Finance Business Partner – People (9-12 month FTC)

About us

At Halfords, our mission is to inspire and support a lifetime of motoring and cycling. As a specialist retailer, we lead the market through customer-driven innovation and a distinct product range. We are dedicated to providing our customers with an integrated, unique, and convenient service experience—from e-bike and electric vehicle servicing to on-demand solutions. Our commitment is to foster customer loyalty by offering compelling reasons to keep coming back to our stores, ensuring a lifetime of motoring and cycling enjoyment.

The teams at our Redditch Support Centre work with every other area of our business, putting them at the heart of the action and playing a key role in our success and growth. Everyone brings their individual knowledge and experience to work every day, working as one team to keep things moving smoothly.

If you’re willing to get stuck in, you’ll love it here too. So put yourself at the heart of a dynamic, fast-paced working environment where expertise and focus take people far.

The role

As a Finance Business Partner for our People function, you'll take on a varied and genuinely autonomous role covering both business partnering and management accounting across a cost base of around £20 million. You'll work closely with multiple senior stakeholders at Head of and Director level within the People team, helping them understand what they've spent, what's left, and what the data means for the decisions they're making.

Day to day, you'll be pulling together management accounts, running balance sheet reconciliations, journals, accruals, and prepayments, as well as building and presenting reports that give senior stakeholders a clear picture of their budgets and financial position. You'll support budgeting and forecasting cycles, prepare business cases and investment appraisals for people initiatives, and work collaboratively across the wider Finance team to continuously improve processes and ways of working.

This is a fixed term contract of up to twelve months, joining a close-knit team with good people, strong stakeholder relationships, and real senior exposure including involvement in budget processes at exec level. The systems and processes aren't always perfect, so you'll need to be the type who gets stuck in rather than waits for things to be straightforward. If you're a qualified accountant who is equally comfortable with month end and with building trusted relationships with non-finance stakeholders, this is a solid role with genuine autonomy and good support around you.

Key responsibilities

• Act as the Finance Business Partner to People function directors and heads, building trusted relationships and supporting informed decision-making across a cost base of circa £20 million

• Prepare accurate period end management accounts including balance sheet reconciliations, journals, accruals, and prepayments

• Deliver budgeting and forecasting processes for People team functions, providing clear narrative on drivers, risks, and opportunities and ensuring alignment with FP&A

• Produce and present monthly management reporting, giving People leaders clear visibility of spend, remaining budgets, and financial performance

• Support the preparation of business cases and investment appraisals for People initiatives, challenging assumptions and quantifying values where needed

• Track risks and opportunities, providing rolling outturn reporting and flagging issues early to support proactive decision-making

• Work collaboratively across the Finance team to continuously improve processes, leveraging systems and automation to simplify and optimise ways of working

About you

• Qualified accountant (ACA, ACCA, CIMA or equivalent) with a proven track record in both management accounting and finance business partnering

• Experienced in month end processes including balance sheet reconciliations, journals, accruals, and prepayments

• A strong communicator who can build trust and credibility with non-finance stakeholders at director and head of level, translating financial information into clear, accessible language

• Comfortable operating with autonomy, able to get stuck in and find your way around systems and processes that are not always perfectly set up

• Experienced working in a cost-focused environment, with the ability to support stakeholders in understanding and managing their budgets effectively

• Collaborative by nature, able to work across a broader Finance team and contribute to shared objectives beyond your own workstream

• Advanced Excel skills and SAP experience are advantageous, as is experience of cross-functional working environments

Reward & benefits

• A fair and competitive salary evaluated against market data, annual discretionary bonus scheme, pension, life assurance, 25 days annual leave plus bank holidays and enhanced family leave.

• Commitment and dedication to your ongoing personal and professional development. We help you to own and grow your potential so you can be at your best in your current role and to support your future career aspirations.

• We offer hybrid working with a blend of working in our Support Centre and from home.

• You will have access to a wealth of employee discounts across the Halfords suite of products and services.

• Wellbeing and inclusion are at the heart of our colleague experience. We offer resources and ongoing support to enhance your wellbeing at work and active Colleague Networks supporting inclusion initiatives across Halfords.

Not sure you meet all the criteria? We'd encourage you to take the wheel and apply anyway! At Halfords we are committed to creating an inclusive workplace for our colleagues. We're an equal opportunities employer and proud to welcome applications from all backgrounds and embrace diversity within our one Halfords Family.

At Halfords, we operate a 3 days per week on-site hybrid working policy at our Support Centre in Redditch Worcestershire.