Management Accountant

We continue to develop our team and the service we offer to best meet the needs of the organisation. The team is busy and task-focused, but is friendly and supportive; benefits include flexible working hours. Team members are encouraged to get to know the services they work with, and candidates should therefore have an interest in HPFT services. The post requires someone who is highly numerate and IT-literate, with good knowledge of Microsoft Excel, and confident in learning and utilising various systems. The ideal candidate will be highly adaptable and pro-active; have excellent communication skills, spoken and written; and be able to explain financial issues and to influence others. There is a strong focus on both customer service and on data quality. The post holder will be responsible for all management accounting tasks across a range of services, including covering for other members of the team. The role includes monthly accruals/pre-payments; approval of posts on TRAC; budget setting; budget monitoring; carrying out costings; and supporting business cases. In addition they will provide advice and training on financial issues and finance systems to budget holders and managers. It is necessary to support managers and attend meetings across the Trust's sites, so it is essential that candidates can drive and have their own transport, unless they have a disability., The post holder provides the management accounting function for the SBU (Strategic Business unit) or area, including completion of accruals and variance analysis, coding of invoices, approval of recruitment to posts, and budget setting. The post holder is first point of contact for all finance queries from budget holders, and also acts proactively to raise and resolve issues, particularly for areas that are overspending, have increasing expenditure, or other financial issues. The post holder will need to develop and utilise knowledge of Standing Financial Instructions, Standing Orders, current legislation, and HPFT policies and procedures. 1. Financial Reporting (including Month End, Year End and other reporting) 1. The Management Accountant is responsible for the completion of Month End accruals for their area including: 1. Ensuring all accruals are completed accurately and on time 2. Highlighting any areas of concern to the Finance Business Partner or equivalent 3. Completion of Variance Analysis for the month including narrative commentary (i.e. words as well as numbers) 4. Noting of any items which affect forecasting 5. Keeping accurate records of any Prior Year accruals utilised and the balance remaining 2. Supervision of any accruals calculated by Assistants or Officers 3. Uploading of journals onto the system or ensuring that this is actioned 4. Complete yearend accruals for the area, ensuring appropriate evidence is available 5. Other adhoc reports as requested by budget holders or as required to deal proactively with issues arising 6. Completion of report sections as requested by Finance Business Partner or equivalent 7. The Management Accountant is responsible for the detail of the budgets set for their area to include: 1. Completion of pay calculation sheets 2. Calculation of any non-pay budgets 3. Highlighting any issues to the Finance Business Partner or equivalent 4. Ensuring that all current spend is budgeted for the following year or if that is not possible flagging this as an issue 5. Ensuring all budget is uploaded to the ledger for the new financial year 8. Basic forecasting and highlighting any items which will have an effect on the future financial position 9. Making proactive suggestions for budgets that may need amending 10. Calculation and uploading of budget journals in relation to approved changes to budget 11. Responsible for completion of all coding on the invoice authorisation system for own area (may on occasion be delegated to Assistants / Officers), accurately and on time, ensuring all error messages are removed in advance of forwarding to the budget holder, and that VAT coding is correct (keeping up to date on changes in VAT rules) 12. Checking of backing information relating to invoices, and raising / resolving queries where appropriate 13. Raising of invoices for income within own area, including Block Contracts, Cost and Volume, Non-Contract Income, and any other regular or adhoc invoices in a timely manner; paying particular attention to the cash flow impact of large invoices, and also NHS rules on when invoices must be raised by 14. Responsible for completion of TRAC authorisation (within 2 working days if routine), and raising / resolving queries with budget holders or senior finance staff as applicable 15. Ensuring the ESR Payroll system is accurate for the budget (establishment) side, including attendance at Establishment Control meetings, liaison with budget holders, HR Business Partners, and the Workforce Intelligence Team; that other issues are being dealt with by HR 16. Contribute ideas, and provide information and input to, the Trust's Delivering Value Programme (or other equivalent savings programme); keep track of related budget changes for own area 17. In order to carry out their duties effectively, the post holder will meet with budget holders on a regular basis; this should be proactively arranged (i.e. not just at SBU meetings). Some can be undertaken by phone or web, but actual visits are also necessary. It is expected that during non-"month end" days Management Accountants will be out for around 50% of the time. Where applicable this does include visits to sites at a longer distance such as Essex and Norfolk, at least several times a year. 18. Routine costings as requested by budget holders or senior finance staff; completion of calculations for bids 19. Work as a team with the other Management Accountants ensuring that cross-cover can always be provided.

• Experience in Management Accounting/Finance Function equivalent to that expected of Professional Postgraduate Diploma Level.
• Part-qualified or studying towards professional qualifications or equivalent workbased experience.
• Evidence of continued professional development - e.g. NHS Finance Personal Portfolio.
Desirable criteria
• Education to degree level or equivalent workbased experience, Organisational skills and the ability to work effectively within a management structure, planning and prioritising workload as appropriate.
• Interpersonal skills - able to discuss and negotiate sensitive issues where conflicting priorities arise.
• Analytical skills - relating to complex financial trends drawing on information from a number of sources
• Communication skills - written and verbal
• IT Skills -knowledge and use of: General ledger and EIS, payroll applications Windows Office Suite of software
• Able to work with detail and accuracy at high speed including highly advanced keyboard skills.
• Knowledge and awareness of accounting practice.
Desirable criteria
• Judgement skills - ability to use experience to make appropriate assumptions in the preparation of financial reports, plans and resolution of problems, Experience of Management Accounting/Finance Function, Experience in public sector organisation, Effective Team Worker
• Flexible and able to perform complex tasks with accuracy
• Ability to prioritise competing workload
• Ability to work under pressure and within agreed deadlines
• Customer awareness
Desirable criteria
• Self-motivated and able to work on own initiative
  
  Hertfordshire Partnership University NHS Foundation Trust (HPFT) is an outstanding organisation with ambitions to match. We are one of just five mental health trusts to achieve an overall rating of 'Outstanding' from the Care Quality Commission, and our aim is to be the leading provider of mental health and specialist learning disability services in the country.
Our family of nearly 4000 members of staff provide health and social care for over 400,000 people with mental ill health, physical ill health and learning disabilities across Hertfordshire, Buckinghamshire, and Norfolk, delivering these services within the community and several inpatient settings. We also deliver a range of nationally commissioned specialist services including Tier 4 services for children and young people, perinatal services, plus medium and low secure learning disabilities services. The care we provide makes a fantastic difference to the lives of our service users, their families and carers - everything is underpinned by choice, independence and equality, with our Trust values embedded throughout: Our Trust values are: Welcoming. Kind. Positive. Respectful. Professional. These values are at the core of who we are, everything we do, and how we do it! Would you like to be part of the HPFT family? Would you like work with us to ensure our service users live the fullest lives possible they can? Would you like to be supported in your career to be the best that you can be?, Hertfordshire Partnership University NHS Foundation Trust (HPFT) is rated by the Care Quality Commission as an Outstanding provider of mental health and learning disability services. In 2021, we won the prestigious Health Service Journal award for Mental Health Trust of the Year, with the judges saying they were "blown away" by our people's achievements and that everything they saw "sings and hums". This year, our staff rated us the 4^th best mental health and learning disability trust to work for out of all 52 trusts in the country. Our staff tell us that they are proud to be part of the HPFT team, proud of the standard of care we provide and proud that service users are our top priority. Our people tell us they feel supported though a great development, wellbeing and work-life balance offer and a highly compassionate, values-driven culture. We are equally proud of our staff, who live our values of being welcoming, kind, positive, respectful and professional