Finance and Systems Associate

ABOUT US
We are an international development organisation putting ingenious ideas to work so people in
poverty can change their world.

We help people find solutions to some of the world’s toughest problems. Challenges made worse by catastrophic climate change and persistent gender inequality. We work with communities to develop ingenious, lasting and locally owned solutions for agriculture, water and waste management, climate resilience and clean energy. And we share what works with others, so answers that start small can grow big.

We’re a global change-making group. The group consists of a UK registered charity with community projects in Africa, Asia and Latin America, an independent development publishing company and a technical consulting service. We combine these specialisms to multiply our impact and help shape a world that works better for everyone.

OUR AIMS
We help people find solutions to some of the world’s toughest problems, made worse by catastrophic climate change and persistent gender inequality. Our aims are to:

• Make agriculture work better for smallholder farmers, many of them women, so they can
  adapt to climate change and achieve a good standard of living
• Help more people harness the transformational effects of clean affordable energy and reduce avoidable deaths caused by smoke from indoor stoves and fires.
• Make cities in poorer countries cleaner, healthier places to live and work.
• Build disaster resilience into the lives of people threatened by hazards – reducing the risk of hazards and minimising their impact on lives and livelihoods.

HOW WE WORK

We work on holistic solutions that change systems and have a framework to help us achieve our
aims:

• Analyse the root causes of a poverty and vulnerability
• Define the change at scale we need to make
• Develop activities along three complementary paths: Demonstrate, Learn and Inspire.
  – Demonstrate that our solutions are sustainable in the real world
  – Learn by capturing evidence and adapting our approach
  – Inspire wider support to multiply our impact.

OUR ORGANISATION
Practical Action is an unconventional, multi-disciplinary change making organisation

• A highly innovative community development charity operating in Africa, Asia and Latin
  America. Practical Action community projects use ingenious ideas to design, test, refine
  and prove new ways to overcome poverty and disadvantage and then ‘open-source’
  knowledge of what works so that it can be implemented at a greater scale by others.
• A world-class consulting operation that helps socially responsible business, government
  policy makers and other development organisations. This draws on learnings from our own development work as well as the combined brainpower of a roster of over 2,000 expert consultants. Practical Action Consulting helps to extend the reach of our influence by providing the best advice to others, whose work can make a bigger difference.
• A well respected specialist development publisher. Practical Action Publishing brings
  together development practitioners, researchers and thought leaders to create publications
  that stimulate discussion, strengthen peoples’ capabilities and inspire sustainable change.

Title: Finance and Systems Associate

Responsible to: International Finance Lead
Matrix Report to: N/A
Grade: 4
Line Manages: NA
Unit: International Finance
Location: Kathmandu, Nepal

Purpose, Scope and Relationships
The purpose of the role is to assist with the control of the finance systems, provide systems support, to maintain oversight of country and group policies and to support ongoing finance activities.
The key working relationship include the Group Finance Systems & Projects Manager, Regional Finance Managers, Head of International Finance, Company Secretary and all Group and International Finance colleagues.
About the role: The role is focused on the creation of new codes and accounts in-line with group guidance while ensuring reference data consistency for all business units and maintaining interfaces with other systems. Providing day-to-day support for all offices, building reports, maintaining user access and resolving finance system issues. Maintaining local policies and updating and controlling the policy management application. This role also provides routine support for accounting, reporting, planning and audit.

Job Functions and Responsibilities
Support to Finance Team:

• Support finance teams on issues identified in the review of monthly accounts, integrity checks.
• Check the submission on the month-end and year end processes and supporting documents.
• Maintain reporting timetables, audit schedules and supporting document for all business units.
• Assist the team in preparation and review of various Balance Sheet account reconciliation.
• Support the finance team with donor reports, budgets, and invoices when necessary.

Finance Systems Support.

• Support in creation of new accounts and analysis codes within the new finance systems
• Monitoring and maintenance of codes to ensure consistency across all business units.
• Support to the finance team in the new system roll out.
• Creation of new user accounts and provide necessary permission for training purpose.

User Support

• Provide day-to-day support to all finance system users throughout the group
• Assisting with the creation and maintenance of training materials.
• Assist in finance system induction training for colleagues

Other

• Support with other finance and systems tasks where necessary
• Support proper completion of business unit and Group Statutory Audit
• Collating Internal Audit Recommendations from the business units

Safeguarding

• Ensure our ethics and values, as set out in our Code of Conduct and related policies, including safeguarding, are embedded in team culture and well modelled by others. Ensure that reporting structure are well promoted and respond to all concerns appropriately.

Gender and Social Inclusion

• Responsible for gender responsive behaviour in all actions and decisions. Ensure non- discriminative behaviour based on gender, age, sex, race, ethnic background, culture, disability, nationality, religion and marital status. Is sensitive and adaptable to gender and social inclusion.

PERSON PROFILE
To be successful in the role, the ideal candidate will be able to demonstrate:

EXPERIENCE, KNOWLEDGE & SKILLS
Overall:

• 2 years of relevant accounting experience and good technical knowledge.
• Strong technical and interpersonal skills
• High attention to detail
• Ability to work in a highly pressured professional environment, keep organised and manage multiple demands on time.
• Excellent communication and inter-personal skills with ability to coach/train others
• Strong excel, technical and accounting knowledge with attention to detail
• Proactive and resilient, with ability to engage others within the team and independently overcome obstacles.
• Ability to work effectively as part of a team.
• Highly computer literate with ability to use and understand accounting systems and reporting tools. Strong, relevant experience in working with finance systems management and maintenance
• Knowledge of MS dynamics (Business Central) desirable but not essential

BEHAVIOURS & MOTIVATIONS
The most important practical behaviors, for role success are:

• Completing
• Collaborative
• Creative
• Dynamic

Qualifications: Bachelor’s in Business Administration or Business Studies or Part Qualified ACCA/CIMA

Closing date for applications: 5 November 2023

Submit a cover letter along with the duly filled standard application form to hr@practicalaction.org.np

Supporting Documents
Job Profile_ Finance And Systems Associate