About J A Brooks
J A Brooks is an established mechanical services company working across the UK and Europe. To find out more about who we are and what we do, please visit ja-brooks.co.uk.
The role
We are looking for an experienced, detail-focused Bookkeeper to join our finance team in Colchester. This is a hands-on, day-to-day role supporting the existing finance team with invoice processing, payment runs, bank reconciliations, and CIS and VAT returns.
You will work alongside the Finance Lead and the wider finance team, helping to keep the ledgers clean and supplier and subcontractor payments running on time in a busy construction environment.
What you'll be doing
- Processing purchase invoices in Sage 50, matching to POs and delivery notes where relevant
- Assisting with the sales ledger, raising invoices and supporting credit control
- Reconciling supplier statements and resolving queries with suppliers and site teams
- Assisting with weekly and fortnightly payment runs for suppliers and CIS subcontractors, in line with our authorisation table
- Posting and reconciling bank accounts, credit cards (including Amex), and petty cash
- Assisting with monthly CIS returns and issuing subcontractor payment and deduction statements
- Assisting with quarterly VAT returns, including CIS domestic reverse-charge coding on construction invoices
- Coding project-related invoices to the correct job/cost centre
- Helping to maintain supplier records, including verification checks before new payment details are used
- Providing clean, well-organised records to support the Finance Lead, auditors and tax advisers
What we're looking for
Essential
- Proven bookkeeping experience in a UK SME, ideally within construction, engineering, manufacturing or a trades environment
- Strong working knowledge of Sage 50 (purchase ledger, sales ledger, bank, VAT)
- Solid understanding of UK VAT, including the CIS and domestic reverse charge
- Comfortable with CIS subcontractor verification, deductions and monthly returns
- Confident with Excel, pivot tables, lookups, reconciliations
- Highly organised, accurate, and able to hit weekly and monthly deadlines
- Discreet, dependable, and comfortable working with confidential financial information
Nice to have
- AAT qualified (Level 2, 3 or 4), or qualified by experience
- Familiarity with construction project costing, applications for payment, and retentions
- Experience with document-capture tools (e.g. AutoEntry, Dext, Paperless)
What we offer
- Competitive salary
- Company pension scheme
- 25 days' holiday plus bank holidays
- On-site parking in Colchester
Location & hours
- Based full-time at our Colchester office/workshop
- Monday to Friday, standard office hours
Pay: £33,000.00-£38,000.00 per year
Work Location: In person
