Accounts Officer

Location

Westminster, Greater London | United Kingdom

Job description

House of Commons

The House of Commons is a unique and exciting place to work right at the heart of the UK's thriving democratic system.

Behind the scenes, the House of Commons Service is made up of more than 3,000 employees who support and facilitate the smooth day to day running of the House. They provide professional services to Members of Parliament, their staff, and the wider parliamentary community.

Staff Benefits

In addition to your salary, we offer an attractive range of benefits including:

• 30 days' annual leave (increasing to 35 days after first full leave year).
• Civil Service pension with an average employer contribution of 27%.
• Access to training and development.
• Flexible working.
• Interest free season ticket loan and bicycle loan.

Introduction

The Finance, Portfolio and Performance (FPP) team is critical to supporting a thriving Parliamentary democracy. We play a leading role in delivering the House of Commons' Strategy and corporate priorities through business and financial planning, analysing performance, and supporting the delivery of projects and programmes across Parliament. Equally important are the financial services, systems, accounting, reporting and Members' services that we provide to keep the House of Commons Service working effectively and efficiently on a day-to-day basis.

The Role

The Financial Services Team will engage with a range of stakeholders at all levels to ensure that financial processes run efficiently and that people can easily follow them. Financial Services covers a broad range of functions, types of activity include; purchasing, income, cash and treasury management, and grants management, and processes that impact individuals directly such as expenses and reimbursements. The Financial Services Team partners with system users and business areas, to help them with standard financial processes and general operational queries. They will support and deliver data processing and transactional activity fundamental to the accounting processes and supporting the flow of resource around the organisation.

The Accounts Payable Team within Financial Services will ensure invoices and requests for payment are appropriately processed, ensuring the House's obligations are duly met. They will work closely with the Cash Management Team to ensure that resources are available to pay owed amounts, supporting the cash flow process. This will support the maintenance of the Supplier Masterfile, ensuring details are appropriately captured, stored and disposed of.

The Accounts Receivables Team within Financial Services will ensure that money owed to the House is appropriately collected. They will create sales orders, capture requests for payments and reconcile received funds, ensuring that they are properly accounted for.

The Cash Management Team will ensure that the House has the correct funding to meet its obligations and will liaise with HM Treasury to ensure the House is funded. They will work with key stakeholders to understand the fiscal needs of the organisation and produce suitable cash flow forecasts. They will also collect and account for cash collected on the Estate and ensure it is properly recorded and deposited. The Accounts Receivable Team will also maintain the Customer Masterfile, ensure details are appropriately captured, stored and disposed of.

The House of Commons has recently undertaken an independent review into financial management, examining key elements of financial management, including contract and programme management, to ensure the House has robust processes and controls in place to manage its finances. The jobholder will have a key role to play in supporting the implementation of recommendations following the review.

Some of the responsibilities for this role include:

The Accounts Officer is responsible for supporting the outcomes of the Financial Services function.

For Accounts Payables this includes maintaining the integrity of the payables ledger which enables accurate, timely and efficient payment of House of Commons Suppliers and reimbursements. This team provides key financial services for the House of Commons, including supplier management, payments processing and supporting compliance with IR35 and CIS tax requirements.

• Conducting and delivering all activities of the Accounts Payable Team. These activities include all supplier invoice processing, statutory compliance, payments and banking.
• Ensuring the accurate payment of supplier invoices, claims, expenses, and reimbursements. This includes management and administration of delivery and credit notes.
• Produce manual payments such as CHAPS and foreign currency.Assist with the management of debts on the Payables Ledger.

For Accounts Receivables/Cash Management this includes ensuring the efficient processing of invoices, collection of money from sales, the appropriate treatment for cash collected on the Estate and ensuring the organisation is sufficiently financially resourced to meet key obligations.

• Conducting and delivering all activities of the Accounts Receivables Team. These activities include raising sales orders, facilitating customer payments, refunds and appropriate banking.
• Ensuring the accurate and timely receipting of financial information onto the Houses' internal systems to ensure completeness of income, processing bank, cheque, credit card & internal payments including the reconciliation of remittances.
• Supporting the functions within the Cash Office and ensuring that cash returns are appropriately accounted for, safely deposited and daily floats are available.
• Administrating the Government Procurement Card scheme, ensuring that cards are issued, that returns are audited and that limits are maintained.

