Purpose of the Role:
Senior Finance Officers provide high quality and comprehensive finance support across the Council, drawing on technical expertise, knowledge and experience to add value, lead on the resolution of challenges and drive process improvements across the area.
As senior members of the team they actively contribute to the smooth running of the service to coach and develop colleagues to help raise standards and productivity, which may require flexibility in working across teams. As owners of specific finance activities, Senior Finance Officers ensure processes are delivered in a consistent, standardised and efficient manner. Senior Finance Officers will be the first point of contact for service enquiries and will provide direct support to Finance colleagues and other Council staff.
Senior Finance Officers should actively champion continuous improvement and the implementation of automation and efficient ways of working.
Supervisory responsibility:
• Coaching and developing colleagues, including induction, mentoring and training of new joiners, agency staff and service users.
Key Accountabilities:
1. Responsible for leading on specific tasks, delivering work to a high standard across a range of finance service activities for the assigned team, including but not limited to, corporate accounting, VAT and indirect tax and finance systems maintenance to support services across the Council.
2. The role will specifically be responsible for (but not limited to) the following tasks:
o Completion of the monthly VAT claims including accuracy checks and sample testing
o Completion of the monthly CIS returns
o HMRC and VAT queries
o Monitoring and reporting on financial controls
o Completion of the annual Statement of Accounts and associated processes
o Finance systems maintenance support and resilience
o Completion of government and other statutory returns
o Balance sheet and other reconciliations
o Liaising with and providing information to internal and external audit as required
3. Proactively develop skills, understanding and abilities in delivering finance services.
4. Take ownership of specific finance processes to ensure all officers are appropriately trained to carry out these processes in a consistent and efficient manner.
5. Proactively develop and quality assure the work of others on how best to deliver the service processes, standards and performance indicators, driving a step change in team productivity.
6. Deal professionally and effectively with all contacts from a wide range of people, including senior management where appropriate, using tact and discretion, assessing needs and re-directing enquiries, where appropriate.
7. Deal with escalations from officers from across the Council to ensure any issues are resolved and requests are completed in a timely manner and guide the resolution of issues.
8. Continuously develop and maintain up to date technical knowledge to ensure core IT requirements are met and opportunities to increase automation within the function are identified.
9. Organise and prioritise own workload as appropriate, keeping the Corporate Accountancy Managers and other staff as appropriate aware of demands which may impact on targets/deadlines and service standards.
10. Inform opportunities to eliminate waste, stop non-value adding activities and maximise the potential of simplified and shared ways of working and automation
11. Support implementation of ICT/automation to deliver efficiencies
12. Carry out all tasks/duties in compliance with the Council’s Policies and Procedures
13. Maintain a comprehensive and up to date knowledge of all relevant legislation, procedures and current and emerging best practice for the area of responsibility and ensure that the organisation meets all of its statutory, regulatory and contractual obligations
14. Develop and maintain an in-depth understanding of the Council’s services and their related objectives, and be informed of their risks, challenges and the impact of regulatory, financial and other changes.
15. Maintain accurate and effective communication with your line manager (to include the provision of reports and presentations) ensuring that they are regularly appraised of planned changes and developments.
16. The range of outcomes we expect you to do are set out above, however this is not intended as a complete description of your job. We reserve the right to ask you to undertake any tasks that are consistent with the grade to ensure effective service delivery. This may include working in any other finance areas.
Key Relationships (Internal and External):
• Build and maintain effective relationships across the organisation and with customers to develop, improve and provide a proactive, flexible, customer focused service solution.
• Establish and maintain excellent relationships with Finance staff and service contacts to facilitate a shared approach to meeting business requirements and developing better ways of working.
• Support ICT and technical experts to deliver automation and efficiencies