THE REFUGEE COUNCIL

JOB DESCRIPTION

Job Title: Management Accountant

Reports to: Financial Reporting Team Manager

Team: Finance

Section/Group: Resources

Grade: 7

Context and Purpose The Refugee Council is a national charity employing c.300 staff and using the services of over 300 volunteers. Offices are based throughout the UK including London, Birmingham, Leeds and Ipswich. The key objective of the organisation is to offer practical help and advice to refugees and asylum seekers in the UK. The Finance team is part of the Resources Group. The other teams in the Resources Group are Business Services, Human Resources and IT. The Finance team is a central resource servicing the whole organisation which has an annual turnover of £16m. The main purpose of this post is to manage the Refugee Council’s internal reporting function, ensuring that accurate and timely management reports are produced that meet the needs of budget holders, monthly variance analyses are performed and that management account queries are dealt with promptly and efficiently. This post is also responsible for collating the annual budget and maintaining the accounting system.

Key Accountabilities 1. Job Specific Accountabilities

Budgeting and Re-forecasting

a) Under guidance from the Financial Reporting Team Manager, to manage the annual budgeting and ongoing re-forecasting exercise, ensuring that the information submitted by budget holders is accurate and complete and that all deadlines are met.

b) Under guidance from the Financial Reporting Team Manager, to provide training for budget holders on the annual budgeting process and its requirements.

c) To consolidate the annual budget and re-forecasts in an agreed format, ensuring that the information is complete, accurate and correctly phased.

d) To import & reconcile the agreed budgets and re-forecasts into the Great Plains accounting system.

e) To review and improve the annual budget templates and consolidation spreadsheet, build controls to ensure an accurate, efficient and robust budget procedure.

17/09/10 f) To produce the Establishment list on an annual basis and keep reconciled to budget throughout the year.

Management Reporting

a) To ensure that accurate, timely and user-friendly management reports are produced in FRx on a monthly basis and that these reports are fully reconciled to the trial balance;

b) To ensure that management reports meet all users needs, designing and producing new reports as and when required

c) To provide on-going training for budget holders on the use of the FRx reporting package as well as general financial training to enable them to understand and interpret their management reports

d) To deal with management accounts queries in a timely and efficient manner, ensuring that all resulting adjustments are processed accurately and promptly. Monitoring queries to identify areas for improvement or further training.

e) Work with other finance team members to assist with preparation of statutory accounts and liaison with auditors.

Variance Reporting & Resolution

a) To analyse significant variances and changing trends on a monthly basis and draft the commentary for the Senior Management Team and Trustees, including taking follow up action if necessary.

b) To investigate any suspected errors, omissions and misleading data with a view to seeking reasons and resolutions. On own initiative to make enquiries across teams and budgets as appropriate and to keep Financial Reporting Team Manager and other staff informed as necessary.

c) Reconciling projects at the end of period or end of project and taking all necessary action.

Accounting Systems Administration

a) To maintain the chart of accounts and budget holder coding tools, ensuring that it meets the Council’s needs in terms of content and structure. To periodically update the chart of accounts for new activities in line with established procedures.

b) To ensure that adequate systems controls exist to ensure that income and expenditure is correctly coded in the accounting system.

c) To undertake month end and year end adjustments and systems procedures

d) To document the key finance procedures in a clear, concise and user-friendly format.

e) To be the contact with the finance system’s software providers for Great Plains and FRX systems queries.

f) To provide support to the finance team on systems issues relating to Great Plains and FRX.

17/09/10 g) To co-ordinate finance responsibilities via IT during upgrades to the finance system, ensuring smooth implementation and testing of new functions.

h) To liaise between software providers and IT during system errors and down time.

i) To be aware of the financial software market place, assessing the current finance system alongside developments in the market.

2. Service Specific Accountabilities

a) With customer service in mind to support all budget holders including the Senior Management Team, assisting them in understanding budget structure, financial transactions, financial reports and generally to fulfil their financial responsibilities.

b) Under guidance from the Financial Reporting Team Manager, to provide training for budget holders to enable them to understand the requirements of variance reporting and produce meaningful reports.

c) To attend key meetings as required and to build links with other teams to ensure a comprehensive service to users.

d) To produce management information on a regular and/or ad hoc basis as may be requested from time to time.

3. Budget Management Accountabilities

This post has no budget management responsibility. However, the post holder will be responsible for monitoring the Refugee Council’s budget and liaising with the relevant budget holders regarding significant budget variances.

4. Personal Accountabilities (a) Flexibility

The Refugee Council is required to respond, sometimes rapidly, to an environment that can be volatile. In order to appropriately support the Refugee Council and in order to deliver services effectively, a high degree of flexibility is needed and the post holder may be required to perform work not specifically referred to above. Such duties will fall within the scope of the job at the appropriate grade. The job description will be subject to periodic review to ensure that it accurately reflects the duties of the job. The post holder may occasionally be required to travel outside London. (b) Personal Effectiveness With the support of their line manager, the post holder will be expected to develop individual work plans, and contribute to team and section planning, by ensuring integration across individual plans. These will be discussed on a regular basis with their line manager to agree measures of success and performance in line with team and section needs and personal aspirations.

(c) Equal Opportunities

As part of its recruitment policy, the Refugee Council intends to ensure that no prospective or actual employee is discriminated against on the basis of race, sex

17/09/10 nationality, marital status, sexual orientation, class, disability, age, religious belief or political persuasion or is disadvantaged by any condition or requirement which is not demonstrably justifiable.

(d) Health and Safety

The Management Accountant is expected to be familiar with the Refugee Council’s Health & Safety Policy and his/her individual responsibilities under that policy including the reporting of any hazards, the wearing of any Personal Protective Equipment and the obligation not to put other people at risk by his/her behaviour or neglect.

THE REFUGEE COUNCIL

PERSON SPECIFICATION

Job Title: Management Accountant

Reports to: Financial Reporting Team Manager

Team: Finance

Section/Group: Resources

Grade: 7

The following criteria are essential

Qualifications

1. Part qualified accountant (ACCA, CIMA, CIPFA, ACA or equivalent)

Knowledge, Skills and Abilities

1. Accomplished at using and maintaining a computerised accounting package equivalent to Microsoft Great Plains linked to FRx Reporting (e.g. Sage and Oracle), including user set up and maintenance, report design, etc. 2. Experience of working in a financial role in a medium to large sized organisation, having responsibility for producing reports, organisational budgets and liaising with budget holders 3. Able to demonstrate a thorough understanding of general accounting principles 4. Experience of producing, consolidating & presenting budgets relevant to the target audience

17/09/10 5. Experience of drafting commentary to Senior Management Team and Trustees 6. Experience of producing financial reports and explanations for budget holders and external funders 7. Experience of reconciling historical and partial data and complex accounting reconciliations 8. Excellent spoken and written communication skills, including the ability to explain financial concepts to non-financial people 9. Proactive in initiating and completing tasks and projects in a logical manner 10. Excellent organisational skills; able to manage a varied workload, prioritise tasks effectively whilst working under pressure and with the ability to maintain high standards 11. Excellent Excel Skills; including regular creation and use of V lookup; SumIf; Pivots tables etc 12. Ability to work independently and also as part of a team 13. Understanding of and commitment to equal opportunities, and the ability to apply this to the work of the position 14. A commitment to the mission of the Refugee Council and understanding of major issues facing asylum seekers and refugees in the UK

The following criteria are desirable

Knowledge, Skills and Abilities

1. Experience of using Great Plains accounting software 2. Experience of using FRx reporting package 3. Ability to work with macros and write visual basic code 4. Experience of working in finance within a charity

17/09/10