Finance Officer

ROLE PURPOSE:

The Finance Officer (FO) will provide support to the Finance and Operations staff with tasks related to accounting banking budgeting and financial management to ensure full compliance with rules and regulations of financial processes financial records and reports and audit follow up and implementation of the effective internal control system. The role holder will support Project Finance Director to implement a robust finance controls & compliance system timely payment cycles and support in financial analysis and accounts reconciliation.

SCOPE OF ROLE:

Reports to:Finance Director - PALAMA

Staff reporting to this post: N/A

Budget Responsibilities:N/A

Key Responsibilities:

Financial Reporting

• Ensure the internal KIP of posting an average of 95% prior to monthly SOFT close.
• Support monthly bank reconciliation and other receivable and payable accounts reconciliation.
• Address all accounts payable functions timely in Agresso /Pro-save and account reconciliation is complaint with the SCI accounting and donor financial guidelines.
• Prepare Monthly Financial Reports (MFR) and Monthly Cost Centre (MCC) reports including variance analysis and timely submission.
• Support Year-End Reporting (YER) and preparation of Year-End Disclosure Reports ensuring accuracy and compliance with organizational and donor requirements.
• Ensure monthly cash forecast for the field offices are consolidated and submitted to CO finance team on set deadline. Any revision on the cash requirements is timely reported to Colombo office.
• Review project cash requests to ensure sufficient fund availability for planned monthly utilization and alignment with National Finance Department cash flow targets.
• PALAMA Finance Operations (Advances Payment Verification Cheque Payment Bank Transfers)Verification of Payment Vouchers and ensure all required supporting documents are produced as per donor guidelines and SCI finance procedures. Ensure transactions are posted on weekly basis and Internal KPI of posting of average of 95% is attained prior to SOFT close each month.
• Be responsible for processing payments (cash cheque and bank payments) in timely manner and ensure field offices receive fund transfers and payments on time.

Cash Forecast

• Take the lead in timely upload transactions to the system and obtaining signatures from authorized signatories. Maintaining & documenting records keep the correspondence with bank.
• Ensure timely on-line transaction execution with payment Verification & preparation of interbank transaction payment vouchers. Verification and Approving Pro-save payments in the Pro-save system and exceptional handling
• Ensure internal control on the payments are met and the completeness of supporting documents & accuracy of the payment on the set threshold to decide on processing of the payment. (Consultancy payments partner payments. Preparation of interbank transaction payment vouchers).
• Ensure timely management of cheque signatory management Bank Mandate updates
• Review financial transactions to ensure that these are valid and authentic and that support documentations are adequate complete and compliant with donor requirements
• Ensure filing of vouchers and supporting documents of PALAMA expenses and send file appropriately for reference and future audits.
• Ensure annual insurance for project assets done in coordination with the PALAMA Supply Chain Manager.
• Review asset listing to ensure that all assets purchase are correctly registered and marked with complete required information by USDA/SCI
• Review/process/accrue all staff related costs on a monthly basis and ensure all provisions are made every month from grant budget
• Ensure all supporting receipts are in place and posted in the system prior to monthly soft close.
• Ensure all General Journal Corrections (GJCs) are completed properly approved and filed each month.
• Ensure all statutory and utility payments (including tax payments) are processed on time and that cheques are deposited promptly taking personal responsibility where necessary to avoid delays.

Asset and Stock Verification

• Accountable for all location Asset Register verification and reconciliation on semi annual basis.
• Responsible for Semi -annual and annual commodity verification at Main warehouse. Verification of bincard balances against the physical balance and Stock verification report on any deviation of the records
• Provide full support during internal and external audits by preparing and submitting required documents in a timely manner.
• Maintain all financial records and supporting documents in an organized complete and audit-ready condition at all times
• Maintenance of virtual and hard copies archiving system of PALAMA project payment vouchers and supporting documents Advance settlement Journal Vouchers major procurement related documents construction related documents. Ensure completion of physical archiving after completion of the digital archiving to manage the proper archiving system.

Auditing- Supporting

• Provide full support during internal and external audits by preparing and submitting required documents in a timely manner.
• Maintain all financial records and supporting documents in an organized complete and audit-ready condition at all times

Maintenance of Archiving system

• Maintenance of virtual and hard copies archiving system of PALAMA project payment vouchers and supporting documents Advance settlement Journal Vouchers major procurement related documents construction related documents. Ensure completion of physical archiving after completion of the digital archiving to manage the proper archiving system.

QUALIFICATIONS AND EXPERIENCE:

• Part qualification or pass finalist or final level professional qualification in ICASL/CIMA/ACCA
• 2 years experience in auditing accounting or finance field. Preferred in humanitarian / development sector.
• Excellent coordination planning and communication skills.
• Timely meeting deadlines.
• Effective Team Work
• Excellent written and verbal English skills and Sinhala/ Tamil
• Excellent presentation skills
• Microsoft office suite
• Ability and willingness to travel to all parts of the country.