Dear Applicant

Post Title:Senior Finance Officer

Salary Range:£19,697 - £22,683 per annum

Hours:37.5 hours per week

Closing date:Friday 9th February 2018

Informal Enquiries to: Sheila Hainey, Finance Manager

Thank you for your recent enquiry regarding the above vacancy. I have pleasure enclosing an application pack containing;

  • An Application Form. Please note we do not accept CVs.
  • An Equal Opportunities Form.
  • A Job Description (for reference only).
  • A Person Specification (for reference only).
  • An Information sheet containing details of the terms and conditions applying to the post (for reference only).

Please note that only candidates who are shortlisted and invited for interview will receive further communication regarding the process of an application. I would therefore like to thank you for the interest you have shown in this vacancy with The Ayrshire Hospice and look forward to receiving your Application for this post.

Yours sincerely

LORNA SAMSON

People Development Officer

INFORMATION

FOR CANDIDATES

POST OF:SENIOR FINANCE OFFICER
BASE:29 MILLER ROAD, AYR, KA7 2AX
REF NO:AH/05/18

Thank you for applying for the above post with the Ayrshire Hospice. This information sheet summarises the terms and conditions related to the post. The Hospice has recently undertaken a Pay and Benefit Review and the following terms and conditions will be effective from 1 April 2016.

ABOUT THE POST:

Employing Organisation:Ayrshire Hospice

Job Description:A job description is attached.

Salary/Grade Scale:£19,697 - £22,683 per annum

Your salary will be paid into your bank account on the last Friday of each month.

Hours of Work:37.5 hours per week

Annual Leave:Leave year is from April – March

30 days (225 hours) on commencing employment

32 days (240 hours) after 5 years’ service

For part time staff, this will be applied on a pro-rata basis and also allocated in hours.

Public Holidays:Entitlement is 37.5 hours based on the 5 designated Public Holidays per annum, and on a 5 day week working 7.5 hours per day. The 37.5 hours entitlement is due to all whole time staff irrespective of work pattern.

For part time staff, this will be applied on a pro-rata basis and also allocated in hours.

Pensions:The Company will comply with the employer pension duties in accordance with Part 1 of the Pensions Act 2008 by automatically enrolling you where eligibility criteria is met, in the Group Personal Pension Plan.

The Hospice provides a generous employer contribution of 7.5% of your salary per month provided a minimum 2.5% employee contribution is made.

Asylum AndThe Asylum and Immigration Act 1996 and 2004(Section 8)

Immigration Act 1996checks to ensure that all employees are legally employed

And 2004 (Section 8):in the United Kingdom. Candidates will be asked to provide relevant original documents prior to an offer of employment being made. Any offer of employment will only be made when the organisation is satisfied that the candidate is the rightful holder of the documents and is legally eligible for employment within the United Kingdom.

Medical Examination:Any offer of employment is conditional upon a satisfactory medical report from the Occupational Health Department. You may be offered employment conditional on confirmation that you are medically fit for employment. A commencement date for employment will only be agreed following this confirmation.

Rehabilitation ofThis post is not exempt from the provision of

Offenders Act:Section 4(2) of the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974 (Exemptions) Order 1975.

References:Two satisfactory written references must be obtained prior to any offer of employment being made. These should include current and previous employers as requested in the job application form. This is in line with our Recruitment and Selection Policy.

Informal Enquiries:Informal enquiries are welcomed by Sheila Hainey, Finance Manager, who can be contacted on 01292 269200.

