Finance Officer

Job Title: Finance Officer / Reporting to: CEO / Hours: 2 to 3 days per week (flexible)
Purpose of job: Financial and office administration of the charity / Location: charity hub in Southwark, London / Salary: £30,000 pa (pro rata)
Start date: January 2015 / Holidays: 25 days (excl. bank holidays) pro rata

Main Tasks:

Finance Administration

  1. Donation receipts: Logging of all gifts received (cheques, charity vouchers, cash, BACS donations, Direct Debits & Standing Orders etc) onto Raiser’s Edge database and Sage 50 accounts, and banking the funds. Maintaining organised files of corresponding paperwork in an audit-ready state. Passing on a list of donations received to the Fundraiser to send acknowledgement letters
  2. Recurring Gifts: Management of donation Direct Debits and Standing Orders, using CAF on-line services by setting up new DDs and cancelling lapsed donors as required; passing on details of cancelled donors to office Fundraiser to contact
  3. Invoice Payments: Authorisation & payment of invoices in a timely manner, by BACS or cheque; managing Standing Order & Direct Debit payments
  4. Nepali office finance: Checking Nepali fund requests against annual budget, and sending tranche payments to cover monthly operating and project expenditure; responding to any finance query by Nepali staff; providing financial reports for assistance with audit in Nepal and project reporting
  5. Gift Aid: Keeping audit-ready Gift Aid declarations, and submitting quarterly claims to HMRC
  6. Raisers Edge: Along with all other staff members, pro-actively keeping our database up-to-date, running queries as required, and creating accounting codes in line with Sage accounts
  7. Monthly Accounts: Coding receipts & payments and entering them into Sage accounts, downloading bank statements and running monthly reconciliation; keeping an up-to-date record of project grants and restricted funds received and using financial reports from Nepal to log expenditure of restricted funds
  8. Monthly Payroll: creating monthly Payroll schedules, making monthly salary payments to staff, and PAYE/NI payments to HMRC

Management and Financial Accounts

  1. Monthly Management Accounts: preparing the monthly summary Management Accounts Pack for Trustees and CEO (which includes Income & Expenditure, Balance Sheet, restricted fund control account, Budget Variance and commentary); producing a Cash Flow when required
  2. Producing annual EBT-UK Budget: in collaboration with CEO and Fundraisers
  3. Annual Accounts & Audit: providing the year-end figures for auditor to create year-end accounts, submission of Annual Return to the Charities Commission, main point of contact with auditors

Office Administration

Ensuring that our office is run in an organised and efficient manner is a shared task between all members of our team, and is supported by volunteers and interns. The Finance Officer’s core workload is always first priority, but depending on the availability of time, the following tasks may fall within the remit of the Finance Officer role:

  1. Donor record keeping: keeping organised paper and electronic files of donor correspondence, Trust records, appeal information and any other relevant correspondence
  2. Leaflets and supporter mailings: ensuring that our organisational information leaflets, mailings and promotional literature are relevant, up-to-date and saved online
  3. Donor care: assisting with supporter fundraising events, responding to donor enquiries by email and phone, any other ad hoc requirements of our loyal supporter base
  4. Any other general task that reasonably fits within the remit of office administration

Person Specification:

Skills / Experience / Essential / Desirable
Part-qualified in a recognised accounting qualification
eg. CIMA, ACCA, AAT, CiPFA
Substantial work experience of an equivalent nature may be accepted in lieu of a formal qualification / Essential
Good knowledge of charity finance, including an understanding of restricted funds / Essential
Experience of database administration (ideally Raiser’s Edge) / Essential
Experience of working with Sage 50 or equivalent accounting software / Essential
Very organised and able to manage a variety of tasks / Essential
Self-motivated with the ability to work independently and manage own workload / Essential
Experience of working in international development and familiar with the challenges of working with overseas staff / Desirable
Experience of working in a small office / Desirable

To apply for this vacancy, please send your CV and a covering letter to: detailing why you are interested in this vacancy and how you would make a good candidate, based in the Job Description and Person Specification detailed above.

Deadline for applications: Monday 24th November, 9am. Interview date: Thursday 27th November.

The Esther Benjamins Trust, Registered Charity Number 1078187, Interim Chief Executive: Ian Kerr

Governed by The Esther Benjamins Trust (Trustee) Ltd. CRN: 8098790

Board of Directors: Andrew Scadding (Chairman)| Madeline McGill| Kate Baldwin| Mike McCurry| Susan Wright (Treasurer)| Sue Payne