Finance Manager

Harper May is working with a founder-led entertainment business that produces live theatre, festivals, and touring productions across the UK and Europe. The business has grown steadily over the past five years and is now scaling its infrastructure to support increased touring activity and new venue partnerships. Finance has remained lean, and the business now needs a Finance Manager to build reliable reporting, tighten controls, and give the leadership team the commercial clarity they need as the operation expands.

The Role Reporting to the Finance Director, you will own the core finance function: month-end close, management reporting, and financial controls across all productions and touring operations. This is a hands-on role with real exposure to how the business works - you will work directly with production teams, venues, and commercial partners to translate their activity into clean, usable numbers.

Execute month-end and year-end close cycles, producing accurate financial statements and management accounts

Build and maintain cash flow forecasting, particularly important given the lumpy, project-led nature of touring and event work

Develop and own the annual budget, working with production and commercial leads to understand costs and revenue drivers

Review production performance and tour profitability, feeding insight back to operational teams in real time

Strengthen balance sheet control, bank reconciliations, and inter-company accounting across multiple venues and production entities

Support external audit, tax compliance, and statutory reporting requirements

Identify and implement process improvements in finance systems and reporting as the business grows

What we are looking for

ACA, ACCA, or CIMA qualified, or equivalent experience in a similar financial control role

Proven experience working in theatre, live events, entertainment, or other project-driven environments

Strong technical accounting skills with confidence in month-end and year-end procedures

Pragmatic approach to problem-solving - comfortable making sense of complex, fast-moving activity

Clear communicator who can explain finance to non-finance stakeholders without jargon

Advanced Excel skills and familiarity with financial systems or accounting software