Closing Date:Your completed application form should be submitted to:-

Administration Department

Ayrshire Hospice

35 Racecourse Road

AYR

KA7 2TG

Or emailed to

By: Friday 9th February 2018

JOB DESCRIPTION

  1. JOB IDENTIFICATION

Job Title: Senior Finance Officer
Responsible to: Finance Manager
Department(s): Finance
Directorate: Finance & Fundraising
No of Job Holders: 1
Last Update: October 2016
2. JOB PURPOSE
To administer all cashbook and banking systems and processes for the hospice, providing comprehensive treasury management ensuring all cash handling & banking and the storage, issue and use of manual cheques is undertaken in line with Hospice financial procedures.
To oversee the maintenance of the financial ledger, ensuring coding structures are up to date, key account reconciliations are complete and all sub-ledger information and data is accurately & timeously posted.
To provide direct support to the Finance Manager in the production of the monthly income & expenditure account and balance sheet as a basis for the production of organisational management accounts.
3. DIMENSIONS
Management of an electronic cashbook system for the processing and recording of all cash, manual cheque and BACS income and expenditure transactions across the Hospice. On average this will represent processing 250 transactions per month with an annual value of circa £7M for income and £500,000 for expenditure.
Responsible for the maintenance and reconciliation of a framework of 24 ledger control accounts.
Operates a total of 4 revenue bank accounts and 4 investment bank accounts.
Administers a total of 6 petty cash imprests across the organisation with a value of £3,000.
Authorised user/signatory for electronic banking system: authorised to transfer funds between accounts up to £500k. Creates creditor BACS payments for authorisation and payment up to value of £10k per transaction.
4. ORGANISATIONAL POSITION
5. ROLE OF DEPARTMENT
The Ayrshire Hospice is a specialist resource for those individuals receiving palliative care, who have particularly complex needs that cannot be fully met in their usual place of care. The Hospice strives to meet physical, emotional, social and spiritual needs providing the highest standard of patient centred Specialist Palliative Care possible while ensuring choice, dignity and self esteem and an enhanced quality of life and engages with family and friends offering them support and bereavement counselling.
The Finance & Fundraising directorate is responsible for:
  • financial governance, delivering efficient and well controlled financial operations;
  • all reporting and annual returns to Companies House, the Office of the Scottish Charity Regulator, Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs, The Gaming Board, the external auditor and The Care Commission, reflecting the organisation’s financial compliance with legislation and standards;
  • the day to day financial management of the Hospice including the formulation, implementation and monitoring of departmental budgets;
  • achieving strong sustained net income growth in order for the Hospice to meet its operational and strategic aims;
  • Identifying, developing and maximising a varied portfolio of income streams ensuring sustainability;
  • establishing and maintaining sustainable relationships to benefit Hospice income generation and marketing initiatives;
  • communicating the value of the Hospice both locally and nationally to raise awareness and promote services and as a leading provider of Specialist Palliative Care.
The directorate works closely with colleagues in the other departments and external stakeholders to improve hospice services for the population of Ayrshire & Arran, and to ensure alignment of local financial, clinical service, workforce and capital plans with the organisational fundraising strategy and income generation targets. This is achieved in an open and facilitative way to secure their trust and support.
6. KEY RESULT AREAS
  1. Administer and maintain the cashbook system, posting all bank income & expenditure including standing orders and direct debits. Control the secure storage, issue and use of manually written cheques in line with Hospice cash handling and security procedures. Post all Lottery bank income and expenditure reconciling all associated control accounts and agreeing to the lottery system. Input all cashbook income and expenditure to the nominal ledger.
  1. Preparation of accurate and timely monthly reconciliations for all Hospice bank accounts and all income control accounts. Check and analyse each account to identify any un-reconciling items and investigate and resolve discrepancies, processing adjustments to the ledger as appropriate. Ensure relevant follow-up action is undertaken with the bank(s) and/or departments depositing monies in relation to all reconciling items.
  1. Provide a comprehensive and effective treasury management service. Oversee the processing of all cash and bank pay-in/lodgements, ensuring all cash handling and banking is undertaken in line with Hospice financial procedures. Prepare and produce cash flow forecasts to identify and monitor the on-going cash requirements of the organisation. Regularly monitor bank account balances, transferring funds as appropriate between current and short-term investment accounts to maximise returns achieved from surplus funds.
  1. Process all manual cheque and manual BACS out of course payments for urgent payment needs and working cash requirements. Review and check all payment requests to assess payment terms and determine most appropriate route for payment. Ensure all manual payments are processed in line with Hospice authorised signatory and financial procedures and VAT regulations as they apply within the charitable sector are properly accounted for.
  1. Control and co-ordinate the administration of all income sub-ledgers/systems including the fundraising ThankQ CRM System, fundraising lottery system and the sales ledger ensuring all income data is correctly extracted and reconciled prior to posting to the nominal ledger.
  1. Maintain the chart of accounts for the Hospice financial ledger system to support the developing financial and management accounting requirements of the organisation. Ensure changes to the coding structure are documented and controlled and the integrity of the structure maintained. Review, reconcile and update all standing ledger report structures to ensure all coding changes are accurately collected and reflected.
  1. Support the production and reconciliation of the monthly ledger trial balance, income & expenditure account and balance sheet through the completion of monthly reconciliations of all nominal control and suspense accounts including income, payroll and expenditure. Check and analyse each account to identify any un-reconciling items and investigate and resolve discrepancies, processing adjustments to the ledger as appropriate. Reconciliations will range from straightforward & routine to detailed & complex.
  1. Assist in the computation of monthly income and expenditure accruals and pre-payments. Maintain comprehensive spreadsheet records of all items and calculations. Compile and post relevant accrual and pre-payment journals to the nominal ledger.
  2. Co-ordinate the monthly closure of all finance sub-ledgers and transfer/input of key financial data into the nominal ledger. Ensure input from purchase and sales ledger is complete and action formal closing and posting of entries into the nominal ledger. Input detailed journals from the payroll and income sub-ledger (ThankQ) into nominal ledger. Close-off all monthly ledger input and roll-forward nominal ledger into next reporting period.
  1. Assist the Finance Manager in the compilation of the monthly management accounts/ budget reports, undertaking analyses of budget and expenditure informationandrelevant variances identified. Assess and determine any discrepancies or errors and action required adjustments in the nominal ledger, including processing of corrections, re-codings and accruals, to enable a finalised report to be produced and distributed to budget managers.
  1. Manage the accounting processes required for the administration of all Hospice restricted and designated funds. Maintain a comprehensive record/database of all restricted donations including Trust & Grant funding, detailing agreed purpose(s) for use of funds, responsible officer and authorised signatories. Maintain detailed spreadsheet records of income and expenditure for individual restricted funds ensuring spreadsheets are fully reconciled to the financial ledger on a monthly basis.
  1. Administer and maintain the petty cash systems in place across all Hospice locations. Record and reconcile all petty cash reimbursement claims and undertake processing of associated cash payments. Process debit card petty cash funds through interrogation and administration of online card accounts and reimbursement of funds through electronic banking BACS payment. Complete financial coding of petty cash transactions and input information to financial ledger.

