Finance and Administration Officer (closes 12 April)

Grade C, £44,235 a year if you live in London or £39,916 a year outside of London. The Finance Officer will be expected to ensure that MRG’s financial transactions (expenditure, sales and grant income) are processed promptly and accurately, and that all necessary records are kept in the finance software. They will also be expected to assist in the statutory reporting and year end audit preparation.

Reports to: Deputy Director

Hours: full-time – 35 hours per week

Location: based in our London office in E1

Main duties and responsibilities

• Planning
  • Assisting in the annual preparation of budgets
  • Assist the Deputy Director in regular cashflow forecasting and planning.
• Financial Systems and Control
  • Posting of MRG’s accounts transactions to accounting software (Sage / Enterpryze)
  • Monitoring of MRG’s suppliers and other creditors and arranging payment by due date or in accordance with MRG’s payment policy.
  • Processing of all documentation for MRG’s sales, donor and other income, including coding of transactions.
  • Regular banking of cheques and cash received as income or reimbursements
  • Raise invoices for MRG sales debtors, and for reimbursement of MRG staff costs by outside agencies
  • Raise overseas payments to MRG’s partners and overseas consultants, after checking transfer requests for correct authorisation, coding, supporting documentation, and compliance with MRG’s financial procedures
  • Liaise with the bank and MRG staff to deal with queries regarding delayed transfers, including chasing and progressing delayed transfers.
  • Order foreign cash and travellers’ cheques from MRG’s bank and forex services for staff cash advances
  • Arrange for disbursement of cash advances to staff, and for receipt of refunds of unspent cash advance balances.
  • Periodic reconciliation of major supplier accounts including air travel and travel insurance suppliers, to ensure accounts are up to date, and that credit notes, discounts and refunds due have been raised by suppliers.
  • Monthly reconciliation of bank statements to cashbooks
  • Monthly reconciliation of the Sales and Purchase Ledger control accounts to the Nominal account.
  • Monthly reconciliation of the Suspense account.
• Financial and Management reporting
  • Production of quarterly detailed Budget versus Actual reports for the MRG core operational departments, and identification of major variances, in consultation with budget holders.
• Statutory reporting and Payroll
  • Reconciling payroll control accounts on a monthly basis.
  • Process annual cost of living and increment increases to staff salary approved by the Finance and Operations Committee and the Leadership Team, and provide information on increases to staff
  • Processing payroll documentation for joiners and leavers and arranging for new staff to enter the MRG pension scheme
  • Induction of new staff on payroll arrangements and MRG’s pension scheme
  • Compiling and submitting quarterly VAT returns and reconciliation of the VAT control accounts
• Bank liaison and MRG company business cards
  • Liaise with MRG’s Relationship Manager at the bank over relevant issues, including queries on transactions and updates of bank signatories
  • Liaise with MRG’s bank over the day-to-day operation and maintenance of the electronic banking system
• General
  • Undertake other duties that may be reasonably requested by the Deputy Director.
  • Respect and work towards full implementation of MRG’s Gender and Equal Opportunities Policies in all the work involved in this post.
  • Maintain an awareness of MRG’s security guidelines, including those on digital security and data protection, and follow these when carrying out the work, as well as any other precautions as determined by line manager.
  • Report any information that signals a change in the risk profile of MRG’s activities to a relevant manager.
  • The post holder is aware that maintaining confidentiality requires following such digital security and data protection guidelines as determined by MRG.
  • Although the primary purpose of this post is to process and record MRG’s financial transactions, the post holder may be required to work partly or wholly on other areas of MRG’s work. This is to allow MRG to move staff away from work which is unfunded or underfunded or is no longer a priority for the organisation, to work on areas which have more funding, are growing or which are understaffed.
• MRG is committed to Equal Opportunities and values diversity.

PERSON SPECIFICATION

• A. Education/Experience
  • A minimum of four years finance experience, including two years experience of either management accounts report preparation, or preparation of statutory financial or equivalent experience of accounts analysis and reporting
  • Experience of using accounts software packages (e.g. SAGE, QuickBooks, Sun, Enterpryze, etc)
  • Experience of preparation of statutory financial accounts
  • Experience of charity finances involving many projects co-funded by several donors
  • Experience of preparation of annual accounts for audit under SORP accounting standards
  • Experience of other accounting functions including purchase ledger and sales ledger
  • Accounting qualification to ACCA or CIMA part qualified or a degree in accounting
• B. Abilities and Skills
  • A high level of numeracy and attention to detail
  • Advanced level of competence in Excel
  • Ability to prioritise work, meet deadlines and combine responding to urgent requests with longer terms tasks and activities
  • Ability to stay calm under pressure and to assess and absorb information quickly
  • Good communication skills, including good written and spoken English
  • Ability to maintain confidentiality, including following guidance on digital security and data protection
  • Ability and willingness to be self-servicing within the organisation
  • Experience of formatting reports in a range of software applications (Word, Adobe Acrobat)
  • Experience of providing first line IT support to staff on standard office IT systems and software (including Microsoft Outlook and Microsoft Office suite applications)
  • Commitment to gender equity
  • Enthusiastic about working in a multi-cultural environment and committed to equal opportunities
  • Commitment to the aims and objectives of MRG
  • Demonstrated interest in international affairs, human rights and development issues