business to ensure timely approval and payment of invoices

• Running payment processes across multiple bank accounts

• Attend regular meetings with the Opco, Billing team and or Media Owner (where required) in order to support the Media Payable Manager and the team in tracking and reviewing status of Pay when Paid, Payables and or Media Owner query resolutions

• Responsible for the preparation and timely delivery to the Media Payable Manager of weekly reporting on Payment and query updates and the integrity of the reports

• Attend meetings with the Buying teams/applicable Opco contacts in order to ensure booking queries are resolved in a timely manner

• Ensure all Media Owner statements are reconciled across all Media, in order to ensure the team are working towards clearing and or resolving all payable queries prior to due dates

• Constant review and maintenance of the group policy to ensure effective payable performance at all times

Monthly

• Manage the month end media payable close for all Opco\'s

• Monitor and ensure all payable journals required to be actioned during the month are accurately assigned

• Produce the monthly reporting of media owner queries to the Media Payable Manager and Opco business leads providing status updates on progress

• Assist the Media Payables Manager in the full preparation of monthly reporting commitments, consolidated into group reporting packs, KPI and AP Aging (where required)

• Review and follow through with the appropriate action required to manage DEBIT balances providing explanations for the DEBIT where the balance is not cleared each month. For material DEBIT balances, escalate to the Media Payables Manager

• Attend monthly staff one to one meetings with the Media Payable Manager with each team member to review objectives and performance, providing support where required

• Working to tight deadlines to achieve monthly group targets set

• Recommend areas for implementation improvements, continually looking for ways to improve efficiencies within the payable team and processes in the business, presenting these to the Media Payable Manager

Other Responsibilities

• Resolve issues where required
• Receive queries from Clients, Vendors or OpCo, record and follow up to resolution
• Resolve client queries and action as applicable, with OpCo input if required
• Close queries in a timely manner
• Report to OpCo on monthly open queries as recorded
• Independently Drive AR Ageing Reporting and Review calls with OpCo
• Accountable and responsible for the quality, accuracy and timely delivery of scope assigned in accordance to the SLAs/KPIs defined with management and agreed with OpCo
• Handle high complexity issues with minimal guidance from Finance Operations Manager/Team Lead
• Identify and Troubleshoot issues, communicate potential risks to management and internal clients if any and follow it through till resolutions. Seek advice and guidance as appropriate
• Work closely with the key contacts of the WPP OpCo assigned and cross functional organization to resolve and support OTC and PTP process, issues and/or inquiries
• Perform and support month end close activities
• Participate in on-going development and improvement on systems and operation process
• Provide full support to global system enhancement and any new implementation initiative in UAT, migrations, scope expansion, standardization and/or data mapping or cleansing. Drive improvement projects as assigned
• Comply with accounting principles and business standards of the company
• Comply to internal and external regulations and procedures, that should be in line with the company policies, standard operating procedures, and/or Target Operating Model (TOM)
• Guide new and existing team members through proper knowledge transfer; sharing of resource, knowledge and experience and best practice thereby ensuring quality is maintained through any staff transition

3. Qualification & Experience and Competencies (a) Education & Experience

• Degree in Finance & Accounting or related field with relevant mix of qualification and experience
• Qualified, with a minimum 3 years\' supervisory experience within an organisation that services multiple companies
• 3-5 years of relevant experience in shared service environment.
• Ability to maintain high level of accuracy in preparing and entering information to the AR System
• Attention to Detail
• Time management and Organization skills
• Ability to handle high volume task and able to adapt complex work environment
• Able to communicate and work within a team environment
• Basic knowledge of fundamental accounting concepts, practices, and procedures
• Having shared service centre experience is preferred
• Knowledge of SOX Compliance norms relating to the process
• Experience in using ERP system is an added advantage
• Excel skills mandatory
• Familiar with Office 365
• Willing to travel overseas if required
• Fresh graduates are welcomed

(b) Competencies

• Fluent written and spoken English
• Strong interpersonal & Customer service skills
• Teamwork - Able to communicate and work within a team environment
• Proactive - Time management, Business Acumen and Manage Customer Expectation
• Analytical & Problem - Solving Skills

Skills/Experience

• Understanding of foreign currency transactions and postings

• Self-starter and able to prioritise effectively

• Energetic, detailed oriented, able to adhere to deadlines in a timely manner

• Strong communication skills for negotiation & reconciliation

• Proven track-record in leadership motivating a payable team

• Commercially focused with a strong service approach

• Confidence in dealing and building relationships both internally and externally

• Flexible attitude to achieve results

• Calm under pressure

WPP is an equal opportunity employer and considers applicants for all positions without regard to race, color, religion or belief, sex, age, national origin, citizenship status, marital status, military/veteran status, genetic information, sexual orientation, gender identity, physical or mental disability. We believe in creating a dynamic work environment that values diversity and inclusion and strives to recruit a diverse slate of candidates to help us achieve that goal. Please read our Privacy Notice for more information on how we process the information you provide.