Financial Accountant

Job overview

Reporting to the Senior Financial Accountant – Technical Accounts, the post holder will have responsibilities for key areas across the Financial Accounts function. This post requires a combination of financial accounting skills and experience within the context of a large acute provider Trust.

Main duties of the job

Accountable for aspects of the final statutory accounts and finance policy relating to specific areas, including stock and lease accounting.

The post holder will be playing a key role in helping to deliver the financial accounting and reporting agenda for the Trust, by providing dedicated support to the Senior Financial Accountant – Technical Accounts in the production of ad-hoc reports, monthly and the annual statutory consolidated accounts. They will also have responsibility for completion of (SoFP) control accounts reconciliations, lease and stock accounting and subsequent reporting in the statutory accounts.

Interpret and implement changes arising from IFRS, NHS accounting standards and statutory reporting requirements, assessing the impact on Trust processes and recommending action.

There is a requirement of this post to liaise with external stakeholders, particularly internal and external auditors, and NHS Shared Business Services (SBS), providing accurate information as and when required. Organisation skills, planning ability and time management is required.

The postholder will play an active role in dealing with issues arising as part of the monthly reconciliation pack review with SBS, ensuring actions are followed up as directed by the Senior Financial Accountant – Technical Accounts.

The postholder will ensure all documents required by audit for both the interim and final audits are maintained throughout the year and are of the required standard.

Detailed job description and main responsibilities

• Provide operational support to the Senior Financial Accountant – Technical Accounts in the delivery of all statutory / NHS accounts and monthly returns (including Provider Financial Returns (PFR’s), Statutory Accounts and detailed working papers) which represent a true and fair view of the Trust position and meet financial timescales and legal requirements. Assist in the comprehensive production of all necessary detailed working papers for the monthly / annual accounts. Maintain the integrity of the trial balance (TB), properly coding transactions to ensure that production of the key reports and statements can be derived from the General Ledger with minimal manual intervention. Work with Financial Management and Transactional Services colleagues to ensure the Trust has identified and properly accounted for provisions (bad debt, redundancies etc) and has reported any ‘Special Payments’ correctly. Advise colleagues on the appropriate treatment of contentious or unusual transactions (eg, accruals, vs provision, vs contingent liability). Maintain proper logs of the details and outcome of decisions or investigations and make the appropriate disclosures relating to IR35 transactions (including in the annual report). Follow the agreed timetable relating to Trust control accounts and suspense accounts, ensuring that all procedures are followed in a timely manner. Obtain monthly statistics using business intelligence, formulating trends or tables of information in the agreed format for inclusion in reports to Senior Management. Capture all necessary information to update the losses and special payments register and produce the losses and special payments quarterly report for the Audit Committee and auditors, ensuring that all losses and special payments have been made in accordance with national guidance, current policies, reporting trends and anomalies appropriately. Review the completion of Trust SOFP control accounts (internal or SBS produced), ensuring reconciliations are completed and reviewed on time by responsible officers, in the prescribed Trust format and provide evidence / report any issues to the Financial Accountant – Technical Accounts. Review monthly VAT returns and transactions completed by SBS/internally, reporting to Financial Management and other colleagues any anomalies impacting on the monthly position, that might necessitate a correction, working with colleagues to transact any such correction. Monitor the ‘goods received not invoiced’ (GRNI) position of the Trust and transact on a timely basis any manual adjustment to the monthly automated accrual journal, in line with current policy and ensure full transparency with colleagues. Calculate finance expenditure including interest (bank / leases). Ensure any learning from the prior year is incorporated into the work of the current year to ensure mistakes are not repeated and a culture of continuous improvement is instilled into the team. Identify weaknesses in the national chart of accounts impacting on the Trust’s ability to report accurately / effectively and recommend changes or internal workarounds as necessary (e.g. the setting up of analysis codes to enrich the information stored in the GL). Report any workarounds to the Senior Financial Accountant – Technical Accounts and advise on potential solutions. Input to the annual accounts and audit as required, responding to audit queries as directed by the Senior Financial Accountants. Correctly comply with new or updated accounting standards as adopted by the NHS and adapt existing processes as necessary, ensuring that information is devolved as widely as necessary, acting as a focal point for subsequent queries. Periodically review and lead the development, review and implementation of financial accounting procedures, policies and control frameworks. Lead the management and technical accounting treatment of Trust lease arrangements, including, maintaining the Trust’s lease register, ensuring new leases are added, existing leases are updated, expired leases are removed and that balances and inflationary increases etc are updated periodically. Performance management and development of the Financial Accounting Officer – Technical Accounting. Lead the Financial Accounts automation strategy, identifying opportunities for AI and robotic process automation and provide guidance and management to the Financial Accounting Officer - AI Robotics Undertake performance reviews, appraisals and regular 1:1 meetings. Comply with Trust values and behaviours within the Department. Suggest and adapt to new ways of working, leading on the direction of travel relating to the automation of processes (artificial intelligence / robotic process automation) in Finance to improve productivity, accuracy and timeliness. Ensure compliance with Corporate Governance (financial controls), Standing Orders, Standing Financial Instructions and other standards, working with colleagues across the Finance function and in the wider Trust to promote good governance practice and the highest standards of business conduct. Input into the content of Trust policies. Any other duties as determined appropriate by the Senior Financial Accountant – Technical Accounts and provision of cross-cover for the Financial Accountant – Group Accounting and Cash.

Applicant requirements

You must have appropriate UK professional registration.