Advantage Africa supports people affected by poverty, disability and HIV to improve their education, health and incomes. Our work helps people to help themselves and build a better future for their families and communities. More information is available on our website (currently under reconstruction and due for launch alongside our new logo and strap line in May 2013) the Advantage Africa Facebook page and YouTube channel.

The position of Finance Officer becomes vacant in July 2013. This is a vital supporting role that enables Advantage Africa to meet its statutory requirements as a UK registered charity and deliver cost-effective development among some of Africa’s most vulnerable people.

Interviews will be held on Tuesday 11thand/or Wednesday 12th June and the successful candidate appointed shortly thereafter.

The job will start on Monday 8th July and there will be an essential two week handover with our current Finance Officer.

Advantage Africa

JOB DESCRIPTION

Finance Officer/Finance and Support Officer

Part-time,c. 15 - 30 hours per week depending on exact role taken

Basic Details

  • Job title: Finance Officer or Finance and Support Officer
  • Location: Olney
  • Reporting: to the Director

Overview

The primary purpose of this position is to ensure the efficient and effective financial management of Advantage Africa as outlined in the Financial responsibilities outlined below.

We are looking for a determined and enthusiastic individual who will enjoy being part of our dynamic charity and contributing to our UKteam of four. For candidates with appropriate motivation, time and skills, there is scope to become involved in Advantage Africa’s supporter care, administration and fundraising as outlined in the Supporter Care and Other sections below. We recognise that this is a wide skill set and that the post holder may need to learn new skills to fulfil their role. The exact role, hours, job title and salary will therefore be negotiated with the appointed candidate during and following the recruitment process. For someone wishing to take on the full range of responsibilities the job title would become Finance and Support Officer.

The postholderwill work with Advantage Africa’s Director and Programme Managers in our Olney office and support the activities of other staff, volunteers and our partners in Africa.

Responsibilities

1. Financial:

The position involves taking full responsibility for Advantage Africa’s day-to-day financial management and statutory reporting. The post-holder will maintain, and where possible improve, Advantage Africa’s financial records and systems through:

1.1Financial management and book-keeping, including the processing of all transactions and journals,preparation of monthly bank reconciliations.

1.2Transferring funds to partners in Africa.

1.3Overseeing payroll, including any salary sacrifice schemes.

1.4Processing UK and overseas trip expense claims.

1.5Maintaining records of Gift Aid declarations and donations and processing of Gift Aid reclaims annually.

1.6Maintaining the fixed asset register

1.7Fulfilment of Advantage Africa’s statutory requirements including P35 forms to HMRC.

1.8The production of Advantage Africa’s annual report and accounts, in line with Company and Charity law. This includes accounting for currency fluctuations, depreciation of fixed assets, accruals and prepayments, allocations of expenditure and preparing the statement of financial activities, balance sheet and detailed notes to the accounts.

1.9Manage the year end independent financial review process

1.10Maintaining Advantage Africa’s records with Companies House and the Charity Commission, including submission of the annual accounts and return

1.11Ensuring restricted funds are ring-fenced, and expenditure against these monitored.

1.12Producing monthly funds reports from the ledger, distributing and discussing these with Programme Managers.

1.13Managing all Advantage Africa’s accounts with providers such as UK and overseas banks, CAF, Just Giving, Paypal and petty cash accounts.

1.14Supporting other UK staff and partners in East Africa to monitor and report overcome any financial problems and contribute towards improving their financial skills.

1.15Together with the Director, preparing the annual organisational budget for submission to the Trustees for approval.

1.16Producing monthly financial management reports - income and expenditure andcashflow - for the Director, Programme Managers and Trustees and distributing to them. Reports to include variance analysis and commentary.

1.17Keeping other financial and fundraising records and reports, including profit and loss reports for specific fundraising initiatives where required.

1.18Undertaking periodic review and revision of Advantage Africa’s financial policy and procedures.

1.19Any other duties as required.

------

For candidates with the appropriate motivation, time and skills, there is scope to take on some or all of the following non-financial responsibilities.

In this case the hours and job title will be negotiated beyond the core role of Finance Officer to become Finance and Support Officer.

------

2. Supporter Care

Establishing and maintaining good relationships with individual donors through tasks including:

2.1 Ensuring the accuracy of Advantage Africa’s supporter database, adding new supporter records and amending / deleting existing records,ensuring changes are documented and filed and managing the use of the database for effective donor communications.

2.2Updating written procedures covering the precise information required in each field.

2.3Overseeing any volunteers who assist with the maintenance of the database.

2.4Writing / amending queries and reports as necessary to enable the extraction of relevant data for the distribution of newsletters, appeals or other purpose determined by the Director.

2.5Using the database to send out written and email communications to donors such as newsletters and appeals.

2.6Contributing to the development of the database as required.

2.7 Ensuring that Advantage Africa’s obligations under the Data Protection Act are met.

2.8 Writing thank you letters to donors.

2.9 Any other duties as required.

3. Other

Supporting Advantage Africa’s effective administration and fundraising. Tasks will include:

3.1Responding to Advantage Africa’s general email, telephone and post.

3.2Evaluating and comparing suppliers, maintaining supplier files and making purchases and orders for utilities, stationery, insurance etc.

3.3Preparing for Trustees’ meetings, presenting the financial reports and taking minutes.

3.4 Managing the rotation of trustees according to our policy.

3.5 Managing the review of Advantage Africa’s policies at trustees meetings.

3.6Ensuring health and safety procedures are followed by members of staff before embarking on overseas trips.

