Assistant, Finance & Administration at VillageReach

Summary

• VillageReach is seeking a Finance& Administration Assistant who will work under the direct supervision of the CFO. This role will support the organization in coordinating the financial and administrative operations of all programs globally for VillageReach.  Under direct supervision of the CFO, the Finance and Administration Officer will be responsible for overall maintenance of financial records, processing of payments, maintenance of assets, coordinating all operational activities and general administration of VillageReach offices. This position will be located in Sub-Saharan Africa with preference for countries where VillageReach currently has staff: Malawi, Mozambique, Democratic Republic of Congo, South Africa, Kenya, Cote d’Ivoire, Nigeria, Tanzania, Uganda, or Zambia.

Description

• Essential Duties and Responsibilities include the following. Other duties, responsibilities, and activities may change or be assigned at any time.

Financial Management

Perform daily duties such as:

• Maintain a system of financial documents and supporting files, including proper substantiation of payments made including proper approvals and coding, that ties to the General Ledger within sage Online;
• Manage petty cash, payments, and record expenses;
• Review and process payment requests; operational and travel advances requests,
• Monitor advances and reconciliation of expenditures using Concur expense platform;
• Prepare, collect, compile and declare sums paid to third parties
• Support monthly duties, such as:
• Submission of monthly financial report due to HQ;
• Submission of monthly cash request due to HQ;
• Perform any adjusting entries created during finance items review process;
• Reconcile balance sheet accounts, including banking, petty cash, advances, prepaids, and accounts payable.

Administration and Coordination:

• Recommending, implementing, and maintaining efficient systems.
• Handling finance communication, managing the finance e-mail and other finance related email inboxes; and ensuring timeous acknowledgement and feedback on all finance related matters.
• Compiling, coordination, and maintenance of the annual finance calendar and ensuring that timelines and deadlines are adhered to.

Resource Management:

• Assisting in the procurement and maintenance of office equipment, furniture, computers and other assets including managing and updating the inventory of office assets.
• Any other duties as required.

Competencies:

The following competencies reflect what is expected of all VillageReach employees; including examples of how one might demonstrate each of these competencies in one’s role.

• Personal Motivation and Drive: Is self-directed in one’s approach to work but asks for help when needed; holds oneself accountable; undertakes self-development activities; seeks to build and master new skills; looks for and takes advantage of opportunities within the organization.
• Collaboration & Effective Communication: Establishes and maintains effective relations with coworkers, partners & stakeholders and external parties; works collaboratively with others to accomplish organizational and team goals and objectives; works actively to resolve conflicts; expresses ideas and thoughts effectively; selects and uses appropriate communication methods and maintains meaningful communication with virtual coworkers and other parties to keep them informed.
• Commitment to Diversity & Inclusion: Takes personal responsibility for and supports others across the organization in creating and sustaining a diverse work environment where individuals are welcomed, valued, respected and supported; personally committed to attaining cultural competency including self-awareness of one’s own attitudes about culture and cross-cultural interactions; exhibits the willingness and ability to engage openly and respectfully around issues of race, colonialism, identity and culture; upholds equity in access to sharing of information, ideas, and opportunities throughout VillageReach
• Commitment to Excellence: Produces a high output of work, both in terms of quality and quantity; looks for ways to improve and promote quality; monitors work to ensure quality; has a personal commitment to the mission of VillageReach.
• Solution Orientation & Innovation: Focuses on results and desired outcomes and how to best achieve them; gets the job done; sees opportunities for creative problem-solving while staying within the parameters of good practice; sees old problems in new ways and has novel approaches to solving those problems; contributes original and/or resourceful ideas to their area of responsibility; is able to consider and articulate risks and consequences of proposed innovations and factor these into decision-making

Requirements

REQUIREMENTS

• To perform this job successfully, an individual must be able to perform each essential duty satisfactorily. The requirements listed below are representative of the knowledge, skill and/or ability required. Reasonable accommodation may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the essential functions.

Supervisory Responsibilities:

• None.

Education & Experience:

• Bachelor’s degree in Business Administration or Accounting (or similar) required or equivalent education and experience
•  Fluency in English; both written and verbal
•  At least 3 years of professional experience with at least two of those managing accounting, grant finances and compliance; public sector grants a plus
• Demonstrated financial management skills within the non-profit sector
• Financial and bookkeeping acumen
• Experience with financial reporting
• Demonstrated familiarity with financials tools, expenses allocations, contract language and grant cost policy adherence.

Other Qualifications:

• Experience in long range planning, budgeting, forecasting, financial statement analysis and accounting, financial planning and analysis is required.
• Strong attention to detail, able to analyze data, draw conclusions and develop actionable recommendations.
• Technically savvy individual who understands systems and can communicate financial processes and requirements in easily understood language
• Technical and financial knowledge.
• Ability to comprehend both the big picture, pay attention to details, and work with minimal direction in a fast- paced environment.
• Excellent organizational skills and the ability to manage and complete multiple projects simultaneously.
• Excellent written and oral communication skills, including the ability to extract appropriate data to convey financial information through the use of supporting tables, graphs, and other visual representations.
• Strong interpersonal, customer service, and team-oriented skills are a must.
• Demonstrated interest in, knowledge of, and experience with a broad range of functional areas including information technology and software development.
• Excellent software skills with Microsoft Office applications. Ability to quickly learn new software modules.
• Demonstrated cultural competency in partnering with racial, cultural and linguistically diverse groups.
• Demonstrated understanding of challenges with working in rural, underserved and low-income context; experience living in and/or working in a low-income country a plus.
• Ability to travel to country offices in Sub-Saharan Africa on an annual or semi-annual basis.
• Comply with VillageReach policies, including COVID-19 vaccine policy.
• Available for early evening meetings with Africa colleagues in US.