Associate Consultant
Hours: 37.5 hours per week
Weeks: 52 weeks per year
Salary: 27.5+ (depending on experience)
Holiday: Up to 29 days plus bank holidays*
Looking for candidates based in: Kent, Essex or Surrey.
Start Date: TBC
Benefits
At EduFin we pride ourselves on providing excellent benefits for our employees, they include:
· Excellent career progression prospects.
· Competitive salaries.
· Half yearly team days out.
· Regular training.
· Healthcare plan.
· Study package and support where relevant to individual.
· Pension scheme.
· Occasional remote working.
· Opportunity to take part in company charity events.
About Us
We are a friendly team and have a positive, upbeat, happy culture. We pride ourselves on being flexible for our staff and provide a good work life balance, but in return we want commitment and passion.
We have offices in East Malling, however this role will be based at your home address and will require regular travel to clients’ premises. Mileage will be reimbursed to you at the HMRC rate.
We also run a Helpdesk, a hosting platform and have designed various software packages; so, if you like IT as well as finance then you will never be bored with us!
Person Specification
Being a professional face of EduFin at all times.
Taking responsibility and accountability for the level of work delivered at all times.
Have a positive, upbeat, can-do attitude.
Have a great work ethic.
Have confidence to deal with clients face to face, even in difficult circumstances.
Be dedicated on your career development and studies (if relevant).
Be self-reflective; every day is a School day!
The Role
As an employee with EduFin, you will gain fantastic insight and experience into the education finance sector. The breadth of the support we offer our clients gives great exposure and ensures that there is never a dull day!
You will be supported through your training with the firm; shadowing our consultants on site to start with and then providing finance assistant/officer cover to clients; working your way up to autonomous consultancy as you gain experience and confidence.
Some days will require home working therefore a high level of self-motivation is required.
We also run a Helpdesk, a hosting platform and have designed various software packages; so, if you like IT as well as finance then you will never be bored with us!
Apprenticeship/Study Commitments:
To ensure that study requirements are maintained, we ask that you keep on top of the following expectations:
Commit to the learning process as set out by the chosen provider.
Comply with any policies and procedures outlined in the training plan.
Attend all required college meetings/workshops/coaching sessions as set out by the provider.
Keep up to date with studies by allowing adequate time outside of working hours for revision/portfolio work.
Meet targets and deadlines as set out by the training provider.
Treat college days as working days, logging in and signing off at the designated times.
Duties:
Although the majority of your working day will be on site, fulfilling a role or tasks as set by the client, there are additional responsibilities that this level of role comes with such as:
Looking for opportunities to promote our services such as Helpdesk / Connect / Software / Consultancy (yourself and others).
Having a presence on LinkedIn on behalf of the company.
Keeping on top of sector changes to provide the best service possible to clients.
Keeping up an adequate level of CPD; sourcing your own training opportunities in the areas required to improve your service to clients (requests for funding to line manager).
Being responsible for the training and development of junior members of the team as required.
Ensuring you are always delivering added value to clients.
Any other duties as required from the directors.
Potential Client Duties
Some duties that may be expected of you when on site include but are not limited to the following;
General:
Ensure that all transactions actioned and advice given is in line with the client’s financial policies, DfE guidance and within statutory financial regulations.
Purchase Ledger:
Posting the below documents to the clients accounting software in a timely manner with great accuracy:
Purchase Requisition
Purchase Orders
Good Received Notes
Purchase Invoices
Create new suppliers and perform relevant checks.
Create BACS/Cheque payment runs.
Ensure that all expenditure is recorded against the relevant nominal code and cost centre, and that the correct VAT code is used.
Receive and check statements from suppliers.
Investigate and action any issues that arise with regards to creditors.
Any other purchase ledger maintenance duties requested by the client.
Sales Ledger:
Raise sales invoices as requested by the client on the accounting system in a timely manner.
Ensure that all income is recorded against the relevant nominal code and cost centre, and that the correct VAT code is used.
Ensure that all requests for sales invoices are processed and sent to debtors promptly.
Ensure that all invoices are monitored and chased so that prompt payment is received.
Bank Account:
Ensure that the bank accounts are controlled and monitored.
Ensure that paying in slips/ remittances are received and processed on the accounting system in a timely manner.
Ensure that the bank accounts are reconciled on a weekly basis and that any outstanding items are dealt with promptly.
Reconcile the bank accounts monthly ensuring that all unreconciled items on the bank statement are investigated.
Any other bank account maintenance duties requested by the client.
Other Balance Sheet Items:
Ensure that petty cash returns are received and processed on the accounting system in a timely manner and that a month end reconciliation is undertaken to ensure that actual funds held balance to the ledger.
Ensure that credit card returns are received and processed on the accounting system in a timely manner.
Processing journals as required.
Ensure that all adjustments for prepayments, accruals, accrued and deferred income are processed on a monthly basis.
Ensure that all balance sheet control accounts are completed on a monthly basis as part of the month end process.
Payroll:
Working with the client to ensure that the monthly payroll costs are posted and reconciled against the finance system.
Ensuring payroll reconciliations are completed and any discrepancies investigated.
Review actual payroll costs to budget and investigate discrepancies.
Income:
Post all relevant grant income received.
Work with the SEN coordinator for each academy to ensure that all SEN funding is received correctly from each local authority.
Work with the client and the local authority finance teams to ensure that each academy receives the correct allocation of funding.
Budgeting:
Support clients with the preparation of 3-5 year budgets.
Maintain a working budget for all changes as applicable.
Ensure management accounts outturns are accurate as per the working budget.
Ensure assumptions are accurate and a schedule maintained for backing info to the budget.
Reporting:
Prepare month end management accounts packs as per DfE guidance and client expectations in an accurate and timely manner. To include;
Balance Sheet and supporting schedules.
Income and Expenditure Variance Analysis and Forecast Outturn.
Cashflow Forecast.
Executive Summary.
KPI’s.
Other:
Provide financial support and advice to assist budget holders within Academies in maintaining their budgets (produce and distribute the monthly cost centre reports for budget holders).
Prepare VAT returns and submit to HMRC accordingly.
Deliver training, both 1:1 and group sessions. .
To apply for this vacancy please send your CValong with a short statement as to why you would be great for this role to info@edufin.co.uk.
*EduFin is closed between Christmas and the new year, using 5 days annual leave over this period is mandatory, however after 1 year of service you qualify for an additional 3 days leave.