The Finance Associate position is located within the Revenue and Donor Reporting (RDRU) Team, Finance Branch of the Division for Management Services.

The Finance Branch is responsible for global finance and accounting including providing guidance and oversight for financial management to country, regional and headquarters offices. The Branch advances and owns key financial policies and processes, statutory and donor reporting, treasury services, and ensuring the ERP and related systems are configured to implement, manage, and report on key financial processes. The incumbent will report to the Head of RDRU.

The Revenue and Donor Reporting Team is responsible for providing guidance and support to UNFPA field offices and headquarter locations in the areas of treasury services management and revenue accounting, as well as providing reporting on the use of UNFPA’s resources to donors. UNFPA contracts the services of a UN Agency for its treasury function, but retains oversight of liquidity and cash flow, the use of bank accounts and foreign exchange currency considerations. RDRU performs essential business continuity functions in the application of deposits and the provision of bridge funding. The donor reporting functions reviews and analyses financial clauses in agreements with donors and prepares certified reporting to donors on the use of financial resources provides to UNFPA. As part of these functions, RDRU also oversees the accurate recording of general ledger information for revenue accounts and ensures financial data quality.

The Finance Associate works closely with other members of RDRU and the wider Finance Branch, as well as members of the Resource Mobilisation Branch (RMB) and colleagues in field offices. The position works in the area of statutory and donor reporting to ensure UNFPA meets its reporting obligations in the provision of high quality, accurate and timely financial reports; performs accounting controls, including the analysis and reconciliation of general ledger accounts and monitoring of the integrity and completeness of financial information; processes donor refund payments; supports the preparation and certification of financial reports and engages field colleagues in guidance and learning.

RESPONSIBILITIES

1.Partnerships, Knowledge management, Communication and Training

• Actively participate in Finance Branch and team meetings, including in learning and knowledge sharing.
• Maintain active and positive relationships with key partners for RDRU, including the Resource Mobilisation Branch (RMB), Brussels Office (BO) Supply Chain Management Unit (SCMU) and field offices.
• Provide financial training and facilitate knowledge transfers with the global community based on financial/operations procedures or guidance notes, which may be delivered remotely or in the field.
• Contribute to the global financial management community facilitated by the Finance Branch

2. Business continuity activities

• Provide business continuity support to the RDRU team on deposit and cash ledger application, and preparation of bank to book reconciliations.
• Process donor refunds.

3. Support and guidance to offices on financial management

• Respond to Global Service Desk cases assigned to the revenue and donor reporting team, within the purview of the role.
• Provide guidance and support to field colleagues on financial reporting and cash and revenue issues

4. Accounting, period end and year end closure activities

Under the guidance of the Finance Specialist:

• Review revenue and receivable data and dashboard as part of the second line of defense for financial management and accounting , based on UNFPA procedures and propose adjustments to data, if required.
• Review assigned general ledger account balances in revenue and contributions receivables for accuracy, propose corrective action and resolve as required.

5. Reporting and information management including Statutory and Donor Reporting

a) Donor reporting

Under the guidance of the Finance Specialist :

• Track reporting deadlines and requirements for donor agreements with non-standard timelines or requirements.
• Liaise with the Global Monitoring and Advisory Team for follow up on any outstanding financial commitments and balances to be completed within the contract end date.
• Prepare or review system generated annual and final financial reports for core and non-core resources for accuracy and completeness, including reconciliation to the General Ledger.
• Prepare non-standard and ad hoc consolidated financial reports based on data from the General Ledger as per the donor agreement.
• Review quarterly financial reports and advance requests for USAID donor agreements prepared by budget holders, for certification by the Finance Branch
• Monitor and follow up on advance payments for select donors.

b) Statutory reporting

• Prepare defined year end schedules and tables for Executive Board reports and the UNFPA Financial Statements based on revenue and investment data; and review system generated reports as required.

5. Business process and systems efficiency

• Generate monitoring reports to support process improvements.
• Provide ideas on dashboard, business process and procedure improvements including systems based tools for financial reviews of the reporting process and other processes in the unit.

6. Carry out any other duties as may be required by UNFPA leadership.

REQUIREMENTS

Education:

Completion of secondary education with experience in financial management and / or accounting. A part qualified accountancy qualification or a first level degree would be considered an advantage.

Knowledge and Experience:

• 6 years finance-related work experience including reporting such as accounts receivable, accounts payable, general ledger maintenance. Experience in the application of IPSAS or IFRS would be advantageous.
• Proficiency in use of spreadsheets, word processing and computerized ERP systems (preferably Oracle).
• Strong written and oral communications skills.
• Ability to organize effectively, work under pressure with attention to detail, precision, and accuracy.

Languages:

Fluency in English; knowledge of other official UN languages, preferably French and/or Spanish, is considered an advantage.