Accountant (Data Migration and Reconciliation Project)

• Relevant Degree in Accounting / Finance essential
• Completed Accounting qualification with full function experience to trial balance
• Advanced Excel. This is the central requirement. Comfortable working with large datasets and confident with lookups (XLOOKUP, INDEX/MATCH), SUMIFS, pivot tables, data cleansing and reconciliation structures. Power Query experience is a significant advantage. The candidate should instinctively build a formula-driven file rather than retype or hard-code figures.
• A sound understanding of how a trial balance, debtors ledger and creditors ledger relate to one another, and of control account reconciliation.
• Demonstrable reconciliation discipline - experience preparing reconciliations
• Experience working across multiple legal entities.
• NB : This is an on-site role.

• Sage Pastel Partner experience, particularly extracting and interrogating data from it.
• Zoho experience, especially importing opening balances or master data.
• Prior involvement in a system migration, data conversion or implementation.
• Audit background, or experience preparing files that have gone through an audit.
• Power Query, Power BI or similar data-handling tools.

Data Preparation and Import

• Extract trial balance, accounts receivable and accounts payable data from Sage Pastel Partner for each entity in scope.
• Map the Pastel chart of accounts to the Zoho chart of accounts and resolve accounts that do not map cleanly.
• Prepare and cleanse customer and supplier master data ahead of import - duplicates, inactive accounts, naming inconsistencies, missing details.
• Build the import files to the format Zoho requires and run the imports for each entity.
• Import open transaction detail where required, so that debtor and creditor ageing carries across correctly rather than as a single balance.

• Prepare, per entity, an Excel reconciliation comparing the Pastel closing balance to the imported Zoho balance for every account in the trial balance.
• Reconcile the accounts receivable and accounts payable age analyses to their respective control accounts in both systems.
• Quantify and explain every variance. Each difference must carry a reason, a resolution and supporting evidence - not simply a plug.
• Build in control totals and checks that prove completeness: the file should fail visibly if something does not balance, rather than quietly absorbing it.
• Assemble the reconciliation files into an audit-ready pack per entity, supported by the source exports, the import files and the mapping used.
• Maintain clear version control so that it is always evident which import a reconciliation relates to.

• Investigate differences back to source, identify the cause and correct it - whether in the mapping, the import file or the underlying data.
• Re-import and re-reconcile where corrections are required, and document what changed and why.
• Escalate decisions that require a judgement call on accounting treatment, with a recommendation attached.

• Maintain a master tracker covering all 45 entities, showing for each the status of the trial balance, debtors and creditors import and of the reconciliation sign-off.
• Report progress against the go-live date, and flag early where an entity is at risk of not being ready.
• Keep the opening balance, debtor and creditor position for every entity fully accounted for through to cutover.

• Document the import and reconciliation routine so that it can be repeated reliably for each entity rather than rebuilt from scratch each time.
• Build reusable Excel templates for the reconciliation, so the same structure and the same checks apply across every entity.
• Hand over a clean, documented position at the end of the migration that the finance team can operate from.

• Support the finance team through the first months of live operation on the new system, resolving data issues as they surface.
• Assist with the broader finance workload as required during the transition period.