About Rubik Builders
Rubik Builders is a Midlands-based multi-measure retrofit and decarbonisation contractor delivering energy-efficiency and fabric-improvement works to social housing across the region. We hold fifteen PAS and MCS accredited measures — significantly more than most contractors in our field — alongside Constructionline Gold, Acclaim SSIP, TrustMark, Gas Safe, NICEIC and FMB accreditations, and we deliver against government-funded programmes for housing associations and local-authority landlords.
We are a growing, ambitious business moving from owner-led operation toward a properly structured management team. This is a newly created role, central to that transition. The successful candidate will build and own our finance function as we scale.
Purpose of the role
To take sole ownership of the day-to-day finance function and, critically, to give the business the forward financial visibility it currently lacks. This is not a purely transactional bookkeeping post: alongside running the core finance processes accurately and on time, you will build and maintain cashflow forecasting, project-level cost management and management reporting — turning an accurate record of the past into a clear view of what is coming.
You will be the person the Managing Director relies on to answer, at any point: what is our cash position and forecast, which projects are making money, what is coming in and going out and when, and are we on track. Establishing job-level profitability — by attributing all costs, including internal labour, to individual projects — is a defining early priority.
Key responsibilities
Core finance operations (QuickBooks)
- Take sole control of the QuickBooks accounting system, maintaining accurate, up-to-date records across all projects.
- Manage the full sales and purchase ledgers: raise and issue invoices, allocate expenses to the correct projects, and process supplier and subcontractor payments.
- Run payroll accurately and on time, including PAYE and pension obligations.
- Prepare and submit VAT returns and CIS (Construction Industry Scheme) returns, ensuring full compliance with deadlines.
- Act as the first point of contact for HMRC correspondence and queries.
- Manage bank reconciliations, company credit-card accounts and merchant-account spend.
Project cost management & job profitability
- Establish and maintain a robust job-costing process that attributes all costs — materials, subcontractor spend and, critically, internal PAYE labour — to individual projects, using the QuickBooks project structure supported by an overhead-recovery method.
- Produce accurate, timely job-level profitability reporting, so the business can see the true margin on each project against target.
- Provide live budget-versus-actual tracking on active projects, flagging overspend while a job is still open and can be acted on — not after completion.
- Work closely with the Commercial Director/QS on cost, valuation and variation data, ensuring commercial and financial records reconcile.
Cashflow forecasting & financial visibility
- Build and maintain a rolling short-term (13-week) cashflow forecast, mapped to the actual timing of receipts and payments — including the framework payment cycle and subcontractor payment terms.
- Maintain a dated debtors and creditors view — who owes us and who we owe, and when each amount is due to move — enabling proactive rather than reactive cash management.
- Support a pipeline / projected-income view alongside the Managing Director and commercial team, so forecasting reflects expected as well as contracted income.
- Monitor the company's target cash buffer and alert the Managing Director in good time to any forecast shortfall.
- Maintain oversight of finance facilities (loans, cards, any working-capital facility) as a single consolidated view of balances, terms and interest cost.
Management reporting
- Produce a monthly management-accounts pack: profit and loss, cost against budget by project, aged debtors and creditors, and cash position.
- Contribute the finance figures to a concise strategic dashboard for the Managing Director.
- Liaise with the company's external accountants at year-end and support statutory reporting.
Person specification
Essential
- Demonstrable experience running a finance function end-to-end in an SME, ideally including sole responsibility for the areas above.
- Strong working knowledge of QuickBooks (or a comparable cloud accounting package), with the ability to configure it for project-level reporting.
- Proven ability in cashflow forecasting and management reporting — not just transactional processing. This is the part of the role that matters most.
- Practical knowledge of VAT and, importantly, the CIS (Construction Industry Scheme) and its reverse-charge rules.
- Confident payroll experience (PAYE, pensions).
- Strong Excel skills and comfort building and maintaining forecasting models.
- Well-organised, accurate, and able to work to strict statutory deadlines with minimal supervision.
- Clear communicator able to translate financial information into plain guidance for a non-finance Managing Director.
Desirable
- Experience in construction, contracting, or a project-based business.
- Part-qualified, qualified or qualified-by-experience (AAT, ACCA, CIMA or equivalent).
- Familiarity with subcontractor payment cycles, retentions and applications for payment.
- Experience supporting a growing business through scale-up or process change.
What we offer
- A newly created, genuinely central role with the autonomy to build the finance function your way.
- Direct working relationship with the Managing Director and real influence on decision-making.
- The opportunity to shape systems and processes in a growing, well-accredited business at an exciting stage.
- Competitive salary reflecting the seniority and breadth of the role.
Pay: £28,000.00-£40,000.00 per year
Benefits:
Work Location: In person
