Project Accountant at Farm Africa

Purpose of the Role

• To ensure a high standard of financial management and adherence to financial and procurement policy guidelines
• To participate in the annual workshops organised by the London Director of Resources and her team

Values

Farm Africa seeks to employ those who believe, as we do, that farmers can and will play a key role in achieving long-term rural prosperity in Africa and who seek to deliver on those

beliefs by:

• Being experts in our field, delivering insightful/impactful evidence-based solutions
• Pushing boundaries, being creative with new and old solutions
• Acting for the long-term, building relationships and delivering long-lasting change for farmers
• Working flexibly, taking advantage of the most effective solutions, whether from the
• communities, private sector or government
• Sharing knowledge with others, reaching more farmers than we do alone, ensuring effective
• technologies are widely accessed.
• Experience in planning, budget preparation and monitoring

Responsibilities for the Project Accountant Job

• To ensure compliance with the basic standards contained in the Farm Africa finance
• procedures manual and donor rules and regulations.
• To maintain comprehensive and up-to-date project financial records.
• To assist the Project Coordinator with budgeting and reporting.
• To perform routine administrative and logistical tasks.
• To ensure safe custody of Office assets.
• To ensure all purchases and procurement procedures are adhered to.
• To play an active role as a member of the Farm Africa Kenya finance team.
• To reinforce and ensure financial discipline in decisions and activities of the Project.

Standards:

• To ensure that all per diems taken by project staff are correctly calculated.
• To ensure that all Staff Working Advances (SWA) taken by project staff are accounted in a timely manner
• Ensure full compliance with the procurement and finance procedures, approval thresholds and procurement guidelines
• To advise the Project Coordinator on relevant budgetary control measures to address any identified weaknesses in policy and/or practice.
• To feed back any pertinent financial management issues to the Finance & Administration Manager in Nairobi.
• To ensure that all project income and expenditure is accurately accounted for using Farm Africa’s accounting system.
• To enter income and expenditure figures into QuickBooks on a daily basis.
• To ensure that proper accounting records are maintained at the project level.
• To send an accurate and complete set of monthly project accounts to Finance & Administration Manager by the 10th of the following month.
• To prepare monthly budget monitoring reports for the Project Team by the 25th of the following month.
• To assist in the preparation of project budget revisions as required (e.g. when new funding is obtained).
• In liaison with the Finance & Administration Manager, to reconcile the expenditure figures included in financial reports to project donors.
• To maintain an effective and efficient filing and information retrieval system (electronic and
• hard copies).
• To handle incoming and outgoing project correspondence (letters and faxes).
• To answer and forward phone calls.
• To prepare payment vouchers.
• To receive visitors to the office and direct them to the appropriate staff.
• To handle and ensure timely replenishment of petty cash.
• In consultation with the Office & HR Manager in Nairobi, to carry out basic IT maintenance including updating virus software.
• In consultation with the administration and finance department in Nairobi country office, to
• ensure that office supplies (equipment and stationery) are promptly requisitioned and supplied.
• To assist in organising meetings, workshops and conferences.
• To make travel and accommodation arrangements for project staff and visitors.
• To maintain an up-to-date asset register for the Kitui office and convey any changes to the
• Country Office Accountant on a monthly basis.
• To ensure that all project assets (furniture, equipment and vehicles) are insured, serviced and maintained and to report any defects promptly to the Project Coordinator.
• To host a monitoring visit by the Finance & Administration Manager and/or other members of the Farm Africa finance team at least twice per year.
• To complete an annual appraisal with the Project Coordinator (with input from the Finance &
• Administration Manager).

Qualifications for the Project Accountant Job

• Bachelors degree in Accounting Administration qualification
• CPA (Part 2 Section 4) Previous NGO experience
• At least 2 years experience in project / fund accounting
• Financial reporting to donors
• Excellent Quickbooks competency Knowledge Financial rules and regulations