Senior Financial Accountant

Job Title: Senior Financial Accountant
Organisation: Self Help Africa
Location: Ireland or UK
Contract: 3 Year Fixed Term Contract, Full Time
Reports to: Global Financial Reporting Manager

About Self Help Africa/United Purpose

United Purpose are part of the Gorta T/A Self Help Africa group and are international development organisations that work through agriculture and agri-enterprise development to end hunger and extreme poverty. The organisation has programmes in 15 countries in Africa, Asia and Latin America.

In early 2023 we launched a new five-year organisation strategy, which defines shared mission as the alleviation of hunger, poverty, social inequality and the impact of climate change through community-led, market-based and enterprise-focused approaches, so that people can have access to nutritious food, clean water, decent employment and incomes, while sustaining natural resources.

Our wider organisation also includes social enterprise subsidiaries Partner Africa, which provides ethical auditing and consultancy services, TruTrade, an innovative trading platform in East Africa, and CUMO, Malawi’s largest micro-finance provider.

Our three core values are:

▪ Impact: We are accountable, ambitious and committed to systemic change.
▪ Innovation: We are agile, creative and enterprising in an ever-changing world.
▪ Community: We are inclusive, honest and have integrity in our relationships.

Job Purpose:

The Finance Accountant is a key member of the global finance team, and they will be responsible for the day-to-day finance operations in United Purpose (UP). They will be responsible for dealing with transactions from country programmes to support the preparation of group financial statements and they will report to the Global Financial Reporting Manager to support group consolidation, budgeting, and project activities.

Key Responsibilities

Role Specific

• Manage the UP financial accounting operations, including the posting of accounting transactions and the oversight of all month-end process and project reconciliations.
• Manage the Village Aid accounting operations, including the production of accounting reports.
• Support the registration/deregistration process for United Purpose Programme countries.
• Reporting on financial performance to the Boards of United Purpose/Village Aid
• Manage monthly management accounts, forecasts, budgets, cashflow processes.
• Manage, present and advise on cashflow & treasury function and oversee bank reconciliations.
• Supervise UP accounts payable, payroll and income functions.
• Support the integration of procedures, systems & policies.
• Support the Global Finance team to produce consolidated annual budgets for the Group.
• Prepare statutory accounts and liaise with UP and VA auditors.
• Liaise with all country programmes and PFA team on cash, accounts and audits.
• Manage bank mandates and signatories, ensuring records are accurately maintained.
• Monitor subsidiary organisations e.g. Village Aid, CUMO, UP Trading Ltd.
• Monitor and update Charity Commission and Company House details.

Key Relationships:

Internal

• Director of Corporate Services
• Head of Finance & Compliance
• Global Finance Team
• People & Culture Team
• IT Team
• Regional Directors and Country Directors
• United Purpose/Village Aid Boards

External

• Statutory auditors
• Banking institutions
• Key institutional donors
• Regulatory bodies

Knowledge, Experience and Other Requirements

Essential

• Accounting Qualification (ACA, ACCA, CIMA, CPA) with at least 3 years PQE
• Previous experience working in an INGO is a distinct advantage
• High level of initiative, motivation, commitment, and professionalism
• Competent with MS Office with medium to advanced Excel ability
• Excellent verbal, analytical, organisational, and written skills
• Strong people management and communication skills.

Desirable

• Hands-on experience of systems implementation would be an advantage.
• Financial experience in the not-for-profit sector desirable but not essential