Finance Analyst

The role will be responsive to the developing and growing needs of the NCIs across management reporting, business partnering, grants, projects and wider church activities. Responsibilities of the role will include:

• Financial planning, reporting and monitoring
• Support for wider Church financial analysis and monitoring
• Other accounting, analysis and change process activities

This position is offered on a fixed term basis for 12 months.

Responsibilities

Responsibilities of the role will include the following tasks:

Financial planning, reporting and monitoring

Management of the production of regular management accounts for each of the NCIs, working with the Management Accounting team, including:

• Ensuring that monthly, quarterly and year end close is complete and all necessary transactions are recorded in SAP accurately and on time, with no material errors, omissions or miscoding.
• Providing support for the financial planning processes (annual budgets and regular forecasts) including developing and maintaining a consistent set of templates for use by budget holders.
• Supporting the production of regular management accounts, budgets and forecasts.

Support for wider Church financial analysis and monitoring

Collecting, interpreting and analysing financial reports from dioceses, cathedrals, NCIs and other Church bodies, tasks will include:

• Producing the Church of England financial overview on an annual basis from information provided from dioceses and cathedrals and other NCI departments.
• Undertaking ad hoc requests for information from dioceses, cathedrals and other Church bodies, analysing and interpreting this in order to produce relevant management information (e.g. identifying Church bodies which have not completed Charity Commission filing requirements and encouraging compliance).
• Proactively establishing and maintaining relationships with diocesan finance teams, including supporting the expansion of the Diocesan Finance Review and developing analysis for the Inter Diocesan Finance Forum and annual Finance Leads conference and being a point of contact for enquiries from diocesan finance teams.
• Managing the diocesan apportionment model including the maintenance pooling adjustment process and assisting in grant calculations.
• Preparing management reports and liaising directly with stakeholders in regular meetings to provide insight and advice.
• Provide financial analysis and support for other Finance projects as they arise, and as commissioned by the Senior Finance Team.
• Support grant financial monitoring and accounting
• Working with the wider Finance team to support the transfer to the new financial accounting system (Microsoft Dynamics 365) and process changes.

Provide occasional support for the Inter Diocesan Finance Forum including preparation of agendas, taking minutes etc.

The closing date is 20th October at 23:55.

Qualifications

Essential

Knowledge/Experience

• Experience of working in a management accounting / data analysis role.
• Experience of providing support, commentary and analysis to stakeholders.
• Experience of developing new financial templates and financial models to support the production of ad hoc or regular analysis or improving existing financial templates and models.
• Experience of using financial systems packages including financial reporting tools.

Skills & Abilities:

• Excellent IT skills including advanced Excel, Power BI and data manipulation skills.
• Able to analyse information and extract pertinent information for management.
• Attention to detail with a focus on clear presentation.
• Well organised and able to prioritise competing demands.
• Ability to work calmly and effectively under pressure.
• Effective communication skills both written and oral, able to communicate effectively with stakeholders at all levels, including those with limited financial literacy.
• Proactive, self-motivated and enthusiastic.

Qualifications & Training:

• Part-qualified or qualified CCAB or equivalent professional accounting body qualification.

Please note that you will not be able to view the role description after the closing date. We suggest that you save a copy of this page before you submit your application.

About the NCIs

The National Church Institutions comprises a wide variety of teams, professions and functions that support the mission and ministries of the Church of England in its vision to be a church, centred on Jesus Christ, for the whole nation - a church that is simpler, humbler, bolder.

We Include. You Belong.

Our Belonging and Inclusion Strategy aims for everyone in the National Church Institutions (NCIs) to feel that they belong, and are valued for who they are and what they contribute. Together, our people contribute in different ways towards our common purpose, whichever NCI they work in and whatever their background.

Living out our values in all that we do, we:

• Strive for Excellence
• Show Compassion
• Respect others
• Collaborate
• Act with Integrity

We believe our commitment to belonging and inclusion fuels our progress and drives us forward. The NCIs are a safe, inclusive workplace for people of all backgrounds and walks of life. We welcome applications from people of all faiths and of no faith. We want to encourage applications from a diverse group of people who share our values. Even if you have never thought about working for us before, if you have the skills and experience we’re looking for then we would like to hear from you.

We offer a highly competitive benefits package that supports your health, wellbeing and long-term financial security. This includes annual leave starting at 25 days' plus bank holidays and three additional NCI days, family friendly policies, a wellbeing cashback scheme, an electric vehicle salary sacrifice scheme, a defined benefit pension with employer contributions of up to 18%, and generous life assurance cover.

Use of AI in your application

We appreciate that you may want to use AI tools to help you with your application. We're happy for you to use AI to come up with ideas and help structure your thoughts, but you shouldn't use AI to fabricate information or write your whole application for you. One of our values is integrity, and although we want you to demonstrate your best self, we don't want an AI-generated persona. If you simply copy and paste AI-generated content into your application, this will reduce your chances of success.