Assistant Management Accountant (part-time)

Overview

The Church of England Diocese of London comprises of 400+ parishes north of the River Thames and within the M25 motorway. 

The Finance team enables the missional objectives of the London Diocesan Fund (LDF), parishes, archdeacons and bishops through delivery of effective financial reporting and efficient processing of financial transactions. We contribute to the work of the parishes by providing support, advice and training to parishes on a wide range of financial issues, both in technical areas such as bookkeeping and gift aid, but also support generous giving and stewardship.

Introduction

Working alongside a 0.4 FTE Management Accountant, this role has joint responsibility for the operation of an effective and efficient management accounting function, including many aspects of monthly reporting and forecasting.  The role gives support to the annual budgeting process and 5-year planning and may also involve scenario modelling and preparing reports for stakeholders.

The role also holds responsibility for certain aspects of financial accounts processing, with particular responsibility for the weekly processing of purchase invoices and expenses on the Navision accounting system, ensuring that the payment runs are processed accurately and efficiently each week.

Main Responsibilities

Finance Accounts Processes:

• Key responsibility for processing and maintaining the weekly payment run. Duties will include:
  • Weekly processing of purchase requisitions/expenses on Navision for payment
  • Processing purchase requisitions received through shared LDF payments email inbox
  • Reconciliation of supplier/vendor accounts and serve as first point of contact for queries and resolution of ledger transaction discrepancies
  • Direct debit payment and invoice postings
  • Filing of payment processes documentation

Management accounts and budget processes:

• Coordination of the monthly management accounts process, in consultation with the management accountant, including setting monthly deadlines and creating task lists to ensure that the accounts are delivered accurately, are relevant for the budget holders needs and are produced in a timely fashion.
• Supporting the management accountant in the production of the monthly management accounts, with a view to preparing management accounts in periods where extra resilience is needed (such as during key budget setting periods).
• Management of monthly provision of reports to budget holders, including variance analysis reports for departmental and area budget holders, capturing explanations and further analysis for all large variances.
• Supporting the process to set the Parish Standard Cost (including papers to the Joint Operations Team (JOT) and the Diocesan Finance Committee (DFC) each spring), which will involve:
  • Setting timetable and deliverables schedule
  • Meeting with key stakeholders
  • Producing final Parish Standard Cost figures
  • Organising production of printed Parish Standard Cost booklet
  • Overseeing production of Common Fund video (as necessary)
• Supporting the management accountant with the production of the annual budget and 5-year plans – which will include support with the following processes:
  • Setting the budget timetable
  • Issuing and collating the budget templates
  • Helping to set the key budget assumptions
  • Setting the budget phasing
  • Producing summaries of General Fund, Capital Vision strategy, Capital Strategy – including 5-year plans for each
  • Producing drafts for stakeholder groups
• Being key contact for HR with regarding staffing budgets – including sign off of new role creation forms.

Please refer to the attached Job Description for the full details on the main responsibilities.

The Ideal Candidate

Experience, knowledge, training and qualifications

General

At least 2-3 years experience in an accounts function

Specific

At least part-qualified accountant (ACA, CIMA, ACCA)

Aptitudes and abilities

An essential requirement is the ability to take complex financial information and concepts and to summarise them in a clear and easily understood way for non-financial stakeholders.

Personal attributes

• Focused on getting the job done properly without losing sight of the ‘big picture’.
• A team player with a positive attitude, with the ability to support the wider finance team
• Pro-active rather than reactive, and able to challenge existing processes (both systems and accounting) with a view to continuous improvement.
• Able to work swiftly and purposefully to meet emerging deadlines.
• Possessing exceptional organisational skills and attention to detail
• Excellent Microsoft Office skills
•  Fluent in written and spoken English

Desirable attributes / other information

Be sympathetic to the mission of the Church.

Please refer to the attached Job Description for the full details on Person Specification.

About us

The Church of England in London is vibrant and at the heart of communities throughout the capital. At the London Diocesan Fund we seek to do everything we can to support this mission and growth, using our resources to help our parishes and chaplains to serve over 4 million people.

We value the benefits of employing individuals from a range of backgrounds, with diverse cultures and talents and aim to create a workforce that:

• Values difference in others and respects the dignity and worth of each individual
• Reflects the diversity of the nation that the Church of England exists to serve
• Fosters a climate of creativity, tolerance and diversity that will help all staff to develop to their full potential.

To learn more about the work we do, click here

To learn more about Capital Vision 2020 please click here

To learn more about our offer to staff and our enhanced pension scheme with a 15% employer contribution, please refer to the attached 'Our offer to you'.