Financial Systems Lead

About Us

CIVIC SQUARE is demonstrating neighbourhood-scale civic infrastructure for social and
ecological transition, together with many people and partners in Ladywood, Birmingham UK.

Principally, we are working to share practically and openly how the climate transition and
retrofit of our homes and streets can be designed, owned and governed by the people who live
there now in systemic, tangible and participatory ways.

This is through organising around three interconnected neighbourhood system demonstrators:
Neighbourhood Doughnut (a 21st century compass for ecologically safe and
socially just neighbourhoods), Neighbourhood Transitions (street-based
systemic demonstration of carbon, energy and ecological built environment transitions) and
Neighbourhood Public Square (co-building and democratising access to the
spaces, tools and resources for a distributed and regenerative transition, held in the common
for the neighbourhood).

About This Role

This is a role which supports all mission areas of CIVIC SQUARE, but notably forms part of the Executive Organising function of the organisation, as well as playing a key role in the health and pace of what is required to manifest the Neighbourhood Public Square demonstrator. The role of Financial Systems Lead seeks to consolidate what we have learnt well from previous
functionality and roles in the first five years of CIVIC SQUARE, and what is required now in
this critical next phase of our collective work which will focus on delivering long term
neighbourhood civic infrastructure through the Neighbourhood Public Square in Ladywood,
Birmingham.

In this role you will spend your time between the following key functions within the CIVIC
SQUARE team. During a period of deepening our Neighbourhood
Public Square demonstrator, the Financial Systems Lead will be a key role hosting the
organisational financial processes and in meeting the bold vision of the Neighbourhood Public
Square through the practical organising, strong communication and beautiful processes needed to
manifest it.

Everyday Financial Administration

Collaboratively maintaining, administering and managing organisation-wide financial systems

Weekly

• Book keeping within our Pleo system
• Processing invoices to be paid and reconciling these between all our financial systems
• Exporting and reconciling expenses between Receipt Bank, Pleo and Xero
• Raising invoices for consultancy services and talks
• Administering payroll and team pensions

Monthly

• Importing and reconciling statements
• Board meeting preparation
• Checking and submitting HMRC payments for PAYE
• Ensuring Xero records are accurate, including reflecting where spending is against specific
  portfolios, projects and funding pots
• Production of finance health check report

Quarterly

• VAT return checks with our accountant, Ashton McGill
• Prepare relevant information and field management accounts queries with Ashton McGill

Annual

• Supporting budgeting with Director for Operations + People and all Legal Stewards
• Prepare relevant information and field annual accounts queries with Ashton McGill
• Administering P11D

Supporting Functions Within Ambitious Capital Project

Working closely with connections in the
Neighbourhood
Public Square demonstrator to design, codify, implement and communicate processes to support
the financial systems underpinning the capital project

• Onboarding new funders
• Stewarding funding and investment streams
• Working with primary and secondary connections across the Neighbourhood Public Square
  demonstrator to comprehensively document and report on financial expenditures
• Working closely and actively with partners to iterate on existing financial models, whilst
  socialising and building capacity in the team to understand and utilise these models
• Within these financial models, understanding multi-capital accounting, and how we work with
  this idea in its most true and just form, with support from key partners including Emily Harris
  at Dark Matter Labs

We recognise experience levels around this may vary, so we are open to different combinations
of relevant skills. If you have experience in fundraising, strategic financial planning and/or
financial modelling, we would be up for discussing this further.

You Might Thrive In This Role If…

• You’re super curious, passionate and ambitious about building incredible financial
  processes that are not only highly effective in the background, but socialised and practiced in
  the open
• You’re organised, love pragmatic everyday tasks, but also understand their connection to
  and potential for transformation within the bigger picture
• You wield strong literacy of existing financial protocol, coupled with the willingness to
  (re)imagine its operationalisation beyond the limitations of how things currently are by
  default
• High levels of attention to detail is your jam, and you’re a completer finisher
• You are not only able to maintain beautiful systems, but have strong process design skills
  and are able to communicate and deliberate design decisions clearly and confidently
• You’re frustrated that so much financial logic and power is kept in the dark from many
  people and you are motivated to lead a new era of luminous, open, relationship-focused,
  justice-orientated financial systems where many kinds of value is generated and shared
• Platforms such as Xero, Pleo, Notion, Slack and Miro are domains of possibility for you
• You’re excited to work with our amazing partners and develop great relationships with them,
  and are confident to contribute as part of reciprocal learning and co-designing processes
• You’re ready to put an interest in The Boring Revolution into practice
• You’re ready to put an interest in regenerative, distributive-by-design economics into
  practice, taking ideas such as Doughnut Economics off the page in the present

Find out more details about who you might work with, what you might work on first,
organisational benefits and how to apply via bit.ly/FinanceCS