Forvis Mazars
Grow. Belong. Impact.
Forvis Mazars in Ireland is a leading professional services firm with ambitious growth plans and over 1000 staff based in Cork, Dublin, Galway and Limerick. We are an integral part of Forvis Mazars Group, an internationally integrated partnership with over 40,000 professionals operating in over 100 countries and territories around the world. Our strategic framework drives positive and meaningful impact for our people, the environment and local communities while delivering unmatched client experience to our clients.
Why join us
Our people are ambassadors and leaders and have a bold entrepreneurial spirit to shape the future of our industry and the communities within which we serve. We empower and develop our teams to become professionals of the highest calibre in technical and client excellence. Our people first approach offers our teams a caring work environment which promotes belonging and inclusivity of all cultures and perspectives.
The Position
The Lock-Up Manager will have end-to-end ownership of the firm’s lock-up performance, including WIP, billing, debtors, and overall cash conversion. This is a strategic role, responsible for driving behavioural change across partners, improving billing discipline, accelerating cash collection, and embedding robust lock-up governance across a €100m professional services firm. The role combines hands-on operational control, partner-facing influence, data-driven insight, and continuous process improvement, with clear accountability for delivering tangible reductions in lock-up days and improvements in cash flow.
Key Responsibilities
Lock-Up Strategy & Governance
- Own and lead the firm-wide lock-up strategy, covering WIP, billing, debtors, and unbilled time
- Define and embed clear lock-up policies, targets, and accountabilities at partner, service line,
- and firm level
Ensure consistency of lock-up management across all divisions (Audit, Tax, Consulting, Outsourcing and Financial Advisory)
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WIP & Billing Management
- Lead the active management of WIP ageing, recovery rates, write-ups/write-downs, and billing
- timeliness
- Drive on-time billing discipline, ensuring billing occurs promptly once milestones are achieved
- Partner with Engagement Partners to resolve aged or stalled WIP, including scope issues, pricing
- disputes or client delays
Ensure robust forecasting of WIP conversion to billing and cash
-
Debtors & Cash Collection
- Oversee debtor performance, including aged debt analysis, recovery rates and risk exposure
- Work closely with Credit Control to unblock cash collection issues, escalating appropriately to
- Partners and Heads of Service Lines
- Support the development of partner-led debtor action plans for significant or high-risk balances
Ensure clear accountability for debts, with transparent reporting and escalation protocols
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Partner & Senior Stakeholder Engagement
· Act as a trusted advisor to Partners on lock-up, pricing discipline, billing behaviour, and client
· payment challenges
· Challenge constructively but firmly where lock-up performance is not meeting expectations
· Present concise, data-driven lock-up dashboards and commentary to the CFO and Partner group
· Lead lock-up discussions in partner meetings, service line reviews, and performance forums
Reporting, MI & Analytics
- Produce high-quality monthly lock-up reporting, including:
- Lock-up days (total, WIP, debtors)
- Aged WIP and debt
- Recovery rates and write-offs
- Partner and service line performance
- Provide trend analysis and forward-looking insight, not just retrospective reporting
Leverage systems and data to improve accuracy, transparency and timeliness of lock-up MI
-
Process Improvement & Systems
- Identify and implement process improvements across time recording, billing and cash collection
- Work closely with Finance and IT to optimise practice management systems, workflows and
- controls
- Support change initiatives linked to growth, integration of new service lines or system upgrades
Ensure controls are scalable and appropriate for a €100m firm
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Leadership & Team Development
- Lead, mentor and develop lock-up / WIP / billing / credit control specialists within the finance function
- Embed a high-performance, commercially focused culture within the team
Act as a role model for professionalism, accountability and continuous improvement
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The role will be measured against clear, outcome-based KPIs, including but not limited to:
- Reduction in total lock-up days
- Improvement in WIP ageing profile
- Improvement in billing timeliness
- Improvement in debtor ageing and recovery rates
- Reduction in write-offs and write-downs
Quality and timeliness of partner-level MI
-
Ideal Candidate
- 10+ years’ experience in finance within a professional services accountancy or legal firm
- Demonstrable senior-level experience managing lock-up, WIP, billing, and debtors at scale
- Proven track record of driving behavioural change with Partners in a partnership environment
- Strong commercial acumen and deep understanding of professional services economics
- Experience working in large, complex organisations (c. €50m+ turnover)
- Exceptional stakeholder management and influencing skills, particularly at Partner level
- Strong analytical mindset with the ability to turn data into clear commercial insight
- Ability to challenge constructively while maintaining strong relationships
- Proactive and solution-focused, with a strong sense of ownership
- Highly organised, resilient, and comfortable operating in a fast-paced professional environment
Strong leadership capability with experience managing and developing teams
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Desirable
- Exposure to multi-service line or multi-office organisations
- Experience supporting system implementations or significant process change
Experience supporting audit queries
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Don’t wait. Act.
Please Note: Forvis Mazars is an Equal Opportunities Employer. In applying for a role with us, you consent that Forvis Mazars will process your personal data for the purpose of handling your application. Forvis Mazars endeavours to recruit and fill vacancies directly. However, at times when we do need to engage with agencies, Forvis Mazars operates within a preferred supplier list (PSL) and only work and partner with recruitment suppliers where our agreed contractual terms are in place. If unsolicited CVs are received from agencies, we will not be liable for payment of introduction fees. Thank you for your co-operation.
