Roving Country Finance Manager at Danish Refugee Council

Overall purpose of the role

• This role has a country focus and ensures the financial health and stability of the organization in the legal entity, foster strong donor relationships and support the organizational localization efforts while ensuring compliance to DRC procedures and guidelines within the country. The role contributes to the development of country strategies, which are translated into action plans and day-to-day tasks. The role provides support and/or technical guidance to country operations while overseeing country Finance activities.
• The Roving Finance Manager is vested with powers to execute management policies and responsibilities to hire, suspend, layoff, dismiss or assign employees within the Finance department as necessary for the operations.

Responsibilities:

People Management

• Lead and manage the finance team (including people planning, performance, well-being, staff development and exit management)
• Support the development and implementation of financial management capacity building of staff in the Country Finance team and provide support to the Area based Finance teams
• Work to build the capacity of finance staff members throughout the program through frequent in-service training sessions and mentoring support.

Financial Management and Planning

• The Roving Finance Manager will oversee the finance department for the entire operation, providing training and oversight to country office finance staff as well as advising and ensuring adequate support to area office finance staff.
• In close cooperation with Area/Base Managers in geographical area reinforce existing procedures and systems for financial management and control in compliance with guidelines of DRC’s Operations Handbook, internal guidelines, and donor requirements.
• Support timely delivery of quality financial reports to donors and internal reports to colleagues and HQ.
• Ensure compliance with relevant country statutory and other financial obligations such as tax, levies and statutory returns.
• Monthly/weekly financial briefings to Head of Support Services, including active participation in monthly Budget Follow Up reviews.
• Ensure thorough and effective budgetary control in the country programs.
• Liaise with relevant Managers and budget holders on key financial issues for all programs in the country, including co-funding, financial reporting, key variances, and recommend and support any remedial action required, reporting major issues to the Head of Support Services for action.
• Collecting cash forecasts from all Programme Managers and requesting funds in a timely manner.
• Maintain a continuous overview of funding levels and pay particular attention to shared support costs, including staff salaries and other shared cost lines.
• Ensure all required documentation for financial audits in cooperation with Coordination staff and HQ.
• In preparation for local audits, the Roving Finance Manager will support the Country Director and the Senior Management Team of DRC in liaising government officials, and external auditors, related to issues of audit and compliance.
• Contribute to the development of proposals with regards to budgeting in cooperation with Managers.
• Ensure a Master Budget is in place and UpToDate, in Dynamics and lead a monthly gap analysis meeting with Senior Management Team.
• Coordinate the allocation table & resource scheduling with the different budget holders
• Forecast future financial performance and analyse financial data to guide decision-making.
• Supervision, audits and controlling and implementation of corrective actions related to the DRC standards for operations. This includes, among other things, supervision of all financial reporting and financial procedures, including the monthly schedule for financial reporting, donor reporting and audits, cash flow and liquidity management, legal framework and reporting relations to National authorities.

Systems Improvement and Compliance

• Ensure DRC Dynamics is used to its full capacity as per the guidelines set by DRC’s Headquarters and Regional Office.
• Ensure proper application of ERP finance processes across the country, providing remote and in-person field support and guidance.
• Responsible for ensuring all new Finance staff across DRC Ethiopia receive an in-depth induction to Microsoft Dynamics as applicable to their role.
• Apply reports and data analytics from ERP system to improve performance in the country.
• Ensure that Country ERP support is in place (i.e. super users).
• Improve and implement comprehensive internal office controls in line with DRC’s Operations Handbook.
• Develop process for approving and monitoring spending to different DRC’s projects through Area Managers.
• Coordinate financial management and systems training for non-finance staff.
• Travel to field location(s) as necessary and provide oversight of field office financial systems and processes if needed.
• Support the finance team on key compliance issues, such as DRC’s Operations Handbook, ChSA (Charities and Societies Agency) audit.
• Review key processes and work closely with the Head of Support Services (HoSS) to suggest improvements for scale and efficiency, while managing risk.

Reporting and Analysis

• Lead monthly review of project expenses comparing actual to budget and analyzing variances.
• Participate in ongoing analysis, forecasting and review of project expenses, accruals, and projections.
• Prepare and submit ad hoc reports on portfolio financial status for senior management, including annual Prognosis reports, in coordination with Head of Programme for pipeline projects affecting Master Budget gap analysis.
• Review and approve the financial close-out of program activities as required by grant rules, and verify documentation and information is complete
• Develop a risk management plan for the country that identifies the major financial and operational risks and implement a mitigation strategy. This will be done through regular review of the country Risk Register and Issues Log and submission of quarterly inputs from the Finance department.

Accounting

• Review all financial data entries that go into the Dynamics ERP system.
• Ensure all payment requests and wire transfer requests for payments to vendors are completed in compliance with contract requirements and paid on time, adjusting work processes in the country office Finance department as required.
• Ensure on time management, review, and processing of payroll, invoices, and in-field fee payments in accordance with DRC’s accounting procedures and donor policies.
• Ensure bank statements, bank reconciliations, and submitted expense reports are reasonable, allocable, and auditable are posted on Dynamics.
• Review monthly reconciliation of Bank accounts and prepare monthly close out as per the guidelines provided by HQ.
• Prepare for and participate in all financial reviews/audits required.
• Ensure that all month & year end accounts reconciliation and closure are done on a timely basis.

 As Manager the post-holder is responsible for the following:

• Accountable for achieving DRC’s strategic goals and objectives within the area of responsibility
• Accountable for making significant decisions on what the unit does: its purpose, functions and role, and for making commitments and decisions that require the expenditure of significant unit resources.
• Accountable for people management of direct reports. This includes hiring & firing, objective setting, probation, performance appraisal, development of staff, managing performance, including poor performance, etc.
• Accountable for making sound decisions based on DRC policies, MOPs, standards, and the advice of technical experts in DRC

About you

In this position, you are expected to demonstrate DRC’s five core competencies:

• Striving for excellence: You focus on reaching results while ensuring an efficient process.
• Collaborating: You involve relevant parties and encourage feedback.
• Taking the lead: You take ownership and initiative while aiming for innovation.
• Communicating: You listen and speak effectively and honestly.
• Demonstrating integrity: You act in line with our vision and values.

Experience and technical competencies: (include years of experience)

• Demonstrate strong financial management skills and an in-depth knowledge of international humanitarian organizations.
• Working experience with relevant donor (such as UNHCR, SIDA, EU, ECHO, OCHA, DANIDA, BPRM) financial rules and regulations including financial reporting requirements.
• Have a track record of achieving high targets in a highly demanding and challenging context with multiple conflicting priorities.
• Have experience in budgeting and financial analysis for large international NGOs.
• Be proficient in using diverse accounting software such as QuickBooks, Navision, and Microsoft Dynamics, etc.
• Previous experience with Microsoft Dynamics is not required, but strongly preferred.
• Demonstrate expert proficiency in advance Excel with large/complicated financial data analysis and presentation.
• Have a collaborative approach to work and have been able to achieve results through influencing others.
• Have excellent written and oral communication skills in English.
• Master’s degree in Finance, Business Administration, Accounting or related field and at least one accountancy certification.
• Have at least six (6) years’ experience in financial management of complex, humanitarian programs.
• At least 3 years’ experience with people management.
• Be able to multitask and deliver results while working independently.
• Be self-driven and solutions oriented, with a record of solutions created through personal initiative.
• Have highly sensitive to cultural differences and have proven ability to work in a wide variety of cultural contexts.
• Competence in providing technical guidance and training.

Education

• Master’s degree in Finance, Accounting or related field
• Professional certification in Accounting..

Languages:

• English-professional Competency