Accountant/Bookeeper

Bookkeeper / Accountant
UK Accountancy Firm — Full-Time, UK Hours — Xero & TaxCalc
Employer: Astons Accountants & Business Advisors Limited (UK)
Location: Remote (Philippines-based)
Hours: Full-time, 37.5 hours/week — UK business hours (see below)
Start date: As soon as possible

About us
We are a growing, well-established chartered certified accountancy practice based in St Albans, England, serving over 1,000 clients — mainly owner-managed businesses, property investors, and healthcare practices. We're a friendly, close-knit team that invests heavily in modern systems, automation, and AI tooling, and we're now expanding our remote finance function.
This is a long-term career role for the right person — not a short-term freelance project. You'll become a core part of the team, work directly with our UK managers, and grow with the firm.
The role
You'll be a hands-on Bookkeeper / Management Accountant with real ownership. The role has two sides: first, you'll look after the firm's own numbers — our bookkeeping, payroll journals, and monthly management accounts — with protected, ring-fenced time each month so our own books are always the cleanest we look after. Second, you'll run the bookkeeping, payroll, and year-end work for a portfolio of our clients. Everything is on Xero, and you'll own the payroll function end to end. This is not a data-entry role: we want someone who takes responsibility for producing accurate, reconciled, review-ready numbers every month, spots problems before we do, and is proud of a clean ledger.
You'll work directly with our UK client managers and report into the firm's leadership. Full training on our specific processes and house style will be provided, including recorded walkthroughs and written procedures.
Day-to-day responsibilities
• The firm's own accounts — dedicated time each month to keep our own bookkeeping, payroll journals, control accounts, and management accounts fully up to date and reconciled — this is a protected part of the role, not something squeezed in around client work
• Bookkeeping on Xero — day-to-day bookkeeping for the firm and a portfolio of clients, including Dext/AutoEntry document processing, supplier and customer ledgers, and clean coding to the correct accounts
• Bank reconciliation — keeping all bank, credit card, and payment provider accounts (e.g. GoCardless, Stripe) fully reconciled, and investigating unmatched items rather than parking them in suspense
• VAT — preparing and submitting quarterly VAT returns under Making Tax Digital, including partial exemption and flat rate scheme awareness where relevant
• Payroll ownership — running and taking full ownership of payroll (we use BrightPay): processing, RTI submissions, pension auto-enrolment, statutory payments, payslips, and dealing with payroll queries
• Payroll journals — posting monthly payroll journals to Xero and reconciling the wages, PAYE/NIC, and pension control accounts every month, without fail
• Control account reconciliations — monthly reconciliation of all control accounts (PAYE, pensions, VAT, wages, directors' loan accounts, intercompany) with documented workings
• Monthly management accounts & KPIs — producing accurate, insightful monthly management accounts packs with commentary and key performance indicators for the firm and for clients
• Budgets & forecasts — building annual budgets and rolling cash flow forecasts, and tracking actuals against them
• Credit control support — keeping debtor ledgers clean and flagging overdue balances to the team
• Year-end financial statements — preparing statutory year-end accounts (FRS 105 and FRS 102 Section 1A) for limited companies, ready for manager and partner review — we use TaxCalc for accounts production and full training on our house style will be given
• Working paper files — preparing complete, fully cross-referenced year-end working paper files to our house standard — every balance sheet figure reconciled and supported, with lead schedules, so files sail through review
• CIS (where relevant) — handling Construction Industry Scheme deductions, verification, and monthly returns for construction clients
Working hours
This role works UK business hours: Monday–Friday, 9:00am–5:30pm UK time.
• That's approximately 4:00pm–12:30am Philippine time (British Summer Time, roughly April–October)
• And approximately 5:00pm–1:30am Philippine time (UK winter time, roughly November–March)
Please only apply if you are genuinely comfortable working this shift long-term. Real-time availability during UK hours is essential — you'll be speaking with our team and occasionally with clients during the UK working day.
Must-have requirements
• 3+ years' bookkeeping experience for UK businesses — you must understand UK VAT, PAYE, and HMRC processes; this is essential and applications without genuine UK experience will not be considered
• Strong Xero skills — confident and fast across the whole platform; Xero certification is a big plus
• UK payroll experience — you've run UK payrolls end to end, including RTI submissions and pension auto-enrolment
• Double-entry fluency — journals, accruals, prepayments, and control account reconciliations should be second nature; you know why a control account doesn't balance and how to fix it
• Management accounts experience — you've produced monthly packs with commentary, not just printed reports
• Year-end accounts experience — you've prepared year-end financial statements and working paper files for UK limited companies (or supported an accountant who did, and you're ready to step up with training)
• Excellent written English — you'll write commentary, emails to our team, and occasionally to clients
• Self-managing and deadline-driven — VAT and payroll deadlines are immovable; you plan your month around them and flag risks early
• Reliable home office setup — fast, stable internet (minimum 25 Mbps with backup power/connection), a modern computer, and a quiet, private working environment
• Comfortable with confidential data — you'll handle sensitive financial information; a signed confidentiality agreement and an NBI clearance will be required
Nice to have (but not essential)
• TaxCalc experience — our accounts production and tax software; experience here would be very handy
• BrightPay and BrightManager experience
• Dext / AutoEntry / Hubdoc experience
• CIS experience for construction industry clients
• A recognised qualification — AAT, ACCA (part-qualified welcome), or Philippine CPA
• Experience working within a UK accountancy practice (rather than a single business) — you're comfortable juggling multiple entities and switching context
• Experience using AI tools (e.g. Claude, ChatGPT) to work more efficiently — we're a very tech-forward firm and actively encourage this
What we offer
• Competitive monthly salary, paid reliably and on time
• Paid UK bank holidays plus paid annual leave
• Long-term, stable, full-time role — not project-based
• Real ownership and responsibility — your work goes to partners and clients, and you'll see the impact
• Full training on our house style, documented procedures, and ongoing support from our UK team
• Modern systems and AI-enabled workflows — we automate the repetitive work so you can focus on the interesting parts
• Genuine opportunity to grow as the firm grows — we've doubled in size through acquisitions and are still expanding
How to apply
To show us you've read this post carefully, please start your application with the word “PARKWAY” in the first line. Applications that don't include it will not be considered.
Then please include:
1. A short cover note describing your UK bookkeeping and payroll experience — tell us about the UK businesses or firms you've supported, the size of payrolls you've run, and confirm you're comfortable with the UK-hours shift
2. Your CV/résumé
3. Your Xero certification (if you have one)
4. Your internet speed test result (screenshot from speedtest.net)
5. Your expected monthly salary
Shortlisted candidates will be invited to a video interview and will complete a short practical Xero test (bank reconciliation, a payroll journal, and a VAT scenario).
We look forward to hearing from you!