Finance Officer – Shared Services Unit, CARE

CARE is a leading humanitarian organization dedicated to fighting poverty and social injustice with a special emphasis on women and girls. We are known everywhere for our unshakable commitment to the dignity of people. CARE partners contribute to the empowerment of the most marginalized and vulnerable rural women and girls to exercise their rights. CARE’s East and Central Africa (ECA) Regional Office is part of CARE International, whose vision is to seek a world of hope, tolerance, and social justice, where poverty has been overcome and people live in dignity and security. The Regional Office is responsible for the oversight of CARE’s operations in the region as well as the provision of support to country offices in the region.

CARE USA Core Values Commitment

The Core Values Commitment describes who we are, what we do, and how we do it. It reflects our core values of TRANSFORMATION, INTEGRITY, DIVERSITY, EQUALITY and EXCELLENCE, which serve as a foundation for all what we do. The Core Values Commitment articulates our shared expectations of each other including our board, staff, volunteers, interns, partners and contractors globally.

Role Profile

Department: Nairobi Shared Services Unit (SSU)

Reports to: Finance and Operations Manager

Duty Station: Nairobi, Kenya – this is a national position

The Finance Officer will be responsible for day-to-day finance management, review & reconciliation of the general ledger, accounts payable & receivable, cash management activities, payroll processing, and ensuring accurate data capture in the system.

S/He will be working closely with the Shared Services Centre (SSC), Manilla, to ensure that all invoices are booked on a timely basis and that payments are effected. The Finance Officer will be responsible for forecasting cash needs and performing treasury transfers. This position will also be responsible for coordinating all audits for the Nairobi Shared Services Unit.

1. Accounts Payable (AP)/Global AP Process Support & Implementation – 30 %

The Finance Officer plays a key role to ensure that the Global AP Process is working smoothly through quality and timely information:

• Review all supporting documents, scan and send the documents to SSC for AP processing. Ensure supporting documents are accurate; entries are done correctly to the appropriate account codes and other chart fields.
• Manage Pay cycle process twice a week.
• Provide guidance to staff and budget holders where coding is not done well and recommend adjustments. accordingly where necessary, to comply with donor requirements or accounting standards and organization policies.
• Withholding Tax management.

2. General Ledger and Balance Sheet Management – 20%

Data Processing and Accounting Systems Implementation:

• Process journal entries and seek approval as per the required approval limits.
• On a monthly basis review all transactions and reconcile the Accounts Payable and Accounts Receivable to the General ledger.
• Prepare the monthly Trial Balance Schedules to ensure accuracy in the balances and any outstanding balances are corrected on time.
• Follow up any exceptions identified during the analysis and resolve them or refer to the Finance & Operations Manager where guidance is required.

3. Treasury Management – 5%

• Forecast cash needs reviewing all cash projections from budget holders, ensure all projections are prepared times on a quarterly basis. Set and maintain optimal country office cash balance to ensure liquidity.
• Provide input to projections required by donors for grants with this specific need. Local bank account management. Coordinate with the Regional Business Analyst to when billing donors.
• Ensure payments to vendors are made in a timely manner within a reasonable lead time.
• Follow up and collect all receivables including donor, staff and other miscellaneous receivables.

4. Payroll Management – 25%

• Ensure employee payroll data integrity through implementation of controls.
• Timely, accurate and efficient payroll management for the Regional Office.
• Prepare and ensure complete and accurate compensation data to have an efficient, effective, complete and accurate monthly payroll process.
• Ensure that the monthly statutory payments (PAYE, NHIF, NSSF and pension and that a copy of the payment acknowledgement is filed –) are done on time with proper supporting documents.
• Process all accruals; gratuity, Bonus, leave.
• Manage monthly Personnel Activity Reporting (PARs) and ensure they are reconciled with leave records.
• Process any other payroll related payments on timely manner (Separation and Bonus).
• Process monthly payments for temporary/Casual staff and Interns in a timely manner.
• Distribute pays lips to staff on a timely basis.
• Distribute P9 forms when required.
• Process reconciliation of international staff taxation on a timely basis.

5. Month-end closure – 20%

• Ensure all expenses and the income are posted on time.
• Ensure payroll and payroll accruals allocation is done accurately, and schedules reconciled to the General Ledger before month end close.
• Perform account quality controls prior to periodic closing, to include accounts reconciliation (e.g., payroll recon, sub-office reports review, sub-ledger recon, etc.); review of accounts fluctuation to identify and address any unusual movements; generate and review reports to ensure accounting entries are properly created.

6. Other Responsibilities

• To produce and interpret monthly finance reports.
• Other duties as may be allocated from time to time.

Key Competencies

• Customer focus – internal & external
• Problem solving
• Functional technical skills
• Planning
• Informing
• Managing and measuring work
• Process management
• Excellent verbal and written communication skills

Qualifications and Experience

• A Minimum of a Bachelors’ Degree in Accounting or Business Administration or Finance
• 5 years or more of experience in a similar position
• Must be a member of a professional body, ICPAK/ACCA or equivalent in good standing
• Proficiency in Microsoft Office, including and good skills in using ERP – financial software applications knowledge
• Strong analytical skills with ability to set priorities, complete work with minimal supervision, and meet deadlines