Head of Accounting & Payroll Shared Service Center Finance Finland

About Strawberry Group and Shared Service Center Finance

Shared Service Center Finance (SSC) is part of Strawberry Group. SSC has been established to deliver efficient services to operation and franchise hotels, as well as to our group companies. SSC performs services for companies in all the Nordic countries, with a predominance of companies in Norway and Sweden. In Finland, accounting is outsourced to Azets for our 14 hotels. Strawberry is considering the possibility of insourcing the handling of the accounts in Finland during the next few years, possibly building up a department of our SSC in Helsinki. 

Strawberry is a Nordic hotel group with more than 200 companies. In 2022, we had a total revenue of more than NOK 15 billion and more than 16,000 employees. 

Our SSC has undergone enormous development over several years and has grown in step with the group. After working with the insourcing of payroll and accounting services for several years, we are entering a phase of developing more services for the group. You will be responsible for leading and supporting a team of 4-6 employees who are located in Helsinki. 

The position as Head of Accounting SSC Finland  entails total responsibility for leading and developing the accounting team in Finland. This means ensuring that all accounting processes and routines are followed and further developed. Over time you will build a team with 5-6 employees and you will  be responsible for leading and supporting the team.  You support complex accounting processes, and act as the professional resource to streamline and digitize the accounting function together with our Shared Service Center in Norway.

Role Description

As Head of Accounting, you are responsible for high quality in all processes. A key task will be to help develop existing and new processes to increase the efficiency of both individual resources and teams.  We are in the middle of implementation of a new ERP system in Sweden and Norway, and Finland is already using the new techstach.  The Head of Accounting  will have an active role in the project, and it is expected that you initiate and drive the process improvement in the accounting function.  The responsibility also includes ownership for the balance sheets, internal control and reporting. 

You lead and support the team in their daily work and inspire and develop them.  You have  good skills in creating relationships that ensure a good collaboration with colleagues internally in the wider team, towards corporate finance and the hotels.

Tasks and responsibilities

• Overall responsible for the payroll & accounting function in Finland. 
• Responsible for the department delivering accounts A to Z  for all companies in Finland
• Overall responsibility of 3 finance controllers/accountants and outsourced accounting partner
• Period end reporting
• General ledger
• Travel expenses
• Investments and depreciation
• Reconciliation bank, balance sheet, VAT
• Collaboration with Business Control, Consolidated Accounts and Hotel Directors
• Annual settlement
• Ensure internal control and minimize risk in processes and routines
• Contact person for trade registry, statistics and tax authorities
• Assist in the implementation of new systems and ownership of effect of implementations to accounting systems and procedures
• Ensure good and efficient processes related to payroll  & accounting processes including support to the hotels
• Develop training materials for the hotels related to payroll, accounting & month end procedures 
• Take an active part in developing & digitize the payroll process
• Actively initiate and contribute to further developing processes and routines
• Lead defined improvement and efficiency projects in SSC
• The position as Head of Accounting in Finland reports to Director of SSC  Finance with a dotted line to the Business Performance Director in Finland.

Suitable background

We are looking for someone with more than 5 years  experience, preferably in  Nordic companies. You have extensive experience within the  accounting space  from A to Z. Leadership experience is preferred and  you are triggered by working in a fast moving environment. You have experience from process improvement and system implementation or other IT related improvement work. As a person, you have drive, take initiative and have a good ability to plan and organize. You have excellent communication skills, are analytical, process-oriented with an eye for detail

Qualifications for the position

Education in economics from university

Experience and professional competence in accounting A to Z.

Leadership competence, good collaboration skills and experience as a leader

Preferably experience from other Nordic groups with subsidiary reporting

Good implementation ability

Good Finnish and English skills, both written and oral

Desire for development, change and improvement of the accounting function

Experience from accounting, preferably hotels and Nordic accounting rules

Experience with company structures (P&L / BS ) and intercompany business

Personal qualifications

Good collaboration skills

Motivating leader, team player who gets people involved

Enterprising and self-driven

Results-oriented and structured

We offer

A varied and challenging job

Active and good working environment

Good benefits for employees

Competitive conditions

We process applications during the search and make a hiring decision as soon as we find a suitable candidate. We hope that the employment relationship will start already in August.

If you are interested, please don't hesitate to send an application. If you would like to discuss the role, please be in contact with Elsebeth Rivertz