Finance Officer, Ipswich

Babergh and Mid Suffolk District Councils

Address: Endeavour House, 8 Russell Road, Ipswich, Suffolk IP1 2BX

Salary: £31,537 - £36,363 per annum (pro rata for part time)

Hours: Full Time, 37 hours per week

Contract: Fixed Term or Secondment opportunity for 18 Months

This role is open to full time, part time, and job share applications, all of which will be assessed equally.

Join our team. We are looking for a Finance Officer to join our Finance Team. If you share our values and you are motivated to make a difference for our residents, clients, and communities, we would love to hear from you.

About the role: You will support both our Reconciliations and Accounts Receivable Teams with time split equally between the two teams. This is a great opportunity to gain and develop experience in a variety of financial control processes and procedures.

Main responsibilities of the role:

• Ensure timely and accurate monthly reconciliation of income and expenditure within our finance systems, with relevant sign off and explanations of variances and how these will be corrected in future periods.
• Posting of entries into the housing system for Universal Credit and allocation of housing benefits.
• Processing of cheques received by the Councils.
• Emergency Accommodation invoice processing, refunds and debt recovery.
• Ad hoc invoicing.
• Setting up Direct Debit mandates.
• Monitoring the Death Register.
• Reviewing exceptions within our transaction matching system Pay360.
• Involvement in process improvement to work more efficiently by reviewing procedures and policies ensuring they are fit for purpose.
• Transaction allocations into our finance system Unit 4 to clear Balance Sheet codes and reduce the number of outstanding items.

About you: We are looking for a hands-on Finance Officer, with experience of working within a busy finance team. To be successful, you will demonstrate:

• AAT or equivalent qualification is an advantage but not a requirement.
• Experience of Accounts Receivables and Reconciliations.
• Experience of high-volume transactions and working to tight deadlines.
• An aptitude and experience of Finance Software as well as Microsoft Office.
• Strong communication skills and ability to collaborate within a team.
• Strong work ethic.
• Commitment to making a difference through continuous improvement.

About us: At Babergh and Mid Suffolk District Councils we are passionate about building communities that people want to live, work, visit and invest in. We serve around 200,000 residents across our two districts and are well known for our collaboration and partnership working across public, private and voluntary sectors.

Benefits: We offer a comprehensive benefits package, including:

• Generous leave entitlement (26 days a year, rising to 31 days after 5 years).
• Competitive Local Government Pension Scheme.
• Wellbeing Support and Employee Assistance Programs.
• Private Health Care Options.
• Electric Vehicle Salary Sacrifice Scheme.
• Paid volunteering days.
• Flexible and hybrid working arrangements (Business needs permitting).
• Great learning and development opportunities.

Our ways of working: We believe work is what we do, not just where we go. We work in a hybrid way, with a mix of office, home, and remote based working (Business need permitting). Our hybrid working arrangements support flexibility and collaboration, helping our teams to thrive. We are committed to equality, diversity and inclusion, providing opportunity and ambition for all, supporting and enabling our people to deliver the best possible services for our residents.

This authority is committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children, young people and vulnerable adults and expects all staff and volunteers to share this commitment. DBS checks or police vetting will be required for relevant posts.