Minority Rights Group International

Job Description

Title: Finance and Administration Officer

Reports to: Director of Finance and Administration

A: Purpose of the post:

The post holder 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 on MRG’s computerised system and in hard copy. He or she will also be expected to assist in the statutory reporting and year end audit preparation.

B: Main duties and responsibilities

1.Planning

1.1Assisting in the annual preparation of budgets

1.2Assist Director of Finance, IT and Administration in regular cashflow forecasting and planning.

2.Financial Systems and Control

2.1Posting of MRG’s accounts transactions to accounting software (Sage MMS)

2.2Monitoring of MRG’s suppliers and other creditors, and arranging payment by due date or in accordance with MRG’s payment policy.

2.3Processing of all documentation for MRG’s sales, donor and other income, including coding of transactions.

2.4Regular banking of cheques and cash received as income or reimbursements

2.5Raise invoices for MRG sales debtors, and for reimbursement of MRG staff costs by outside agencies

2.6Raise 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

2.8Liaise with the bank and MRG staff to deal with queries regarding delayed transfers, including chasing and progressing delayed transfers.

2.9Order foreign cash and travellers cheques from MRG’s bank and forex services for staff cash advances,

2.11Arrange for disbursement of cash advances to staff, and for receipt of refunds of unspent cash advance balances.

2.12Periodic 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.

2.13Monthly reconciliation of bank statements to cashbooks

2.14Monthly reconciliation of the Sales and Purchase Ledger control accounts to the Nominal account.

2.15Monthly reconciliation of the Suspense account.

3.Financial and Management reporting

3.1Production of quarterly detailed Budget versus Actual reports for the MRG core operational departments, and identification of major variances, in consultation with budget holders.

4.Statutory reporting and Payroll

4.1Reconciling payroll control accounts on a monthly basis.

4.3Process annual cost of living and increment increases to staff salary approved by the MRG Finance Committee and Management Team, and provide information on increases to staff

4.5Processing payroll documentation for joiners and leavers and arranging for new staff to enter the MRG pension scheme

4.6Induction of new staff on payroll arrangements and MRG’s pension scheme

4.7Compiling and submitting quarterly VAT returns and reconciliation of the VAT control accounts

5.Bank liaison and MRG company business cards

5.1Liaise with MRG’s Relationship Manager at the bank over relevant issues, including queries on transactions and updates of bank signatories

5.2Liaise with MRG’s bank over the day-to-day operation and maintenance of the electronic banking system

5.3Arrange for the issue of MRG company business cards to new staff, as authorised by the Management Team

6.General

6.1Undertake other duties that may be reasonably requested by the Head of Finance or the Director to time.

6.2Respect and work towards full implementation of MRG’s Gender and Equal Opportunities Policies in all the work involved in this post.

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.

This is a full time post (35 hours per week) and is based in our London office. This post is on MRG’s salary scale C point 32 which is£31,959 per annum.

MRG is committed to Equal Opportunities and values diversity.

MINORITY RIGHTS GROUP

PERSON SPECIFICATION

Finance and Administration Officer

A. Education/Experience

Essential
  1. 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
  2. Experience of using accounts software packages (e.g. SAGE, QuickBooks, Sun, etc)

Desirable

  1. Experience of preparation of statutory financial accounts
  2. Experience of charity finances involving many projects co-funded by several donors
  3. Experience of preparation of annual accounts for audit under SORP accounting standards
  4. Experience of other accounting functions including purchase ledger and sales ledger
  5. Accounting qualification to ACCA or CIMA part qualified or a degree in accounting

B. Abilities and Skills

Essential
  1. A high level of numeracy and attention to detail
  2. Advanced level of competence in Excel
  3. Ability to prioritise work, meet deadlines and combine responding to urgent requests with longer terms tasks and activities
  4. Ability to stay calm under pressure and to assess and absorb information quickly
  5. Good communication skills, including good written and spoken English
  6. Ability to maintain confidentiality
  7. Ability and willingness to be self-servicing within the organisation
Desirable
  1. Experience of formatting reports in a range of software applications (Word, Adobe Acrobat)
  2. Experience of providing first line IT support to staff on standard office IT systems and software (including Microsoft Outlook and Microsoft Office suite applications)

C. Personal qualities

Essential
  1. Commitment to gender equity
  2. Enthusiastic about working in a multi-cultural environment and committed to equal opportunities
  3. Commitment to the aims and objectives of MRG
Desirable
  1. Demonstrated interest in international affairs, human rights and development issues