Finance Assistant

The position is located in the Finance Section in the United Nations Military Observer Group in India and Pakistan (UNMOGIP). The Finance Assistant perform the duties under the direct and overall supervision of the Chief Finance Officer. Within delegated authority, the Finance Assistant will be responsible for the following duties:

Responsibilities

Under the direct supervision of Chief Finance Officer (CFO), the incumbent will perform the following duties and responsibilities:

• Review and prepare payments to staff and vendors for goods and services, including checking payments for accuracy and correcting any discrepancies.
• Processing of payments of purchase orders (POs), low vale acquisitions (LVAs), fund commitments (FCs), and direct disbursements. o Ensure that all necessary approvals, supporting documentation, and authorization are included.
• Verify that funds are available in the appropriate budget lines to cover the expenses related to the invoice.
• Review the entered data for accuracy and completeness with regard to service entry sheet (SES) and/or receipt and inspection (R&Is).
• Perform various accounting adjustments by selecting appropriate document type, payment method, and accounting clerk.
• Reconcile vendor accounts and payment records regularly to ensure accuracy and integrity of financial data.
• Review purchase orders (POs) and fund commitments (FCs) prior to initiate the payment.
• Review the computation of staff members regarding their entitlements, including travel claims, daily subsistence allowance (DSAs), mission subsistence allowance (MSAs), and any other allowances, and prepare payment vouchers.
• Communicate with staff members and vendors regarding payment status, inquiries, discrepancies, or any other issues related to invoices or payments. o Process the petty cashes and imprest for field stations. o Ensure that all the petty cash expenditures occurred must have a receipt/bill or other supporting documentation.
• Ensure that each receipt/bill should including the date, amount, purpose, and recipient. o Process petty cash replenishment requests received from the UN field stations and UNHQs using fund commitments (FCs) and record expenses with the appropriate GLs accounts.
• Reconciliation of petty cash journals for UN field stations and ensure that the total amount disbursed from the petty cash fund is reconciled with the remaining cash on hand. Any discrepancies are investigated and resolved promptly to ensure accuracy and accountability.
• Prepare documentation to dispatch pouches to the UN field stations.
• Perform cash counts on a quarterly basis and prepare all cash count statements at the year-end. o Communicate with the UN field stations and UNHQs regarding the status of petty cash replenishment, inquiries, discrepancies, or any other issues related to petty cash and imprest.
• Review incoming payment instructions with regard to banking details & sources of funds, and release payments from House Bank in ERP/SAP system and prepare & disburse payments/cheques.
• Dispatch payment instructions and cheques to banks and prepare receipts and deposit slips for all incoming funds and notify payees of status of payments.
• Identify and annotate bank account movements and monitors bank balances of the mission’s accounts, and assist in cash management, including preparing cash flow forecasts, and assist to make sure cash in vault are accounted for on a daily basis.
• Prepare and review various ERP/SAP accounting transactions, e.g., air ticket billing, shipment payments, payroll adjustments, payment of staff entitlements, final payments, travel claims, vendor invoices, down-payments, expense reports, DSA calculations, adjustments, etc.
• Ensure conformity adherence to relevant staff rules, financial regulations and rules.
• Draft minutes or prepare correspondence to respond to enquiries in respect to financial matters.
• Perform other duties as assigned by the Chief Finance Officer.

Education

• High school diploma or equivalent is required. Technical or vocational certificate in accounting, finance, budget or related fields is desirable.

Job – Specific Qualification

• Working experience of MS-Office (Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, SharePoint) is required. Experience in the use of Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) systems is desirable.

Work Experience

• At least 5 years of progressively responsible experience within the United Nations system or in the private sector at the national or international level in accounting, finance, or budgeting is required. The minimum years of relevant experience is reduced to 3 years for candidates who possess a First-level university degree or higher.

Languages

• English and French are the working languages of the United Nations Secretariat. For the post advertised, fluency in oral and written English is required. Knowledge of another official United Nations language is an advantage.

Source: https://careers.un.org/jobSearchDescription/231821?language=en