Interim Accountant – Financial Services

Reference no:  Runnymede RQ843313

Pay Rate: £296.00 per day PAYE TBC

This opening assignment is for 2-3 months

The purpose of the role is to deliver robust, accurate and timely financial support and advice to all stakeholders to ensure that the best use is made of available financial resources, and that decisions are based on appropriate and accurate consideration of the relevant financial issues.

Key Responsibilities:

• Prepare the annual budgets for a range of services in accordance with the agreed estimate programme by using information supplied by, and in consultation with, Budget Managers and from allocation working papers by analysing information as appropriate to enable robust budgets to be set that are consistent with the Council’s financial strategy.
• Prepare the final accounts for services in accordance with the agreed Closing of Accounts programme by rigorously testing and examining information from the Financial Management System and from Budget Managers in order that robust and accurate service actuals are produced.
• Develop the system for the effective budgetary control of services by continuously reviewing the systems for providing budgetary control data, to ensure that, in consultation with Budget Managers, variances are identified and reported effectively, and appropriate action taken.
• Assist the Senior Accountants as directed and in accordance with agreed procedures to enable the effective control and monitoring of ledger controls and personal accounts and in completing high quality year end working papers.
• Provide proactive and responsive advice and support to Members and Managers as requested by giving verbal and written advice in order to assist them in achieving their aims whilst at the same time ensuring adherence to the Council’s financial regulations, standing orders aims and objectives.
• Maintain payroll controls by reconciling payroll system records to the Financial Management System and making sure that any variations or problems are quickly resolved, in order that up to date and accurate payroll information is available.
• Assist the Senior Accountant in compiling reports on salary costs by updating spreadsheets with the latest salary information and analysing significant variances, to enable the Senior Management Team to monitor and control their salary budgets.
• Administer the Council's Car Loan scheme. This includes following the procedure notes for setting up new loans, answering queries from staff about the scheme, recording the amounts recovered from staff salaries, reconciling records with other systems, and keeping up to date records of loans.
• Assist in providing Budget Manager and general finance training by taking an active role in such training courses and other methods as are necessary to ensure that Budget Managers are able to carry out their responsibilities within the Council’s financial framework.

“Role Requirements” – to give yourself the maximum chance of success please try and ensure your CV addresses the following essential criteria:

Qualifications:

1. Actively studying for the Association of Accounting Technicians (AAT) or equivalent.
2. Five GCSE or “O” levels or equivalent including Maths and English.

Skills & Experience:

1. A minimum of three year’s working in a finance environment
2. Knowledge of budget setting and budgetary control functions.
3. Knowledge of cost allocation, recharging mechanisms and reconciling control accounts and salary budgets.
4. Demonstrate a high degree of numeracy and accuracy.
5. Confident with using figures and has the ability to collect, understand and interpret information and explain the meaning of figures in a clear way to non-finance staff and other stakeholders.
6. Ability to understand, analyse and interpret financial data and present it in a format suitable for reporting.
7. ICT Skills: Strong IT skills including Microsoft packages or equivalent (e.g. G Suite).

NB: Please feel free to apply to us direct via [email protected] by quoting the job reference and job title exactly. SEE DETAILS AT THE BOTTOM OF THIS AD.

If you have previously applied to one of our vacancies and have already sent the required supporting documentation to us, please make this clear when you re-apply as this will help speed up your application.

To help speed up the process of uploading your CV to the client we would suggest that you send us your CV in Word format (or equivalent) if possible, rather than as a PDF

If you are successful in securing this role, please note that for the entire duration of this contract, regardless of extension you will be working this role at the PAYE rate that has been advertised. For absolute clarity, we only work on a PAYE basis, rather than entertaining umbrella pay terms, we do not offer Ltd/umbrella or outside IR35 rates. If you wish to understand PAYE vs Umbrella more, please let us know and we can send you some additional information for clarity.