Financial Accountant

ABOUT US

Hostelworld Group PLC is a ground-breaking social network powered OTA focused on the hostel market, with a clear mission to help travellers find people to hang out with.

Founded in 1999, we’re a well-known trusted brand with 240 teammates across 11 countries; hostel partners in 180 countries; and a strong commitment to building a better world in all that we do.

In particular, our focus in the last few years has been on improving the sustainability of the hostelling industry, through our membership of the Global Sustainable Tourism Council (GSTC); our active involvement in the Global Tourism Plastics Initiative (GTPI); our partnerships with Bureau Veritas to establish emissions benchmarks for the hostelling industry; and our recent partnership with the South Pole to offset all our greenhouse gas emissions in 2021 and 2022. You can read more about our story here: Hostelworld site.

Hostelworld is listed on the London Stock Exchange, Dublin Euronext and is an Investors in Diversity accredited employer.

This role is based in Ireland. We have an office space in Dublin city centre for those who prefer a hybrid model where you can spend time with colleagues in-person. If necessary, the role can be remote within Ireland with coming together for team meetings as needed.

As a Financial Accountant on our team, you will be responsible for providing accurate, timely, and relevant information on the financial and business performance of the Hostelworld Group legal entities. You will own end-to-end reporting of a number of entities – where you will manage the day-to-day financial, regulatory, and taxation matters of these trading entities and oversee the accounts assistant responsible for these entities assuming direct line management responsibility for them.

We are a tech company and our team is constantly working on new products. You will manage our capitalisation of development labour process under IAS 38. This will involve business partnering in meeting product managers across the company to understand their roadmaps for the year ahead. You’ll assess their business plans and determine the correct capitalisation treatment.

You will also assist our Tax Manager with quarterly recharge (transfer pricing) accounting and corporate tax provisioning in the Group throughout the year.

You will work on and review other tax and technical accounting projects as needed within our group – we are a growing company and you will need to be flexible and be prepared to get stuck in as needs arise.

Key elements of the role include developing and improving processes and financial systems to facilitate informed decision-making while ensuring a robust financial control environment to safeguard company assets.

The team currently work on a hybrid model trying to all attend the office together one day a week. We find that the key to our effective WFH model has been a close-knit team. We’re looking for someone who’s genuine and friendly, who enjoys working as part of a team environment, and who’s willing to roll up their sleeves when required.

Financial Reporting:

• Manage period-end close and provision of information and analysis of legal entities for reporting to the Finance Manager and adherence to a tight month-end timeline (4-day close). Need to understand and be able to explain variances v forecasted performance in companies by liaising with business owners.
• Full responsibility for areas of judgement and focus within entities including accruals and prepayments, IFRS 16 lease accounting, recognition of exceptional items as required, and the ability to respond to any specific transaction that may occur over the year.
• Ownership of monthly development capital process ensuring adherence to IAS 38. Be a “go-to” for product and technology teams to discuss development criteria and make judgements on projects on the development roadmap.
• Track the performance to budget through weekly/monthly reporting. Effective communication of any variances identified. Hosting monthly meetings with budget ELT owners to communicate variances, manage performance, and understand prospective changes.
• Preparation and posting of journals and maintaining the accuracy of the general ledgers.
• Preparation of technical memos on judgemental and/or other areas as required.

Taxation:

• Review of monthly payroll files including variances from gross to net and posting of journals including liaising directly with payroll providers in a number of locations.
• Ownership of the quarterly group recharge process for the Group.
• Support tax manager with corporate tax provisioning at half and full year.
• Preparation of returns such as VAT returns, RTD, 46G, DAC 7 reporting, and Corporate Tax returns.
• Work on a range of ad hoc tax planning projects.

Financial Controls:

• Overseeing the management of Accounts Payable for your legal entities including review and authorisation of payments, review and verifying compliance to AP procedures, review of bank reconciliations, and implementing process improvements.
• Ownership and management of key finance key control processes to insure their continued effectiveness in line with Group procedures and best practices.
• Liaising with external and internal auditors, and other external advisors/service providers as required and implementation of agreed recommendations.

Experience & Qualifications:

• ACA or ACCA Qualified Accountant with excellent financial control experience and technical accounting acumen. A taxation qualification or proven experience working in any area of tax is an advantage.
• Ideally Big 4 or Top 10 Qualified.
• At least 1-2 years post qualification experience at Assistant Manager level in Big 4 or in Industry.
• Excellent excel skills required, experience working with Sun Systems is an advantage.
• A self-starter, highly motivated with a continuous improvement focus and attention to detail.
• This role is well suited for an individual who may be making their move into industry and is interested and enthusiastic to get to grips with the world of both financial control and tax.

Knowledge & Skills:

• A positive can-do attitude is essential
• Strong attention to detail.
• You take pride in what you do and ownership of finding solutions to business challenges.
• You work well and communicate well with people at all levels – your team around you, the wider business with whom you will deal regularly, and third parties including our auditors.
• Ability to prioritise under pressure.
• You can cope with change and ambiguity and always deliver to deadlines.
• Ability to work on own initiative.
• You are down to earth, outcome-focused, pragmatic, diplomatic, passionate, high energy, smart, curious, transparent, motivated, high integrity, and flexible.
• You’re a team player who’s willing to contribute whether it be technical knowledge, a helping hand, or another head to brainstorm a problem.

• Competitive salary & benefits
• Enhanced annual leave plus 3 Wellbeing Days per year
• Paid family leave (maternity, paternity, surrogacy & adoption)
• Agile working (plus a Working from Abroad Policy)
• Support for your ongoing growth & development
• Inclusive people policies (sickness, menopause, compassionate and fertility leave)
• A chance to give back to your local community with 5 paid volunteering days

• Grow others - We fundamentally believe that investing in growing others benefits everyone, whether it's helping them develop hard or soft skills. We want learning and growing to be part of our DNA to help makes us a better team, together.
• Master it - We are obsessed with our area of expertise and enjoy developing our skills. We rarely take things at face value; we investigate, interrogate, and always look for ‘the why,’ and wherever possible, we use data to find the best solution.
• Collaborate - We are in it together, for the tough stuff and the celebrations too. To achieve the best results, we need expertise from all areas of the organisation, and we wholeheartedly welcome diverse thinking.
• Adapt - We work fluidly, adapting to new information and the evolving environment while staying committed to our goals. Innovation and experimentation fuel our projects and we’re never afraid to pivot.
• Deliver - Our focus is always on the end result; we value outcomes over activity. We collaborate to deliver work at speed without dropping any of our other behaviours.

Our people are key to our success. Our talented and diverse teams reflect the diversity of our customers and the communities in which we operate. Everyone brings different perspectives and experiences; you don’t have to meet all the requirements listed above to apply for this role.