Martin Bacon

Finance professional with extensive experience across accountancy, accounts payable, management accounting, financial accounting, audit, banking and treasury. Experienced in blue-chip and large corporate environments, with a strong track record in ledger control, reconciliations, payment processes, process improvement, stakeholder management and team leadership. ACCA part-qualified, with strong Excel capability and broad finance-systems experience.

Property & Accounts Payable Specialist - PureGym

(2023-04)

• Manage property and accounts payable ledger reconciliations covering rent, service charges, insurance, utilities and supplier invoices.
• Coordinate invoice approval and payment-run production and review, ensuring accurate processing and compliance with agreed payment terms.
• Resolve purchase-order queries, reconcile supplier completion statements and investigate ledger differences through to resolution.
• Manage property and accounts payable mailbox queries, communicating effectively with internal stakeholders, suppliers and senior management.
• Review aged creditors, ledger reporting and supplier-ledger housekeeping, identifying opportunities to improve controls and efficiency.
• Support workflow reporting, workload planning and prioritisation, while contributing to people development and line management.
• Review and streamline existing processes and assisted with implementation of new accounts payable software.
• Systems and tools include Sage 200 and Excel, including VLOOKUPs, PivotTables and Power Query.

Senior Purchase Ledger Analyst - Skipton Building Society

(2022-12 - 2023-04)

• Coordinated day-to-day activities of purchase ledger analysts, prioritising workloads and providing guidance and support to maintain efficient output.
• Deputised for the Control Reconciliation & Purchase Ledger Leader, including authorisation responsibilities within finance and purchase-ledger processes.
• Reviewed purchase-ledger processes and worked with senior management and procurement to recommend and deliver improvements within Workday.
• Ensured supplier invoices and employee expenses were processed accurately and within contractual payment terms; reconciled supplier statements and resolved discrepancies.
• Acted as an escalation point for supplier and internal queries and built strong stakeholder relationships.
• Reviewed procedure documentation, business-support guidance and process controls, identifying gaps and keeping documentation current.
• Supported purchase-ledger systems and project initiatives.

Property Specialist - PureGym

(2021-09 - 2022-12)

• Managed property-ledger reconciliations covering rent, service charges, insurance and utilities.
• Produced and reviewed payment runs and reconciled supplier completion statements through to resolution.
• Managed property queries, aged creditors, ledger reporting and supplier-ledger housekeeping.
• Supported process improvements, accounts payable software implementation, workload planning and people development.
• Used Sage 200 and advanced Excel functionality, including VLOOKUPs, PivotTables and Power Query.

Assistant Management Accountant - First Bus West Yorkshire

(2020-02 - 2021-08)

• Produced weekly trading updates, performance-driver, fuel and mileage reports for business partners.
• Ran weekly revenue, overhead, accrual and prepayment models and reported to the Financial Controller.
• Completed weekly and monthly journals and produced monthly operational reports with commentary for business partners.
• Identified financial-data weaknesses and risks, improving reporting accuracy and data quality.
• Developed improved procedures, trained colleagues and shared best practice across departments.
• Systems included Excel, Word, Teams, Zoom, SAP R4, Hyperion, Sun, Oracle, Sage, PeopleSoft and Fiscal.

Accounts Payable Assistant - Walker Morris LLP

(2019-09 - 2020-01)

• Completed project work on aged invoices and Land Registry direct debits, bringing outstanding items up to date.
• Investigated and improved procedures, providing feedback to the team leader and office manager.
• Processed BACS and cheque runs, employee expense payments and payment-run validation.
• Trained new staff on procedures and best practice while working to strict weekly deadlines.

Procure to Pay Team Leader - Bupa UK

(2018-01 - 2019-08)

• Led project work on aged invoices, purchase orders, held payments and exception reporting during the transfer of Procure to Pay responsibilities to India.
• Managed timely and accurate invoice processing and supplier accounts, resolving issues promptly to maintain strong supplier relationships.
• Designed an email-inbox process to capture invoices and route them to the correct authorisers, reducing manual processing by approximately four hours per day.
• Validated vendor and bank details to reduce payment risk and incorrect payments.
• Produced daily reports to identify and reduce errors, including duplicate-payment checks.
• Completed statement reconciliations and urgent CHAPS payments while maintaining strict payment deadlines.

Procure to Pay Compliance Analyst - Bupa UK

(2014-07 - 2017-12)

• Introduced a new Dental Acquisitions account structure and created a robust purchase-order system.
• Validated and set up new vendors, managed vendor amendments and maintained auditable records.
• Provided management-account, purchase-order and vendor support, including new mailbox processes for dental and property invoices.
• Reconciled supplier accounts and property control accounts, ensuring invoices were paid to the correct terms.
• Documented processes and provided high-quality supplier service, receiving recognition from senior management.
• Recognised for mentoring colleagues, advising on best practice and providing support.

Procure to Pay Team Leader - Bupa UK

(2003-03 - 2014-06)

• Led a team of 12 direct reports and managed performance, development, appraisals and objectives.
• Supported integration and testing of a new PeopleSoft accounts payable system.
• Managed the weekly pay cycle, approximately £10m per week and 30,000 invoices per month, ensuring appropriate controls and authorisation.
• Managed debt and incorrect payments and introduced pre-pay-cycle reporting to reduce errors.
• Responsible for payments relating to 307 nursing homes, including rent, service charge, insurance and dilapidation payments.
• Maintained financial-data integrity, supplier relationships, service-level agreements and KPI reporting.
• Worked with the Procure to Pay consultant on process development and implementation.
• Introduced daily team '10 at 10' meetings and structured one-to-ones to support performance and objectives.
• Acted as an Investment in People assessor; the company achieved Gold Standard recognition for the work completed.

Senior Team Member – Banking & Treasury - Bupa UK

(2000-11 - 2003-02)

• Completed project work on sales-ledger control accounts and recovered £749k through bank reconciliations following integration of a new accounting system.
• Completed audits on movements in monies received and supported process improvements.

Treasury Assistant Accountant - HBOS plc

(1993-04 - 2000-10)

• Worked on stockbroking control-account reconciliation, daily stock-trading analysis and account interpretation.
• Analysed financial information and reported findings to the Financial Controller.

Part Qualified - ACCA

HNC - Accountancy and Finance