Accounts Technician in Belfast

About Us

3173 is a privately owned UK firm of pensions experts with clients throughout the UK, serviced from offices in London, Belfast, Glasgow, Manchester, Birmingham, Bristol and Leeds. The 3173 Group of companies includes Dalriada Trustees Limited (Dalriada), one of the UK’s largest professional pension scheme trustee companies. Spence & Partners provides full pension actuarial, consulting, investment consulting and administration services that provide simply smarter solutions for trustees, employers and members.

The 3173 Culture

Our primary aim is to provide interesting, worthwhile and healthy careers for all our people; we believe that this emphasis sets us apart from our competitors. We are defined by our ethos and by our goal: Our ethos is an individual and collective commitment achieved through carefully balancing responsibility with freedom and flexibility, all of which is underpinned by a willingness to work interdependently. When we get this balance right, it is how we do our best work. We look after our staff first and foremost, but for a commercial purpose, which is to deliver great service profitably. By focusing on our goal, we provide the best outcomes for pension scheme members, trustees, and employers.

About You

We are looking for a diligent accounting professional who can provide a reliable, high standard of pension fund accounting services to our portfolio of clients. You will have solid accountancy experience with the capability to be trained in completing compliant statutory annual financial statements for occupational pension schemes, and the treasury/financial management of trustee bank accounts for occupational pension schemes. We are looking for someone who is keen to embrace the opportunity of developing their accounting experience as part of an award winning company. You will be able to evidence previous experience of working successfully within an accounting team to achieve clear but also challenging goals. You will have the ability to communicate and positively influence and negotiate at all levels, both internally and externally. You will be commercially astute and able to add value to our excellent team.

Responsibilities & Criteria

• Upon completion of training you will work within our Pensions Fund Accounting team.
• Support and maintain the ledgers on our full portfolio of Pension Scheme accounts.
• Support the preparation of annual statutory Pension Scheme accounts.
• Assist in the collection of information for Scheme Audits.
• Oversee contributions monitoring to ensure contributions from employers are properly paid, recorded and accounted for.
• Assist in the control around individual scheme bank balances.
• Provide monthly balances or quarterly fee and VAT reconciliations for specific clients in addition to providing actuaries with trial balances/ledgers amongst other relevant information for FRS102/IAS19 accounting standards reports as required.
• Participate in AAF and ISO audits to effectively demonstrate compliance with our processes and commitment to quality assurance standards.
• Attend and effectively contribute to all relevant internal and external meetings, ensuring actions, projects deadlines are adhered to and completed.
• Ensure compliance with business processes and adherence to relevant legislation, regulatory requirements and HMRC authorised practice with regards to potential movements/payments.

Key Competencies & Knowledge For The Role

• Experience in an Accounting or similar role.
• Good understanding of the industry that we operate in.
• Excellent knowledge of computerised systems e.g. Microsoft Office/Windows applications, especially in Excel.
• Excellent written and communication skills which have been tested internally and externally. The ability to tailor approach according to the audience and have real marketing impact.
• Book-keeping and general ledger experience with a basic financial awareness of accounting procedures including budgeting and cashflow management.
• An understanding of how to deliver to internal controls and business processes.
• Evidence of qualifications with a strong numeracy content.

Desirable Key Competencies & Knowledge

• Awareness of the Pension Protection Fund (PPF).
• An awareness of the SORP, Financial Reports of Pension Schemes and pensions legislation.
• Awareness of The Pensions Regulator, and control objectives of AAF 02/07 and AAF 01/06.

Circumstances

• Working hours: Monday to Friday, 37.5 hours per week with additional hours as and when required.
• Location: Belfast.
• All roles are subject to a six-month probationary period and all prospective employees are required to complete an Access NI check.
• As part of the pre-hire process the successful candidate will be subject to reference checking security vetting.
• 3173 is an Equal Opportunity Employer.

Applying with a disability or long-term health condition? As part of our belief that we benefit from the differences among us we are committed to increasing the representation of disabled colleagues and want to remove any barriers or challenges that get in the way of candidates with a disability or long-term health condition from applying to work with us. As part of this commitment we guarantee to automatically interview anyone with a disability who meets the minimum criteria. If there is support or an adjustment that we can provide to enable you to be at your best during the recruitment and selection process, we encourage you to advise us in good time so that we may make suitable arrangements. We understand that being open with us may feel uncomfortable so please only share with us the information that you are comfortable to share, and rest assured that we will use this only to provide you with the right support. Any information you give us will be treated completely confidentially. To discuss this further please call 028 9041 2000 and ask to speak to a member of the People & Culture team.