7a. EQUIPMENT AND MACHINERY
The main piece of equipment used is a personal computer. The PC is used both as a terminal to access and input to the online financial general ledger system and as a desktop computer to operate spreadsheet software for the recording of financial information and production of budget reports and analyses. Through the use of e-mail software and systems, the PC is also used as a key communication tool.
7b. SYSTEMS
The postholder will make regular use on a daily basis of the computerised general ledger system – Pegasus Opera 3. This involves interrogating the system to gain financial details and information in response to queries, analysis and for reporting purposes; inputting journal entries, budgets and accrual entries as part of the maintenance of the system; creating and generating routine and ad-hoc financial reports from the system as part of the department’s financial reporting responsibilities.
The postholder will utilise XRL reporting software to produce a range of output reports from general ledger databases. Reports will be constructed from new, setting up relevant field parameters and formulae to capture the required data and statistics. This information is utilised by the Finance Manager and Director of Finance & Income Generation in the production of financial reports and in responding to queries.
Use of Microsoft Excel is required to produce spreadsheets that contain financial analysis and statistics to meet both financial reconciliation and reporting requirements. Spreadsheet reports and analysis will be bespoke in nature and require the use of advanced level formulae and calculations.
The postholder will be an authorised user for the Hospice electronic banking and BACS payment systems. Electronic banking will be used to review bank balances, undertake transfers between accounts and set-up BACS payments.
Daily use of Microsoft Outlook for communicating with Hospice colleagues and to distribute financial information, as required, to budget managers.
8. ASSIGNMENT AND REVIEW OF WORK
The post-holder receives general direction from the Finance Manager and is expected to use maximum personal initiative and be largely self directed in the organisation of their day to day work.
The post-holder is expected to manage their workload within agreed policies and to specific timescales set by the Finance Manager as well as Hospice financial reporting and payments processing deadlines. This will require the post holder to plan and prioritise their workload taking into account elements that have regular weekly, monthly and annual timetable demands.
The performance and achievement of cashbook management, banking, out of course payment processing and petty cash reimbursement key results will be very much self directed.
The post holder has delegated responsibility for ensuring that the recording and posting of all bank income & expenditure including standing orders and direct debits is completed accurately and timeously.
Budget managers and staff holding petty cash floats or requiring urgent out of course payments, will contact the postholder directly for a range of enquiries, which can be resolved without recourse to the Finance Manager.
The postholder has delegated responsibility for ensuring that restricted & designated fund records and reports are accurately and timeously completed and distributed. Investigations are undertaken by personal initiative, direct request from the Finance Manager or by budget managers requiring advice and information with regards to their use and application of funds.
The postholder meets and reports to the Finance Manager on a regular basis, giving verbal, written or spreadsheet reports. Annual performance objectives will be agreed with the Finance Manager and progress against these will be reviewed on a bi-annual basis.
9. DECISIONS AND JUDGEMENTS
The post-holder has delegated discretion within his/her professional judgement as to how to achieve the outcomes expected in their areas of responsibility. They have the discretion to determine the order in which tasks will be completed to ensure that all relevant reporting and submission deadlines are met.
The post holder will identify problems and resolve them in a professional manner without recourse to the Finance Manager.
Completes a range of financial analysis and reconciliation tasks including bank reconciliations, control account reconciliations and variance analysis where the investigation and analysis of discrepancies can often be detailed and complex. Judgement will be required in assessing the potential source of discrepancies and variances across multiple systems and codes and identifying the short and long term options to adjust the financial position and correct any/all identified errors and associated processing issues.
The post holder will routinely make a range of decisions and judgements in relation to the financial ledger position, dealing mainly with expenditure and income adjustments. This will include identifying and actioning relevant accruals and pre-payments and corrective journals.
Oversees the day to day cashflow requirements of the organisation, actioning transfers of funds across bank accounts where required within agreed parameters. Liaises directly with Finance Manager to highlight any identified cashflow pressures or additional funds transfer needs.
Critically reviews all urgent manual payment requests and cash payment requests to determine if a suitable alternative payment method can be utilised. Provides feedback and advice to budget managers and staff on the guidelines for actioning manual and cash payments.