C3 2021
Job Title: Financial Accountant – Irish Aid and Projects
Reports to: International Finance Manager
Liaises with: Managers and staff across various departments, teams and fields in Concern.
Job location: Dublin Head Office with ad hoc travel to Concern’s overseas Country Offices as required.
Pay Band: 5 (€50107 - € 55674)
Contract: Permanent Full Time
Job Purpose: The purpose of the role of the Financial Accountant for Irish Aid and Projects is to coordinate the consolidated budgeting and reporting of all Irish Aid (IA) grants under the Irish Civil Society Partnership with Irish Aid across the organisation, providing support to country teams and head office departments; to coordinate finance input to cash and voucher programming discussions across the organisation; and to undertake various finance projects and represent finance on cross functional projects as required.
Key Responsibilities:
Irish Aid:
1. Review and consolidate financial reporting and budgeting in a timely manner and up to a high standard, ensuring donor reporting deadlines are met.
2. Work closely with Irish Aid Coordinator and Emergency Coordinator in coordinating Irish Aid budgeting exercises at the beginning of funding cycles and on an annual basis, issuing guidance to relevant fields, reviewing and feeding back on submissions and consolidating overall budget.
3. Act as main focal point for any finance related queries from fields and supporting fields with finance aspects of their Irish Aid programmes.
4. Review quarterly financial reports submitted by country programmes, feeding back on same and consolidating these reports, including year-end report for submission to donor.
5. Draft the annual letter of assurance required by donor each year and ensure details of same are in line with Concern Annual Report and Financial Statements and with reports submitted to the donor.
6. Monitor updates to implementation plans and coordinate re-budget submissions to Irish Aid as required.
7. Review budgets and financial reports for emergency interventions (Acute Crisis Stream).
8. Develop and adapt existing budgeting and reporting templates as required.
9. Monitor disposals of Irish Aid assets and ensure all donor required procedures are followed and reports filed.
10. Organise finance meetings and workshops as may prove necessary to standardise financial procedures and address financial and compliance issues that arise.
11. Keep up to date with donor regulations and ensure that all controls are in place to meet donor compliance obligations.
Cash and Voucher Programming:
12. Coordinate finance input to Cash & Voucher Assistance (CVA) discussions across the organisation.
13. Work closely with various representatives from departments outside of finance (including the Beneficiary & Transfer Management System (BTMS) Coordinator and the CVA Programme Advisor) and from countries with dedicated cash programming teams.
14. Represent Finance in the related working groups (WG) including the BTMS WG and CVA WG.
15. Keep up to date on the evolving trends in the CVA programme space, including attending external meetings, webinars etc. and feed back to the International Finance Team (IFT) and Finance Director (FD), highlighting potential risks and areas of focus for finance.
16. Gather information on the current status of finance oversight of existing CVA modalities and distribution methods in country programmes and create a repository of CVA standard operating procedures (SOPs) and information for sharing with the IFT and CFCs.
17. Carry out regular review of existing guidance documentation around CVA programming and ensure finance aspects of same are up-to-date, accurate, complete and in line with wider Concern financial policies and procedures.
18. Take the lead for finance in understanding and reviewing country proposals for the implementation of CVA programmes, including advising on the necessary SoPs to deal with internal controls, transfer methods and risk management and setting up of reconciliation processes.
19. Undertake field visits to observe implementation of CVA programmes and relevant controls for support, oversight and learning purposes.
20. Design a process of best practise around reconciliation and audit of CVA distribution mechanisms in coordination with the Grant Compliance Unit (GCU) and IFT.
21. In consultation with the SAL CVA Programme Advisor, provide finance inputs into the preparation and updating of organisational policies and guidance documents, including the Cash Guide and various annexes.
22. Develop and locate resources/information and lead on the training of CFCs, IFT and any other identified groups in the finance implications of CVA.
Projects:
23. Under the direction of the FD, IFC and IFM, manage various finance projects and represent finance on cross functional projects as required
Skills and Experience Required:
Essential:
24. Professional accounting qualification - e.g. ACA, ACCA, CIMA, CPA or equivalent qualification;
25. Minimum of two years post qualification experience in a finance/accounting role, in an overseas or HQ position in the International NGO sector preferably with experience of working on projects funded by ECHO and Irish Aid.
26. Excellent written and spoken English;
27. Strong analytical, interpersonal, communication and organisation skills;
28. Computer literacy, particularly in Microsoft Office programmes particularly Excel as well as accounting packages and other database competencies;
29. Proven experience of conducting training for finance and non-finance managers;
30. Good organisational and time management skills;
31. Experience in managing multiple budgets.
Desirable:
32. Previous experience of consolidation of projects across multiple countries;
33. Basic French language skills