The Insolvency Service is a leading Government agency which plays a crucial role in providing essential services to the public and to business. The work we do is important to the proper functioning of markets, the economy in general and support for thousands of people each year who are in financial difficulty.
We are recruiting a Finance Business Partner within the Insolvency Service' Finance, Commercial, Sustainability and Property directorate. This is an interesting and rewarding role within an established team of finance professionals.
Inclusive and diverse teams are important to us. We welcome and encourage applications from everyone, including groups underrepresented in our workforce. The Insolvency Service strives to ensure that the agency is a safe, inclusive and welcoming place for everybody to bring their true self to work and to help the agency to achieve its diversity objectives. We have 10 active employee network groups available to join or become an ally, these include, Carers Network, Disability & Health, FACES Network Group, Grass Roots, LGBT+, Mind Matters, No Limits, Part Time Workers, The Shed, and Women’s Network Group.
We offer full-time, part-time, job share and flexible ways of working. We value capability, technical skills and experience and we place great emphasis on lifetime development to support our people. We encourage our employees to become more involved in areas they feel strongly about, whether it be for the benefit of the agency, though our Engagement network or in their own local communities via volunteering opportunities.
The Insolvency Service is a great place to work, learn and grow your career!
The Finance, Commercial, Sustainability and Property Directorate manage, oversee and analyse the Agency’s financial and commercial activity. By reporting on our current position, forecasting our future budgets and working closely with internal and external stakeholders, we play an active part in understanding the agency’s performance and in shaping its current and future financial position.
The role is within the Project & National Interest Case FBP Team which works within the Finance, Commercial, Sustainability and Property Directorate, and is strategically placed at the heart of the organisation to provide project finance advice to key stakeholders and Senior Leaders across a varied project portfolio.
What do Project FBPs do:
The team supports the organisation in the delivery of change projects (with the NIC Accountant separately helping to administer National Interest Cases) by providing expert financial guidance and reporting. We help the business achieve this by offering robust challenge, realistic financial forecasting and support with HM Government finance processes. We also provide input to business cases and deliver specific accounting advice to shape commercial decisions.
What we can offer people in the role:
Qualifications and Training
* Support to complete your professional accountancy qualification if applicable (note: you must be qualified or within 12 months of qualifying to apply for this role)
* Support to complete the CIPFA Diploma in Finance Business Partnering
* Opportunity to complete other related training, such as CIPFA Better Business Cases training
Teamwork
* Team members are encouraged to support each other and work together, for example knowledge-sharing or simply giving time to one another to help overcome challenges
Autonomy
* All of our team members are encouraged to identify issues and develop solutions as part of wider stakeholder groups. Over the past year a range of initiatives have been undertaken on the team: a complete overhaul of the project forecast books, the introduction of a team SharePoint site, standardised reports harnessing PowerBI, amongst others
Working with others
* These roles offer a great opportunity to directly work with people outside of Finance, Project FBPs:
o Act as the Business Expert, utilising their comprehensive knowledge of key business drivers and the wider political environment to continually add value
o Have an Influential Voice, utilising strong emotional intelligence to influence at the highest level, bring constructive challenge and enhance the quality of decision-making
o Are the businesses Financial Advisors, providing the options for the business to develop by combining their technical knowledge, strategic insight, commercial acumen and an understanding of business risk and opportunity
Responsibilities
The successful candidate can expect to be involved in a range of the following:
Finance Business Partnering:
* Be the single point of Finance contact for your stakeholders, fostering excellent working relationships
* Hosting or attending meetings, e.g. monthly forecast review meetings, presenting key finance information at project boards
* Field and reply to finance queries from stakeholders, focussing on delivery outcomes whilst remaining impartial and providing appropriate challenge
* Being a key stakeholder on strategy formation, working collaboratively with stakeholders and Finance colleagues
Technical and Accounting:
* Ensure accounts are reflective of the accruals concept
* Provide auditable and transparent records relating to accounting transactions
* Monitor and address potential issues of novel and contentious spend
* Provide advice around accounting and VAT treatment of transactions, ensuring financial transactions are appropriately recorded
Business Case Development:
* Provide financial input into business case development, working collaboratively with stakeholders to obtain information, challenging assumptions when necessary
* Assessing financial impacts across multiple years, e.g. capitalisation and IFRS16 lease accounting
* Assisting with obtaining necessary internal and external approvals of business cases
Budgets, Forecasts and Spending Reviews:
* Work closely with stakeholders to support them with developing robust financial forecasts, utilising available tools, e.g. resource tracker
* Understand potential under and over spends and areas of financial risk early, reporting and monitoring appropriately
* Provide monthly consolidated returns to stakeholders such as the Management Accounts and Financial Accounts team
* Provide annual budget and spending review returns to the Financial Planning Team, matching these to internal forecasts and applying narrative to support
Line Management:
* This role may require the line management of a Cost Centre Manager (CCM), undertaking quarterly performance reviews and developing capability
* Oversight of CCM’s Cost Centre and Ledger Management duties relating to transactions and journal processing
* Oversight and support the CCM’s cross-team task
* Provide CCM direction on non-standard reporting requirements, ensuring delivery to stakeholders in a suitable method and reviewable time-frame
Please note that as this is a Finance role month-end is a critical time, therefore leave for the 1st and 2nd working day of each month can only be approved by exception
Proud member of the Disability Confident employer scheme
Disability Confident
About Disability Confident
A Disability Confident employer will generally offer an interview to any applicant that declares they have a disability and meets the minimum criteria for the job as defined by the employer. It is important to note that in certain recruitment situations such as high-volume, seasonal and high-peak times, the employer may wish to limit the overall numbers of interviews offered to both disabled people and non-disabled people. For more details please go to Disability Confident .