Finance Payments and Admin Officer (Scale 6)

Job Description

Job Category : Finance (Support)
Location :Civic Centre, Enfield Council
Start Date : Immediate Start
Base Salary : £34,416.00

Exciting Opportunity for Finance Payment and Admin Officer at Enfield Council
Enfield Council is a progressive local authority with a clear vision to transform the borough, tackle inequality, and create lifelong opportunities for everyone who lives, works, and learns in Enfield.
We are seeking a motivated Finance Assistant to join our Finance Business Partnering team within the Education and Schools Finance Team.
Role Overview:
As a Finance Assistant, you will be an integral part of a dynamic finance team, delivering exceptional customer service to schools and Council staff regarding school payments and finance-related queries. Your key responsibilities will include:
• Calculating and updating monthly payments to schools using the Council’s schools advances system.
• Completing financial reconciliations and resolving any discrepancies.
• Reviewing and following up on monthly and quarterly school finance returns.
• Liaising with Council staff and schools to address queries.
• Proactively seeking opportunities to improve processes.
Why Join Us?
This role offers an excellent opportunity for finance professionals looking to make a meaningful impact in the public sector. You will gain valuable experience, develop your skills, and contribute to the financial well-being of our educational institutions.
Candidate Requirements:
To excel in this role, you should possess strong numeracy and literacy skills, attention to detail, and accuracy in your work. Proficiency in Microsoft Excel, Word, and Outlook, along with accounting skills, is essential.
If you have finance experience and enjoy interacting with people and resolving queries, we would love to hear from you.
Working Arrangements:
Enfield Council offers a hybrid working arrangement, with an expectation that staff will be in the office at least one day every other week. Additional office attendance may be required based on service needs.

Generic Job category: Finance i.e. jobs with general finance responsibilities in a variety of work settings.

Post Title and Number: Finance Payments and Admin Officer

Present Grade: Sc6 Dept: Corporate Finance, Resources

Service/Section/Team: Finance Business Partnering

Reports to (title): Finance Manager (Resources or Education and Schools)

Purpose of the Role:

This post will be located in the Corporate Finance – Finance Business Partnering Team and will focus on activities relating to:

Schools and Education payments, queries and administration.

The role is responsible for:
– the management of the schools advances monthly process and support for other education related payments to external organisations.
– The collation of monthly schools VAT returns and submission of the information to Corporate Accountancy team for inclusion in the Council’s VAT claim within the deadlines.
– The collation of other schools related financial information for monthly, quarterly and year end returns.
– Logging and responding to queries raised in a timely manner and escalating issues where appropriate.
– Liaison with schools and other third-party organisations.

The above postholders will be expected to:

Provide a high quality and comprehensive finance support service, be adaptable, and follow standard operating procedures with limited supervision.

Deliver an effective, efficient and customer focused service in line with corporate policies and within national and local legislative requirements. Taking responsibility for ensuring that any issues raised are resolved in a timely manner.

Finance payment and admin officers should actively support continuous improvement and the implementation of automation and efficient ways of working.

The role/s require the post holder/s to keep up to date with service developments and council practices including ensuring that there are sufficient audit trails and approvals for the authorisation of financial transactions.

KNOWLEDGE, SKILLS & ABILITIES
Job Specifics – Skills, Experience
(In this section you should list between 4 and a maximum of 8 essential recruitment and selection criteria and 2 desirable criteria). The information you provide in this section will be used in the recruitment application process to assess the suitability of job applicants.

Essential:
• Working within a finance related environment delivering high quality services
• Excellent numeracy and written communication skills
• Strong commitment to customer focused service
• Experience of dealing with customer queries and taking responsibility of resolving issues
• Strong IT/Technical skills, knowledge, specifically excel skills
• Finance payments and administration experience
• Experience of dealing with high work volumes within tight deadlines
• Development of skills and knowledge
Desirable:
• Advanced excel skills
• Accounts payable experience

Experience of finance related support or business support roles including numeracy
Competencies*:
Please choose a maximum of 6 most important competencies for the role from either the Staff Competency Framework (up to SO2) Leadership Competency Framework (PO1 and above) and list here in ranked order. Candidates will be asked to address these when making their application.
1. Driving Success 4. Give support
2. Planning and Organising 5. Investigate issues/develop expertise
3. Uphold Standards 6. Resilience
Knowledge*
1. Understanding of financial requirements of a local authority
2. Good knowledge of Microsoft Office suite including Excel
3. Council processes and working practices
Qualification(s)*
Maths and English minimum level 2 or equivalent