Duration of Post / Fixed term until June 2019 with possibility of extension subject to funding
Working hours / 0.8FTE: 30 hours a week
Responsible to / CEO
Location / Greater Manchester
Salary / £24,720(Pro rata) plus 5% employers pension
About The Orchard Project
We believe that community orchards can transform lives and help nature to thrive, so we create and champion community orchards across the country.
Our vision is that in every city, town and village across the country, every home is within easy-reach of productive, well-cared-for, community-run orchards. These orchards are making a significant contribution to the country’s fruit and nut provision, improving health and wellbeing, building community resilience, nurturing skills and providing cherished, nature-rich, community spaces used by a wide range of people.
We are a national charity that inspires and trains communities to create, restore and maintain community orchards for the benefit of people, communities and the environment. Our Project Managers and consultants work with communities in hubs across England and Scotland, and we have a core staff based mostly in London.
We’ve been around since 2009 and have grown from the London Orchard project to become the country’s national community orchard charity. We have created and restored over 250 community orchards in our time and we run training programmes with adults and in schools, orchard heritage events and orchard enterprises. Our flagship programmes at the moment are
-Helping Britain Blossom
We have been working in partnership with HEINEKEN UK for over three years to deliver the Helping Britain Blossom project, bringing people together to improve green spaces and build healthier, happier, and more sustainable communities by creating, restoring and celebrating urban community orchards. It is the biggest coordinated community orchard planting programme happening anywhere in the UK and probably the biggest such undertaking this country has ever seen.
-A Celebration of Orchards
This HLF-funded major programme sees us working with communities in the London region. We are restoring 30 of London’s lost or forgotten orchards and their habitats, some over a hundred years old, and building vibrant community groups to work with them in the future. Alongside that we have developed an orchard training programme that includes a highly successful, externally accredited, community orchard course. And in a third strand of the project, we have set up a community-powered juice and cider enterprise in London, made from the juice of London apples.
The role
Main purpose of the job
The Operations and Finance Officer will provide administrative and book keeping support to ensure the smooth running of The Orchard Project.
The organisation is split between two entities, the charity (The Orchard Project) and its trading arm (The Orchard Project Ventures). This role will be responsible for managing the finances of both of these and ensuring the smooth transitionof funds. It will also undertake a range of operational tasks including administration of social media, our database, our resources and our IT.
Key Duties:
Administration and Operations
- Updating and maintaining office systems - paper and computer based – including Office 365 and database system Salesforce.
- Supporting staff with producing monitoring and evaluation data from the database
- Ensuring our data collection complies with data protection legislation
- Troubleshoot questions relating to IT systems / functions and refer on to external IT support when necessary.
- Ensuring both The Orchard Project resources (flyers, handbooks, banners, hoodies etc) are well stocked and reordered when necessary
- Coordinating communications admin
- Supporting the logistics for team events and meetings.
- General administration in support of the smooth running of the organisation
Book keeping and finance
Setting up Payment and income including:
- Set up fortnightly payment of supplier invoices on the start and middle of each month for each entity
- Processing of income for both entities
- Deal with day to day routine queries
Book Keeping, Monthly Reporting, Credit Control, including:
- Maintain and update books of accounts for charity (using the SORP framework) and ventures accounts (registered for VAT)
- Support maintenance of the Chart of Accounts
- Check all income and expenditure cost centres and expense and income codes and enter them accurately and swiftly in to the accounting software systems
- Prepare monthly reconciliations
- Prepare project accounts and provide accurate monthly transaction break-down, pulled from the accountancy software, organised by cost centre and expense/income codes
- Check bank statement regularly to reconcile bank statements with the books
- Process credit and debit card payments
- Liaise with the accountant to provide bi-monthly management accounts
Pensions admin, including:
- Administer TOP employer's pension responsibilities including setting up payments, adjusting and varying changes and adding new entrants
- Undertake all payments to pensions
Funder Reports, including:
- Produce financial reports for funders as and when required showing actual expenditure against budget with other relevant information
- Produce transaction details for any specific funders
- Support the provision of other financial information for funder reports as required
Additional responsibilities
- Other tasks on an ad hoc basis as required
- Take part in training relevant to the job
- Willingness to attend and contribute to project meetings and staff visioning away days as required
Person Specification
Essential / DesirableProven experience in:
Administrative office support, ideally within a charity setting / X
Working on own initiative and taking responsibility for managing your work load / X
Financial administration or book keeping / X
Managing an organisational database / X
Experience of using accountancy software / X
Experience of using Quickbooks accounting software / X
The successful candidate will be either AAT qualified or qualified by at least two years’ finance management experience / X
Knowledge and skills
A high level of competence in MS Office Apps / X
Confident and skilled working with numbers / X
Skills in using spreadsheets to present accounts, including through the use of formulae / X
Excellent written and oral communication skills / X
Knowledge of, and a proven interest in, environmental sustainability, sustainable food systems, and/or permaculture / X
Experienced in data based system such as Salesforce / X
Experienced in cloud-based office system such as Office 365 / X
Ability to organise own time effectively to meet task deadlines / X
Personal Attributes & behaviours
Able to hit the ground running and able to learn the ropes quickly / X
Fosters collaboration – works with others to find common ground, enhancing mutual interdependence and achieving shared goals / X
Strives for excellence – drives to achieve highest standards, showing determination and resilience to be the best in class and succeed against challenging targets / X
Passionate about the potential to transform communities and improve the lives of individuals / X
The ability to tackle problems head on and show resilience to create solutions / X
Willingness to travel across the UK occasionally / X
Preparedness to roll up their sleeves and get stuck in / X
Flexible and able to work out of normal office hours from time to time / X
Application Procedure
We are committed to creating an inclusive working environment, where diversity is valued and there is equality of opportunity. We therefore welcome applications from all sections of the community and we offer a range of benefits to encourage a work life balance.
To apply, please send your CV and a covering letter, 2 sides max to Neil Kingsnorth, Co-CEO at
The Orchard Project, at
In your covering letter you should explain why you want the job and how you meet the person specification.
The closing date for applications is Midnight Sunday 22ndApril 2018
Interviews to be held the week starting 9thMay 2018 in Manchester