Senior Financial Accountant

You will be part of the Financial Accounting and Control team within the Finance department and will act as the dedicated Financial Accountant, preparing statutory financial reporting and managing the year-end process for your ‘lead clients’. You will have autonomy and be expected to work independently, while also collaborating with the rest of the Financial Accounting and Control team to develop a high-quality finance service to the NCIs, including best practice external reporting and a robust financial control environment.

You will act as a mentor to more junior members of the team, using your skills and experience to support the Financial Accounting Officers in developing core accounting skills to manage effective balance sheet control and period-end processes, and to prepare and submit compliance reporting using accurate and appropriate financial information. An effective communicator, you will be able to explain financial issues to non-finance staff and help people use financial information well. You will deliver relevant training and support across departments to improve financial literacy and ensure compliance with relevant financial control procedures.

You will be someone who is always looking to improve processes and work smarter, collaborating with your finance colleagues to drive best practice in everything we do. You will be a confident Excel user, able to design and build financial statements and reports which can be quickly and easily produced. This role is a 12 month fixed term contract.

• Financial Accounting
  • Preparing the Group and Subsidiary Financial Statements, including setting, agreeing and managing the year-end timetable and communication with internal and external stakeholders.
  • Updating the accounts template annually, including reviewing accounting policies and ensuring compliance with relevant reporting legislation, regulatory requirements and best practice within the charity sector (including but not limited to UK GAAP and Charity SORP).
  • Reviewing the year-end trial balance and analysing key variances with previous years to identify potential omissions or misstatements.
  • Managing the external audit process, including being the primary point of contact with the auditors in planning and delivering the audit, liaising with other members of staff in Finance and other departments to deliver the auditors’ requirements, preparing schedules to support each note to the financial statements and providing explanations when requested.
  • Preparing the Board and Committee reporting to support the presentation of the Accounts and presenting draft accounts for review and sign-off on behalf of the trustees as necessary.
  • Working with the Communication Department and design company to prepare financial statements in a format to be signed and published.
  • Ensuring accounts are signed off and submitted to Companies House or Charity Commission on time.
• Internal controls and compliance
  • Responsible for ensuring all income and expenditure (including capital expenditure) is correctly accounted for within a robust control environment.
  • Managing the delivery of a smooth, well-controlled and timely month-end and year-end close, supporting the Financial Accounting Officers to develop and improve this in line with best-practice.
  • Working with the Financial Accounting Officers and Financial Processing team to maintain a strong financial control environment ensuring that monthly reconciliations, checks and reviews are done and compliance with the journals policy.
  • Managing the Chart of Accounts structure to ensure consistency of approach across the NCIs, ensuring any changes are appropriate before actioning them.
  • Working with the Finance team to improve processes and systems and promote efficient working practices with an appropriate control framework.
  • Supporting the Financial Accounting Officers to prepare and submit compliance reporting using accurate and appropriate financial information (e.g. Office of National Statistics returns, Charity Commission Annual Returns).
• Technical advice and support
  • Providing support and guidance on financial accounting practices, issues and problems.
  • Working with the Finance Business Partnering team to advise departments on appropriate accounting treatments for new and continuing activities.
  • Ensuring legacies are accurately recorded and recognised, including overseeing the liaison with executors as necessary.
  • Keeping up to date with best practice and developments in financial reporting and the charity sector and proactively managing personal and continuing professional development.
  • Providing financial training and support to non-finance colleagues as required, promoting financial literacy across the NCIs.
• Cashflow forecasting
  • Ensuring effective cash management for the NCIs, including the development of regular cash flow reporting as required by each entity.
  • Overseeing the production of daily, weekly, monthly and annual cashflow forecasting and monitoring spreadsheets and active management of cash balances to maintain the liquidity of all the NCIs while optimising the funds available for investment.
  • Managing short-term investments and cash deposits, including identifying opportunities, producing relevant analysis and reporting, and ensuring compliance with treasury policies.
  • Arranging Pensions Board funding drawdowns from the Revolving Credit Facility, monitoring borrowing levels and managing requirements for the CHARM bonds.
• Other
  • Acting as a mentor to the Financial Accounting Officers, helping them to identify opportunities to grow their skills, and supporting them through advice and training.
  • Collaborating with other members of the Financial Accounting and Control team to ensure the delivery of all statutory reporting and year-end processes across the NCIs, providing support for other areas as necessary.
  • Providing support for projects within the Finance team (which could include process improvement projects, system projects, implementation of new processes and solutions etc.).
  • Developing excellent working relationships and clear communication with the Finance Business Partners, to ensure a consistent understanding of activities across the NCIs, and that this is reflected accurately in both statutory and management reporting.
  • Undertaking other ad hoc tasks as required to ensure the Finance team delivers to its customers.

Your job description is intended to reflect your main tasks and areas of work, but is not exhaustive. Changes may occur over time and you will be expected to agree any reasonable changes to your job description that are commensurate with your banding and in line with the general nature of your post. You will be consulted about any changes to your job description before these are implemented.

• Essential Education: CCAB or equivalent professional accounting body qualification.
• Knowledge/Experience: Good technical financial accounting skills and thorough understanding of relevant accounting standards, including FRS 102 and Charities SORP. Experience gained from working as a financial accountant or external auditor covering all aspects of statutory reporting for a large organisation.
• Skills & Abilities: Excellent IT skills, including advanced Excel and strong finance system skills, with a good understanding of data structures and chart of accounts optimisation. Ability to manipulate data, analyse information, identify anomalies and extract pertinent information. Excellent attention to detail. Well organised with an ability to work calmly and effectively under pressure. Good communication and interpersonal skills both written and oral, able to communicate effectively with finance professionals, senior management and trustees, and non-accountants to achieve cooperation and results. Proactive, self-motivated and enthusiastic.
• Circumstances: Willingness to work in excess of contracted hours to ensure completion of deadlines.
• Desirable: SAP experience. Experience of working for a charity.

The National Church Institutions comprises a wide variety of teams, professions and functions that support the mission and ministries of the Church of England in its vision to be a church, centred on Jesus Christ, for the whole nation - a church that is simpler, humbler, bolder.

We Include. You Belong. Our Belonging and Inclusion Strategy aims for everyone in the National Church Institutions (NCIs) to feel that they belong, and are valued for who they are and what they contribute. Together, our people contribute in different ways towards our common purpose, whichever NCI they work in and whatever their background. Living out our values in all that we do, we: Strive for Excellence, Show Compassion, Respect others, Collaborate, Act with Integrity.

We believe our commitment to belonging and inclusion fuels our progress and drives us forward. The NCIs are a safe, inclusive workplace for people of all backgrounds and walks of life. We welcome applications from people of all faiths and of no faith. We want to encourage applications from a diverse group of people who share our values.

Use of AI in your application: We appreciate that you may want to use AI tools to help you with your application. We are happy for you to use AI to come up with ideas and help structure your thoughts, but you shouldn’t use AI to fabricate information or write your whole application for you. One of our values is integrity, and although we want you to demonstrate your best self, we don’t want an AI-generated persona. If you simply copy and paste AI-generated content into your application, this will reduce your chances of success.