EY Business Advisor 

South Africa, Western Cape, Cape Town 

871466618

Essential Functions of the Job:

As a valued member of the Mercury Business Advisor team you will have the opportunity to ensure high standards of financial management and expertise across all client engagements within your portfolio whilst serving as a Trusted Business Advisor. You would be required to provide first line on demand support including analysing, diagnosing and resolving stakeholder queries to develop a strong culture of financial awareness, and accountability.

It is a challenging role that helps us to deliver profitable growth and offers career development opportunities within EY. Furthermore, you will act as an ambassador, embodying the EY culture and reputation.

Key Responsibilities

• You will outreach to client teams based on analysis of generated and customised reports and take responsibility for ensuring all queries are resolved to suitable completion
• Provide guidance on local policy and leading practices
• Facilitate training for client serving team on Mercury and effective financial management practices
• Contribute to continuous improvement by sharing knowledge and providing support to other team members across borders, service lines, and industries and constantly leverage leading practices
• Review open items in ServiceNow (ticketing system), prioritise follow up activities and schedule engagement team meetings for the week.
• Spend scheduled time 'on the grid', taking calls / chats from client servers - which includes activities such as:
  • Identifying exceptions on engagement budgets
  • Ensuring engagement teams are properly prepared for client negotiations from a financial perspective
  • Advising on how to select the correct client entity for opportunities
  • Explaining downstream impacts of different user choices required by Mercury
  • Provide instruction and guidance on estimate to complete (ETC) processes and corresponding financial impacts

Analytical/Decision Making Responsibilities:

• Make relevant decisions to ensure client servers receive a timely and accurate response such that questions / issues are resolved in a one-stop basis where possible - and where that is not possible, escalated to the appropriate functional expert quickly and effectively.
• Manage new user lack of knowledge / frustration and direct the interaction to the best outcome for the end-user, leveraging strong soft skill abilities and global mindset to adapt personal style where needed
• When working on client server portfolios, leverage system and finance expertise to prepare the discussion: making judgments regarding the topics to address and their prioritisation - understanding when to reach out to other functional experts in order to help prepare for the interaction.

Knowledge and Skills Requirements:

• Professional approach with a strong understanding of the client server perspective and able to view issues empathetically
• Ability to solve problems and provide a credible solution
• Confident to challenge where appropriate
• Strong analytical and numeracy skills, with a high degree of accuracy and attention to detail
• Vigorous time management skills and able to balance multiple priorities by considering risk, importance and level of urgency
• Eagerness to learn quickly, be proactive and share knowledge
• Experience in translating technical system "jargon" into business relevant terms so that concepts are understandable to client serving teams
• Well-developed listening skills to provide focused advice, combined with the capability to apply judgment and seek guidance when escalation to a functional expert is appropriate
• Excellent written, oral and virtual communication skills with the confidence to assist with delivering presentations, training material and knowledge sharing
• Assurance to deliver challenging messages and drive communication to a mutual understanding in a professional manner
• Demonstrate the ability to become an effective change advocate

Other Requirements:

• You will be an experienced Trusted Business Advisor with a passion for providing exceptional client service to your stakeholders whilst maintaining high levels of customer service for internal stakeholders.
• Be innovative, confident and creative thinker with ability to make quick decisions
• Have the ability to think on your feet, use initiative and judgement to make informed decisions

Education:

• Either have a finance or related degree, be studying for an accountancy qualification or experience working for a professional service or consultancy environment

Experience:

• Ability to work in a fast paced environment with a strong work ethic
• Ability to interact well with people at all levels within the firm and build strong relationships
• Strong IT skills – Word, Excel, Outlook, Powerpoint and SharePoint
• Desire to thrive in and adapt to a fast changing and high activity environme