Job Overview
Bookkeeper & Client Accounts Administrator
Property Foundations Group
**Location:** 59 Castle Street, Reading RG1 — office-based (this is not a remote or hybrid role)
**Hours:** 20 hours per week — 4 hours per day, Monday to Friday
**Rate:** £15.00 per hour (£15,600 per annum equivalent)
**Contract:** Permanent, part-time. Genuine scope to move to full-time for the right person.
**Reports to:** Managing Director
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## About us
Property Foundations Group is an established lettings and estate agency operating across Reading, Henley and Southampton. We manage over 300 units on behalf of private landlords and investors, with a team of nine based at our Castle Street office in central Reading.
The group also includes a property mentoring and education business and a substantial private investment portfolio spanning buy-to-lets, HMOs, commercial offices, retail, storage and serviced accommodation.
We handle landlord and tenant money every single day. That money has to be right, every day, without exception. This role exists to make sure it is — and then to bring the same rigour to the wider group.
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## The role
You will own the day-to-day finance function of the lettings business: client account reconciliation, daily landlord payouts, purchase ledger, bookkeeping, and the preparation of VAT and payroll information for our external accountants. You will also produce the reporting that the Managing Director and Director use to run the business.
Beyond the agency, there is real scope to take on bookkeeping across the wider group — the education business, the investment portfolio and the associated entities. For the right person this role grows substantially.
This is a hands-on, detail-critical role. If a rent receipt is misallocated or a landlord payment goes to the wrong account, it lands on a real landlord and a real tenant. We need someone who finds that responsibility motivating rather than daunting.
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## Core duties — the lettings agency
**Client money and landlord payments**
- Check and reconcile receipts into our Client Money Protection (CMP) protected client account on a daily basis
- Allocate rent receipts accurately against the correct tenancy and property in Street (our lettings CRM)
- Prepare and process daily landlord rent payouts, ensuring landlords are paid on time, every day
- Identify and resolve unallocated, short or duplicate receipts promptly
- Maintain a clean, fully reconciled client account at all times, in line with CMP scheme and redress scheme requirements
**Bookkeeping and ledgers**
- Process and post purchase invoices and contractor payments
- Check and reconcile the landlord and management fee invoices generated automatically by Street — spotting and correcting errors rather than raising invoices from scratch
- Maintain the purchase and sales ledgers, bank reconciliations and nominal ledger
- Manage credit control on outstanding fees
**Preparation for our external accountants**
- Prepare quarterly VAT returns to submission-ready standard and pass to our external accounts team, who file them
- Prepare and supply monthly payroll information
- Keep the books clean and query-free so year-end is straightforward
**Reporting**
- Produce a **weekly** finance report for the Managing Director — cash position, client account status, arrears, exceptions and anything requiring a decision
- Produce a **monthly** management report pack for the Director — P&L, balance sheet, aged debtors and creditors, fee income, commentary on variances
- Present those reports in person and be able to explain and defend the numbers
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## Wider group duties — as the role develops (This is optional but if you are ambitious, the role can develop)
**Multi-entity bookkeeping**
- Maintain the books for the group's other trading entities and the property investment portfolio
- Record and document intercompany movements and recharges as they occur, so that positions are accurate in real time rather than reconstructed at year-end
- Maintain accurate director's loan account records across entities
**Property portfolio finance**
- Maintain property-level records across the portfolio — rent, mortgage and finance costs, service charges, ground rents, insurance, void periods — so that each asset's performance is visible
- Track business rates, void council tax and utilities, and insurance renewals, pursuing refunds, exemptions and overcharges where they arise
**Finance and investor obligations**
- Maintain a register of finance facilities — bridging, private investor loans, first and second charges, JV arrangements
- Track interest accruals, payment dates, facility expiry and redemption dates, and flag them well in advance
- Ensure private investor and JV partner payments are scheduled and made on time
**Education and events business**
- Reconcile subscription and payment-plan income from Kajabi and Stripe
- Track mentoring instalment plans and chase arrears
- Handle deferred income on multi-month programmes
- Reconcile event income and costs for our monthly investor networking event
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## What you'll need
**Essential**
- Minimum 5 years' bookkeeping experience in a commercial environment
- Demonstrable experience preparing VAT returns to submission-ready standard
- Experience preparing payroll data for processing
- Strong bank and control account reconciliation skills
- Confident working across more than one set of books / multiple entities
- Exceptional attention to detail — this is the single most important quality for this role. You are the sort of person who cannot leave a difference of £1.40 unexplained.
- Confident producing written management reports and presenting them to a director
- Strong Excel, Xero, and ideally familiar with STREET (our lettings CRM)
- Right to work in the UK
**Highly preferred**
- Previous experience in a lettings, estate agency or property business
- Understanding of client money handling and the rules around client accounts (CMP, Propertymark / RICS / redress scheme requirements)
- Experience with Xero and Dext
- Experience with property finance — mortgages, bridging, second charges, investor loans
- AAT qualified (Level 3 or above) or qualified by experience
**How you work**
- Methodical, organised and consistent — the daily rhythm of this role does not vary
- Comfortable working autonomously with minimal supervision
- Discreet and trustworthy with confidential financial and personal data
- Direct communicator who raises problems early rather than hoping they resolve themselves
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## What success looks like
**By month 1:** The client account is reconciled daily without prompting. Landlord payouts run on time with zero misallocations. The weekly MD report is delivered every week without being chased.
**By month 3:** VAT packs go to the accountants ahead of deadline without reminders. The monthly Director pack is trusted enough to make decisions from. You are flagging issues before we spot them.
**By month 6:** You have taken on additional group entities, the finance obligation register is live and accurate, and the role is expanding on your terms.
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## What we offer
- £15.00 per hour initially
- Predictable part-time hours that fit around school runs or other commitments
- 28 days holiday pro rata (inclusive of bank holidays)
- Workplace pension
- Central Reading office
- Genuine variety — this is not the same four hours every day for the next five years
- A clear route to full-time and additional responsibility if you want it — and no pressure if you don't
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## To apply
Send your CV and a short covering note
1. The most complex reconciliation problem you've untangled and how you found it
2. Your experience with client money or property finance, if any
3. Your availability and preferred daily hours
We review applications as they arrive and interview on a rolling basis.
*Property Foundations Group is an equal opportunities employer. Appointment is subject to satisfactory references. Given the nature of this role, the successful candidate will be required to complete financial background checks.*
Pay: £15.00 per hour
Benefits:
- Casual dress
- Company pension
- Flexitime
- Free parking
Work Location: In person
