Role: Assistant Theatre Accountant
Sector: Theatre Production
Permanent: Full Time (min 1 day/week in the office)
Location: West End, London
Salary: £35,000-40,000 pa d.o.e.
Ref: VFR3301
About our client
Our client is a boutique West End firm providing specialist financial management and reporting services for live theatre; working with household names and supporting some of the most high-profile West End productions, national tours, and international shows. Services combine technical excellence with in-depth industry knowledge, tailored to meet the unique needs of theatre producers and production companies.
The Role
We are seeking an Assistant Theatre Accountant to help manage a portfolio of theatre productions (approx. 3 but may vary). This is a client-facing role requiring strong bookkeeping, reconciliation and technical accounting skills, together with the ability to work accurately across multiple productions and deadlines.
This is not purely a transactional role. The post-holder will be expected to understand the numbers they are preparing, identify unusual balances or movements, ask sensible questions and produce work that is clear, documented and ready for review.
Key Responsibilities (not exhaustive list):
- Support the preparation of weekly production accounts and monthly management reports.
- Maintain ledgers, ensuring income, expenditure, advances, recharges, payroll, royalties and production costs are recorded accurately and completely.
- Review weekly movements in the trial balance and investigate unusual or unexpected balances.
- Bank reconciliations.
- Balance sheet analysis & reconciliation.
- Manage the purchase ledger processes, including payments – working with outsourced transactional team
- Help with the preparation and reconciliation of VAT returns.
- Theatre Tax Relief (TTR) calculations.
- Payroll reconciliations, analysis and ad hoc processing.
- Preparation of royalty statements, profit distributions, and other contractual payments.
- Prepare journals, including accruals, prepayments, deferred income, recharges, corrections and payroll-related journals.
The Ideal Candidate:
- AAT Level 3 and training towards professional accountancy qualification (ACA, ACCA, CIMA).
- Technically curious and interested in understanding the work, not just completing tasks.
- Strong organisational skills, hands-on and attention to detail.
- Ability to work independently and manage multiple priorities.
- Excellent communication skills for client interaction.
- Honest about mistakes and quick to escalate issues.
- Take ownership of allocated work rather than waiting to be chased.
- Maintain confidentiality when dealing with sensitive payroll, commercial, contractual or production information.
- Interested in building a long-term technical and production accounting career in the theatre sector.
- Proficient in Excel; Sage 50 experience preferred.
What is Offered:
- Flexible hybrid working (minimum 2 days in office per week).
- Exposure to high-profile clients and productions.
- A collaborative and dynamic working environment in the heart of the theatre industry.
If you’re looking for a role that combines technical accounting expertise with the excitement of live entertainment, we’d love to hear from you.
VisionFR is committed to encouraging equality, diversity, inclusion and eliminating unlawful discrimination within our workforce and whilst fulfilling our Clients recruitment needs.
Due to the high level of applications being received if you do not hear from us within 5 working days, please assume your application has not been successful on this occasion, usually due to other candidates having more relevant sector exposure, qualifications or required skills. We thank you for your interest.
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