Regional Business Analyst at Plan International

Job Description

Role Purpose

The Regional Finance Department leads the financial management and accounting teams throughout the RESA region. The Regional Business Analyst (RBA) supports the Regional Finance Manager in providing financial leadership and management in the region, champion innovation in business processes and ensure effective financial information system is maintained all times. The RBA also directs the regional Office’s accounting, treasury, financial and internal control practices/systems working closely with the Plan Kenya Shared Services. The maintenance of its financial records and the preparation of its financial reports. This role further supports the Regional Finance Manager (RFM) to implement global and regional financial strategies.

Dimensions of the Role

The role has no supervisory role in the Regional Office Finance Department and but closely interact with 12 Country Finance managers and their teams. Supports the implementation of global and regional financial strategies in the region and to provide timely and reliable financial information and analysis that leads to effective decision making at the Regional Level.
Contributes to RESA’s strategic objective for Finance by ensuring effective business critical support information is in place and contributing to maximize the availability of resources for programs by cost effective financial processes and other operating activities by timely and accurate management reporting.
Provides permanent support to in – country Finance teams in order to improve overall transparency and accountability in Plan’s external financial reporting.
This role is involved in the review and consolidation of regional finance reports for a Regional budget worth € 100,000K.

Accountabilities

• RESA Region Financial Analysis & Reporting
  • Interact with Plan Accounting system, extract data per CO and prepare financial reports tailored for different clients in the region
  • Make analysis of the report presented and communicate to management on the status
  • Provide observations, gaps and areas requiring improvement / recommendations
  • Prepare and or review monthly regional financial reports before sharing with management
  • Support the Regional Finance Manager with timely and reliable financial information
  • Ensure monthly financial reports presented in a timely manner to the Regional Management with clear highlights of areas of concern affecting business.
  • Support effectiveness and efficiency by ensuring sound business analyses and the provision of key management information.
• RESA Region Technical Focal Person in system i.e. SAP, BPC, HRIS etc.
  • Focal person in system issues relating to finance raised by CO before escalating to System specialists i.e. technical issues in finance
  • Liaison or capacity building to staff on work around in SAP, BPC, HRIS among other initiatives
  • Testing or trouble shooting issues around finance systems that are working and those that are not and feedback to IH leads
  • Support in FAD set up, project set up
• Business planning Processes for the Region
  • Facilitate and coordinate business planning processes for the RO a
  • Support the Regional Finance Manager in Consolidation and review planning inputs for the RESA Region
  • Support the Regional Finance Manager in communicating instructions and milestones within the region for business planning, including long term planning, budgeting, quarterly forecasting and cash flow forecasting
  • Support the Regional Finance Manager in consolidating and reviewing planning inputs from countries.
  • Monitoring key monthly, quarterly and annual financial performance measures of country offices and regional office, provide advice on corrective measures and opportunities on a timely basis and implement actions required related to financial standards
  • Preparation and/or review of business plans and funding requests from countries and departments within the region, challenging the assumptions and quality of the data and presenting these on behalf of the region to International Headquarters for funding and approval
  • Supporting development and execution of country funding plans
• Ensure appropriate financial controls processes, procedures and systems are in place and adhered to in the ‘’Regional Office & more Importantly in the Region’’
  • Working with Plan Kenya Shared Services team, support in ensuring monthly review of all regional office projects being implemented are monitored monthly.
  • Follow up finance – related audit actions for the Regional Office and implementation of global financial policies and procedures within the region
  • Identifying key financial risks and reporting these to the Regional Finance Manager for inclusion in the Regional Risk Register. Recommending and implementing mitigating actions to address key financial risks.
  • Maintaining a high degree of awareness of the risk of fraud and necessary fraud prevention measures and ensuring that the global fraud policy and fraud incident reporting and investigation requirements are met
  • Implementation and accurate use of global finance systems within the regional office.
• Champion of Strategic finance Innovations in the region
  • The Business analyst is expected to examine the practices, procedures and processes and recommend better ways of doing things
  • Suggest thoughts on better ways of working, input on shared services approaches and creating of the hub.
  • Document and share learnings in financial management in various countries
  • Share reflections on the transition process in the RO role in offering strategic finance, ‘basically think beyond the debit and credit’
• Support the Regional Finance Manager on any other assigned tasks i.e. Cost and benefit analysis, Payroll analysis, Taxation, investigations, Short deployment covers to Countries with gaps
  • Ensures that Plan International’s global policies for Child Protection (CPP) and Gender Equality and Inclusion (GEI) are fully embedded in accordance with the principles and requirements of the policy including relevant Implementation Standards and Guidelines as applicable to their area of responsibility. This includes, but is not limited to, ensuring staff and associates are aware of and understand their responsibilities under these policies and Plan International’s Code of Conduct (CoC), their relevance to their area of work, and that concerns are reported and managed in accordance with the appropriate procedures.