For all roles this includes:

Effective Financial Management:

• Supporting effective financial controls across the organisation by promoting financial best practice and applying relevant control frameworks.
• Verification and maintenance of supplier records.

Stakeholder Engagement:

• Building key relationships, in particular developing trust and rapport. This includes managing expectations of suppliers and stakeholders.
• Responding to verbal and written queries from suppliers and customers.

Leadership and Management:

• Contributing to the effective outcomes of the team by embedding principles of equality, diversity and inclusion, and ensuring that the team makes a positive contribution to the achievement of vision and business goals.

Security

Successful candidates will be required to complete pre-employment checks. This includes security vetting to Counter Terrorist Check (CTC) level or higher, as described in the job description. All successful candidates are required to pass these checks before an offer can be confirmed.

To enable meaningful checks to be carried out you will need to have lived in the UK for a sufficient period of time. To undergo a CTC, you must have normally resided in the UK for a minimum of 3 years out of the last 5 years.

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Hours

We offer a range of flexible working options and actively encourage applications from candidates expressing a wish to perform the role in a flexible working arrangement such as part-time working, job-share and compressed hours.

Net conditions full-time working hours for staff of the House are 36 hours per week. This excludes daily meal breaks of one hour. The exact daily times of attendance will be agreed with line management.

Hybrid Working

Our mission is to support a thriving parliamentary democracy - and today more than ever, this means being ready to carry out our essential functions in Westminster and elsewhere. We support colleagues to deliver excellent services on the Parliamentary Estate and remotely, while the balance of location varies according to the requirements of each job role. If you are selected for an interview, please discuss the working arrangements for this role with the interview panel.

Workplace Adjustments

As an inclusive employer, the House of Commons supports individuals in need of workplace adjustments. The workplace adjustment process prevents, reduces or removes problems you might face at work. Adjustments can be requested to help with obstacles relating to mental health, and physical or non-physical requirements. You can request a workplace adjustment if you have a disability and/or experience a difficulty or disadvantage in your workplace.

​ Skills and Experience

To be successful in this role you will demonstrate:

Criterion 1:

• Numerate with experience of working with an organisation's financial operations section.

Criterion 2:

• Good organisational skills with the ability to effectively prioritise and take ownership of their own work.

Criterion 3:

• Ability to work successfully within a team and build positive relationships with all stakeholders, whilst maintaining the principles of equality, diversity, and inclusion.

Criterion 4:

• Demonstrates an ability to deliver excellent customer service through effective and efficient working.

Next Steps and Additional Information

All applications should be sent to ​​

Please clearly specify the role you wish to apply for in the subject heading.​​

In order to apply for this post please submit:​​

• Your CV (max. 4 pages) in Word format not PDF; ​A personal statement in Word format not PDF, limited to no more than two sides of A4, first stating your motivations to apply and then describing how you meet the role specific requirements given your skills and experience.
• A completed Diversity Monitoring Form (Please complete via this link). If you do not wish to provide a declaration on any of the particular characteristics, you will have the option to select 'prefer not to say'.
• The information you provide when submitting your application will help us monitor our progress towards the House of Commons becoming a more inclusive employer.

If invited to interview you will be assessed on your experience, technical skills as well as the the criteria based on the job description.​​

Further details will be provided if you are successful at the initial application stage.

We may ask you to complete a test, presentation or other assessment as a part of your recruitment process.

If you are invited to interview, we will ask you a combination of competency questions and role specific questions solely based on the criteria below. Any presentation or test requirements will be clearly communicated to you well in advance of your interview.

As a Disability Confident Leader, it is important that we are able to make appropriate arrangements or adjustments where necessary in order to create a full and equal participation in the selection process. If you require any reasonable adjustments, please contact the recruitment team to see how we can meet your needs.

Contact

Stephanie Robinson, Business Manager

Jack Cox, Senior Consultant

07921 336 629

Allen Lane Recruitment

33 King Street, St James's

London, SW1Y 6RJ

#LI-Hybrid

Job tags

Salary

£25.97k - £28.36k per annum