Administration and Accounts Officer

The Opportunity

We are recruiting for an entry level Administration and Accounts Officer with a proven track record of delivering to deadlines in a busy and dynamic environment. This is a varied role that will perform a wide-variety of administrative duties, process transactions, and help ensure that administrative and financial controls and policies are followed across the charity. The role reports to the Finance Manager.

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The Role

The Administration and Accounts Officer is an essential role that will ensure that administrative and basic financial data is entered correctly and promptly into the various systems, that expenditure is properly authorised, and audit trails exist to support all transactions. The role will also be responsible for general operational support of colleagues in the field including, but not limited to, procurement of supplies and fleet management.    

Under the direct supervision of the Finance Manager, the Administration and Accounts Officer will oversee and manage all field transactions; petty cash reimbursement and coordinating payment to suppliers, preparing financial documentation and reporting all financial activities carried out in the field. In addition, s/he will take charge of reviewing payments, purchase request, reviewing financial records for accuracy, prepare bank reconciliations, and conduct cash counts. S/he will ensure the strict compliance to BFF’s internal regulations, financial policies and procedures.

The successful candidate will have an impeccable history of honesty and integrity, a “can do” attitude, an eye for accuracy, a methodical approach to their work and excellent customer service skills which include a willingness to go the extra mile in support of colleagues in the team.

Key tasks will include:

Accounts role:

· Ensures integrity of all financial supporting documentation.

Filing:

· Maintain accounting files and records in accordance BFF policy and statutory requirements.

· Assist with month end close.

· Manage filing by scanning and filing all documentation.

· Proper filling and archive thereof to satisfy BFF’s regulations.

Audit Preparation:

· Assist with internal and external audit inquiries and reporting.

· Provide promptly all supporting transactions requested by the auditors. This will involve contacting colleagues in the field for information, as required.

· Thoroughly review supporting documents of financial transactions to ensure they are in full compliance with KRA regulations and BFF policy.

 Field Office Administration:

· Make periodic visits to the field to support financial and administrative issues in collaboration with the Administration and Logistics Officer, including prolonged stays when covering annual leave for this particular role.  

Fixed Assets: 

· Control and report on all fixed assets and reconcile the Fixed assets register with identified assets in the field.

Daily routine tasks

· Processing invoices and staff expense claims, ensuring they are correctly coded.

· Data entry and management for Accounts Receivable, Accounts Payable, Fixed Assets, Expense Management, General Journal Entries, and Purchase Requisitions/Purchase Orders

· Review payment requests by staff for accuracy; submit and post.

· Preparing payment files and loading them onto banking platforms, ready for approval.

· Ensuring proper documentation is obtained and filed appropriately to support the audit trails for all transactions, including petty cash.

· Ensuring payments and expense claims are appropriately authorised in line with the charity’s policies.

· Developing a thorough understanding of the charity’s processes and suggesting improvements to ensure they are efficient and compliant; and

· Dealing with queries from external suppliers, payment providers and internal colleagues.

Administration role:

· Cover annual leave booked by other administrative personnel for varying periods of time, including in Meru. This will involve working onsite in Meru for a period of one to two weeks, two to four times a year.

· Assist with the management of the vehicle fleet (review weekly maintenance and vehicle usage reports and flag issues to Country Director)

· Be responsible for ensuring the fixed assets register is kept up to date on a monthly basis.

· Take responsibility for the maintenance, supplies, and replacement of office and IT equipment.

· Prepare payment request documentation according to internal procedures of the organization.

· Coordinate and organize staff travel on various assignments

· Any other duties that may be required from time to time that is commensurate with the incumbent’s qualification, and which is instructed by the Finance Manager.

· Providing general operational support for the wider team as needed

· Act as the first point of contact for visitors to the Born Free office in Nairobi

Key Working Relationships:

· Position Reports to: Finance Manager-Kenya.

· Close liaison with the Administration and Logistics Officer in Meru.

· Close liaison with the Country Senior Driver

This role has no supervisory responsibilities.

Job Minimum Requirements

· Mandatory - bachelor’s degree in business, Finance, Accounting, Or Economics.

· Mandatory - CPA finalist.

· Work Experience: Relevant professional experience in finance and accounting for a minimum of three years.

The successful candidate should ideally demonstrate the following attributes:  

· The ability to plan, prioritise and deliver to tight time frames in a small, fast paced and dynamic team.

· An excellent understanding of basic accounting and book-keeping (debits, credits, principles of reconciliations)

· Be self-motivated with the ability to work independently (with regular travels to the field offices);

· A basic understanding of Kenya Revenue Authority Tax principles and statutory deductions.

· Excellent interpersonal skills with the ability to explain administration and financial process and their rationale to people from a non-financial background.

· A good level of Excel skills, including an appreciation of how IT can be used to reduce manual intervention and improve processing speeds.

· Excellent attention to detail and a methodical approach to work.

· Experience of using accounting packages, ideally Sage 50.

· Quick to understand multiple systems and data flows.

· An empathy with the work of the Foundation, and the desire to drive it forward, bringing energy and determination to its mission; and

· Decisive and straightforward; low ego and a team player; high levels of drive and energy; a sense of humour; honesty, integrity and reliability.

The candidate will report directly to the Finance Manager and work with the field administration and Logistics officer, the Country Senior Driver and the Meru Senior Driver.  This role has no direct reports.    

Born Free is an Equal Opportunities employer and positively encourages applications from suitably qualified and eligible candidates, regardless of age, sex, race, disability, religion or belief, marital/civil partnership status, or pregnancy and maternity.

Thank you for your interest.