System Accountant

Location: Birmingham, Cardiff, Edinburgh, Exeter, Ipswich, Leeds, Manchester, Newcastle and Nottingham. (Croydon and Stratford will only be available to existing employees of the Insolvency Service).

About the job

The Insolvency Service is a leading Government agency which plays a crucial role in providing essential services to the public and to business. The work we do is important to the proper functioning of markets, the economy in general and support for thousands of people each year who are in financial difficulty. Inclusive and diverse teams are important to us. We welcome and encourage applications from everyone, including groups underrepresented in our workforce. The Insolvency Service strives to ensure that the agency is a safe, inclusive, and welcoming place for everybody to bring their true self to work and to help the agency to achieve its diversity objectives.

We have 9 active employee network groups available to join or become an ally, these include: Carers Network, Disability network group, Employee Assistance, Representatives, FACES Network Group, LGBT+, Mind Matters, Part Time Workers, The Shed - Men’s Network Group and Women’s Network Group. We value capability, technical skills and experience and we place great emphasis on lifetime development to support our people. We encourage our employees to become more involved in areas they feel strongly about, whether it be for the benefit of the agency, through our Engagement network or in their own local communities via volunteering opportunities.

The Insolvency Service is a great place to work, learn and grow your career! We are expanding our Systems Accounting team, who work to identify improvements and support change to the Agency's finance systems, improving user experience, championing user needs and enhancing financial control and efficiency. If you're looking for a chance to shape & deliver positive change, making it easier to derive real value & insight from our data, this could be the role for you.

This Systems Accountant role is a great opportunity to drive enhancement to financial systems, modernise ways of working and ensure that Finance and operational teams can work efficiently and safely to deliver a great service to the public.

Job description

We are seeking to recruit two qualified or part-qualified Systems Accountants to our Finance & Commercial operating group. The roles will report to the Head of Systems Accounting and will work closely with other functional areas within Finance, the wider Agency and across Government, requiring you to build a network of contacts to understand, improve and assure finance systems and processes. These roles will focus on upcoming projects to improve financial data flows and processes in operational and financial systems, across a varied landscape including Unit4 ERP (Business World), Microsoft Dynamics 365 and other tools and platforms. The roles also provide advice and support to review and incrementally improve existing systems and financial processes, through enhanced use of technology and automation. The roles offer exposure at senior levels, and a great opportunity to work with multi-disciplinary projects spanning the breadth of the Agency's operations.

Responsibilities

• Lead Finance engagement on specific projects, as the Finance subject-matter expert for relevant Finance systems and processes.
• Confidently & proactively validate understanding and assumptions through collaboration with colleagues inside & outside Finance, to ensure key requirements, concerns and opportunities are identified, agreed, prioritised and documented.
• Contribute to system & process design decisions, leading on Finance requirements to make best use of system capabilities.
• Review and assure processes and new design proposals against internal requirements and best practice, providing positive challenge to achieve best outcomes and understand impacts.
• Report to the Head of Systems Accounting on matters relating to finance systems, and make recommendations for the endorsement of plans relating to these systems.
• Support the Head of Systems Accounting with demand management, capacity planning and relevant training & guidance across the Systems Accounting team, the wider Finance function and the Agency as relevant.

Person specification

The successful candidates will:

• Quickly build productive, supportive working relationships with expert colleagues in Finance, IT, operational areas and with suppliers, to understand and tackle complex problems together.
• Understand applicable accounting requirements, particularly Government standards and best practices (Government Financial Reporting Manual (FReM), Managing Public Money, Government Functional Standards and NOVA Functional Reference Model), and how these impact system design and development.
• Confidently and clearly explain technical finance IT functionality and accounting requirements in plain English - ensuring experts in Finance & Systems understand one another, to expertly communicate requirements, concerns and impacts to stakeholders at all levels both verbally and in writing.
• Ensure sufficient attention is given to documentation, assurance and testing of system design, fixes and enhancements to support financial control, audit and future maintenance requirements.
• Understand the business context of financial systems, working with stakeholders across disciplines to achieve the best possible outcomes for the Agency as a whole, building and sharing knowledge of the Agency's structures, processes and systems to support across the team where required.
• Be able to prioritise competing demands and take ownership of workplans and workload; working at pace to respond appropriately with confident, evidenced expert advice to support on-time delivery with understood, minimised risk.
• Engage with opportunities across the Government Finance Function, to network and share best practice across the sector.
• You will be required to attend an Insolvency Service office at one of the locations listed for 60% of your working time, and occasionally attend other locations. This will count towards your 60% attendance.

Essential Criteria

• Hold a recognised CCAB or CIMA Professional Accountancy qualification, such as ACA, ACCA, CIPFA, CIMA and membership of the relevant body; or will be a student member & undertaking the final stage of one of these qualifications, to complete remaining exams and log book within 2 years of taking up post. This will be a contractual obligation, with funding provided.
• Have recent practical experience in finance IT system design, improvement or management. Experience with Unit4 ERP (previously known as Agresso Business World) is desirable, but not essential.

Please note: This vacancy is advertised across 11 locations; however, Stratford and Croydon are only available to current Insolvency Service Staff. The advertised salary includes London weighting, which is only applicable to internal candidates.

Qualifications

You must hold a full accountancy qualification from a CCAB member body or CIMA; or be in the final level of study for one of these qualifications, and commit to complete these studies and log book to achieve full qualification within a maximum of 24 months from appointment. Successful applicants will receive funding towards their final CCAB/CIMA exams as appropriate.

Memberships

You must be a fully qualified current member of a CCAB accountancy institute or CIMA; or a part-qualified current student member of a CCAB accountancy institute or CIMA and in your final level of study. Details should be included in the CV section.

Behaviours

We'll assess you against these behaviours during the selection process: Working Together, Changing and Improving, Communicating and Influencing.