Finance Manager

MSQ Asia & Elmwood Singapore is our hybrid hub for Southeast Asia, where brand distinctiveness meets joined-up activation for greater impact.

MSQ is the world's most AI-enabled challenger group, with AI-powered human creativity at the heart of everything we do. We fuse the right mix of capabilities to unlock momentum for brands, connecting creative performance to business outcomes in real time. We have global specialists across creative, social and influencer, media and commerce, strategy & insights, CX & creative, tech, sports & entertainment, and AI products & data. This is MSQ's Joined-Up Thinking: the scale of a holding company with the agility of an independent.

Elmwood is our global brand and design capability, with almost 50 years of experience as one of the world's most effective brand and design agencies. With studios in London, New York, Singapore and Shanghai, we create brands that are more meaningful, more memorable and built to move faster than the market. Our work covers brand strategy and identity, packaging and experience design for clients across global personal care, food and beverage, financial services and technology. Elmwood is proud of its long track record at the DBA Design Effectiveness Awards, the longest-running awards for design that delivers measurable business results.

The Account Manager is responsible for managing day-to-day client relationships and projects, translating client needs into clear briefs, and ensuring work is delivered on time, on budget and to an excellent standard, directly impacting client satisfaction, retention and account growth.

People & Team accountabilities:

• Support, coach and manage the Finance Executive, ensuring high standards of accuracy and timelines across AR, AP and transactional tasks.
• Partner with People & Culture, IT, Client Services and Creative teams to ensure financial processes are understood and followed.
• Contribute to a collaborative, solutions‑focused finance culture that supports the broader studio.

Work/offer accountabilities:

• Lead and own the monthly close process and deliver accurate management accounts which includes full P&L, balance sheet and working capital reports for the Singapore studio.
• Prepare quarterly and annual management reporting packs, intercompany reconciliations and adhoc report (where required)
• Ensure revenue is recognised correctly and consistently, including retainers, project fees, milestone billing and pass-through costs. Maintain a clean, well-documented chart of accounts, month-end checklist and audit trail.
• Ensure timely and accurate reporting to MSQ Group in accordance with local and/or international GAAP.
• Ensure sufficient working capital through debtor management, timely billing and where appropriate, advance payments.
• Track financial performance against budget and forecast, identifying variances, opportunities and risks and proposing corrective actions.

Client accountabilities:

• Close collaboration with Finance Director and client service teams to manage profitability and revenue streams across key clients. 
• Ensure invoicing process is complying with client contractual obligations, support client service teams with billing process, including use of client portals and follow-up on collections 
• Monitor client level KPIs and profitability, helping to ensure optimal utilisation of resources and inter-office resource sharing in line with internal processes and policy. 

Business accountabilities

• Provide proactive financial insights and analysis to keep management well‑informed of financial trends and risks, minimising surprises.
• Lead efforts to optimise cost spending and maximise revenue, identifying key business drivers and developing financial models to support growth.
• Lead the annual statutory audit end to end: prepare schedules, coordinate with auditors, respond to queries and close findings.
• Ensure correct GST treatment of local and overseas sales, imported services (reverse charge) and cross-border freelancer or vendor payments.
• Prepare tax computations and file Estimated Chargeable Income (ECI) and annual Corporate Income Tax returns on time.
• Oversee and ensure timely annual ACRA filings, including annual returns and financial statements, working with the company secretary.
• Prepare statutory financial statements, or review those prepared by external accountants, in line with Singapore IFRS and GAAP.
• Support additional finance initiatives as the business expands, including process improvements and new project evaluations.

The knowledge you'll need:

• 5–7 years in senior finance roles within creative services, marketing or other people‑focused industries.
• Bachelor’s degree in accounting, finance or a related field, plus a recognised accounting qualification (ACCA, CIMA, CPA).
• Hands on experience preparing full sets of management accounts, balance sheets and cashflow forecasts. Strong knowledge of Singapore GST, corporate income tax and statutory filing requirements.
• Strong analytical skills and the ability to translate complex financial data into practical insights and recommendations.
• Experience in managing statutory audits and working with external auditors.
• Demonstrated leadership and influencing skills, comfortable collaborating across senior leadership teams.
• Hands on experience with finance and reporting systems (for example ERP/GL, billing and MI tools), and advanced Excel / spreadsheet skills for modelling and analysis.
• Experience working with AI‑powered presentation platforms such as Pitch and project management tools such as ClickUp, using their reporting and resource data alongside core finance tools and Excel to inform commercial and capacity decisions.

The skills that'll set you apart

• Accuracy and rigour with a strong attention to detail and commitment to deadlines. Strong analytical capability, comfortable building and interpreting models, forecasts and scenario analyses to support commercial decisions.
• The ability to hold both detail and big picture in mind, switching between transactional accuracy and a studio‑level view of performance.
• Clear, confident communication skills that help non‑finance colleagues understand drivers, risks and trade‑offs without jargon.
• A continuous improvement mindset, always looking for practical ways to streamline reporting, forecasting and control processes.
• Possess high level of integrity, calmness under pressure, able to manage multiple deadlines and stakeholders without compromising quality or integrity of the numbers.

The work

A central finance role where you own the day‑to‑day numbers for a busy creative studio — from P&L, forecasts and cashflow to client profitability — and see the direct impact of your insight on how the studio plans, prices and invests.

The people & culture

Close partnership with the Finance Director / MD, Client Services and Creative leads in a culture that is collaborative, informal and focused on doing great work.

Growth & development

• Hands‑on exposure to budgeting, forecasting, revenue pipelines and working capital, plus support to sharpen both your technical and commercial skills — whether that is deepening your modelling and analysis or building your influence with senior stakeholders.
• Access to the broader MSQ and elmwood global network for collaboration, learning and cross-studio career opportunities.