3.7 Managing staff holiday and TOIL.

3.8 Developing initiatives to increase the number of people supporting Advantage Africa, including new streams of income from charitable support organisations such as Utilities Warehouse Club, Give As You Live and other new channels for donations.

3.9 Contributing towards community fundraising initiatives such as church and school fundraising, our annual Christmas Gift Wrapping Project and Christmas card sales.

3.10 Proof reading fundraising materials such as proposals and newsletters.

3.11Contributing to the upkeep of Advantage Africa’s website.

3.12 Ensuring regular backups of data and the maintenance and upgrading our IT.

3.13 Any other duties as required.

Advantage Africa

TERMS AND CONDITIONSSummary

Finance Officer/Finance and Support Officer

  • The start date is negotiable but preferably as soon as possible to ensure a smooth handover with the current post-holder in July 2013.
  • The initial contract length is for one year, renewable.
  • Interviews will be held in June 2013.
  • This is a part time position, for the equivalent of 2-4 days per week with exact days to be negotiated.
  • There will be a probation period of three months after which there will be a review and confirmation in post or otherwise.
  • After the completion of six months service, Advantage Africa offers a contribution of 5% of salary for the employee to put towards a pension of their own choice.
  • There will be an annual leave allowance of 25 dayspro-rata.
  • The salary will be in the range £18k - £25k prorata, according to skills and experience.

Advantage Africa

PERSON SPECIFICATION

Finance Officer/Finance and Support Officer

The list below shows the essential and desirable qualities required:

Essential / Desirable
Education, Qualifications and Training
  • Good standard of education
  • Qualified book-keeper or accounting technician
/
  • Some further education or job-related training
  • Trained on Quickbooks

Work Experience
  • Experience in a finance role
  • Day to day book-keeping including reconciliations
  • Practical intermediate level experience of MS Excel (formulas, data sort etc)
  • Use of accounting software
  • Monitoring and maintaining accounts
  • Budget preparation and monitoring
  • Production of financial management reports
  • Year end procedures and accounts
  • Competent in MS Word
/
  • Experience within a non-profit organisation
  • Advanced MS Excel
  • Practical experience of QuickBooks
  • Practical experience of charity accounting
  • International money transfers
  • Online banking
  • Currency fluctuations and exchange rates
  • Building people’s financial capacity, through producing resources, training or one-to-one help
  • Developing and improving systems
  • Charity fundraising and administration
  • Databases and/or MS Access
  • Mail merge

People Skills
  • Able to work both independently and in a team
  • Able to communicate well with people of different cultures and with different levels of knowledge, often remotely
/
  • Able to negotiate contractual issues
  • Able to resolve potential conflict and misunderstandings with supporters and third parties

Knowledge
  • Basic accounting principles and procedures
/
  • Charity/company statutory reporting
  • Community development in Africa

Personal Characteristics
  • Legal right to live and work in the UK
  • Patient but assertive
  • Ability to prioritise/manage a busy workload
  • Problem solving ability
  • Attention to accuracy
  • Self-motivated
  • Honest
  • Quick learner
  • Interest in overseas development

Advantage Africa

EMPLOYMENT APPLICATION

Finance Officer/Finance and Support Officer

We will use the information that you provide on this form to produce a shortlist of candidates that will be invited for interview. Please type your responses using the following headings and tables using Arial 12 point. Please reduce or increase the spaces provided as required but please ensure that your form does not exceed a total of six pages in length.

1. Personal Information

Preferred title and full name:

Family situation:

Date of birth:

Address:

Email:

Telephone number:

Are you eligible for employment in the UK?

Do you have a current driving license/use of a car?

2. Present/Most Recent Employment

Job title:

Date appointed:

Employer’s name and address:

Present salary:

Notice to terminate:

Describe the main activities of your present/most recent job (or education/training):

3. Previous Employment

Employer’s name & address / Position held, responsibilities &
reason for leaving / Dates of employment

4. Education and Training

FinalSecondary School / Exams passed and results / Period
Further Education Institution / Course(s) completed and results / Period
Professional memberships and qualifications
Job-related training including details of any courses attended

5. Other Skills and Interests

Please tell us about your skills and interests outside of work, including any voluntary work that you have done or do, languages you speak, organisations that you belong to/support, developing countries you have visited.

6. Supporting Information

Please explain what motivates you, why you are applying for this position, the relevance of your previous experience and how you meet the person specification. Tell us whether you are applying for the Finance Officer position only or would like to take on some or all of the other responsibilities outlined and become Advantage Africa’s Finance and Support Officer. Please expand the space provided as needed.

7. Referees

Please provide the names and addresses of two referees that are not related to you in any way, including your most recent or current employer. Please note we will usually consult referees at the interview stage.

Name: / Name:
Address: / Address:
Telephone: / Telephone:
How known: / How known:

8. Health

Please describe any significant physical or psychological illness that you have had:

How many days have you been unable to work due to illness/incapacity in the past year?

9. Additional Information

When is the earliest date that you would be able to start work?

In line with your personal statement in (6), how many hours/week would you like to work?

Where did you see this job advertised?

10. Declaration

I declare that the information I have provided in this form is true and correct and can be treated as part of any subsequent contract of employment. I understand that any false or misleading statement will disqualify me from employment.

Signed:

Date:

Please:

  • Delete the descriptive pages 1-6 so you are only left with the application form
  • Rename the document with yourfirst and second name
  • Email your completed form to

to reach us by midnight on 2ndJune 2013.

We will acknowledge receipt of all applications and send out interview invitations by 4th June.

1