Accounting Assistant

Org. Setting and Reporting

This position is located in the Payroll and Accounts Payable Section in the Division of Administration (DA), Department of Operational Support (DOS). The Department of Operational Support was established to provide operational advisory services to operating entities across the Secretariat, including other departments, offices away from headquarters, field missions, and regional commissions. The Payroll and Accounts Payable Section processes global payroll and payments, provides policy advice and operational guidance, testing and implementation of enhancements. The Finance and Budget Assistant will report to the Chief of the Payroll and Accounts Payable Section.

Responsibilities

Within delegated authority, the Finance and Budget Assistant will be responsible for the following duties:

Budget:

• Provides support with respect to the review, analyses and preparation of the medium-term plan and its revisions.
• Prepares supporting documents (narrative and supporting tables) with respect to finalization of cost estimates and budget proposals, in terms of staff and non-staff requirements.
• Assists managers in the elaboration of resource requirements for budget submissions.
• Undertakes research and provides support to higher level Finance & Budget Officers with respect to budget reviews of relevant intergovernmental and expert bodies.
• Monitors expenditures and compares with approved budget; prepares adjustments as necessary.
• Reviews requisitions for goods and services to ensure (a) correct objects of expenditure have been charged, and (b) availability of funds.
• Assists in preparation of budget performance submissions and finalization of budget performance reports, analysing variances between approved budgets and actual expenditures.
• Monitors integrity of various financial databases.
• Verifies accuracy of input data, ensuring consistency of data in previous allotments to new allotments issued.
• Co-ordinates with other finance and budget staff on related issues during preparation of budget reports.
• Prepare request to Controller’s Office on redeployment of funds and to Finance section on movement of funds.
• Review the monthly Troop Strength on uniformed personnel (military contingent, United Nations police (UNPOL) and Formed Police Unit (FPU) upon receipt from military and police components.
• Review data on monthly staffing complement.

Finance:

• Scrutinizes source documents for completeness, accuracy and validity of charges.
• Investigates erroneous charges and takes appropriate corrective accounting actions as part of the review of rejected payments in the payroll liability account and rejected GL.
• Communicates with field offices regarding missing documentation or any other issues related to discrepancies between their accounts and those maintained at Headquarters.
• Reconciles and reviews suspense accounts and ensure proper clearance procedures have been followed.
• Extracts details of income, expenditure, assets and liability from accounting system in order to analyze and verify accuracy and validity.
• Consolidates the review, the monthly global payroll vendor account posting and update the payment details prior to disbursement.
• Assists with the monitoring and review of the open items in the payroll accounting GL accounts;
• Investigates and processes the relevant journal voucher to clear the open items in these accounts.
• Prepares worksheets and assists with the preparation of financial statements.
• Audits various accounting transactions, e.g., payroll, vendor payments, final payments, income tax returns, travel claims, etc., to ensure correctness of disbursements and adherence to relevant staff rules, financial regulations and rules, ST/AI issuances or practices.
• Serves as Approving Officer for disbursements up to an authorized level.
• Provides guidance and training to colleagues as required.

General:

• Keeps up-to-date on documents/reports/guidelines that have a bearing on matters related to programme, ensuring compliance with intergovernmental recommendations and decisions as well as with United Nations policies and procedures.
• Drafts or prepares correspondence to respond to enquiries in respect to relevant financial and budget matters.
• Maintain and keep up-to-date files.
• May be responsible for providing guidance, training and daily supervision to other general service staff in the area of responsibility.
• Performs other related duties, as assigned.

Education

• High school diploma or equivalent is required.

Work Experience

• A minimum of seven years of experience in finance, budget, accounting, payroll, administrative services or related area is required. The minimum years of relevant experience is reduced to five years for candidates who possess a first-level university degree or higher. A minimum of five years of experience using an enterprise resource planning system in accounting, finance, budget, grants module is required. Experience in processing payroll, entitlements, and benefits, vendor/travel claims settlement in an international organization is desirable. Experience working with the United Nations or a large global organization’s systems and procedures is desirable. Experience with payment disbursements and adherence to relevant Staff Rules and Regulations including entitlements and Financial Regulations, Rules and procedures of the United Nations or a similar international organization is desirable.

Languages

• English and French are the working languages of the United Nations Secretariat. For the position advertised, fluency in English is required. Knowledge of another official United Nations language is desirable.

Source: https://careers.un.org/jobSearchDescription/248079?language=en