Finance & Administration Officer

Staff work a hybrid schedule with 2 days/week in the office

Reporting to the Head of Finance and Operations Southern Africa, the Finance and Administration Officer supports the IFAW Zambia office by processing payments, maintaining financial tracking systems, managing grants and procurement, and producing financial reports and analysis to support the office staff in managing budgets and projects in the most accurate, efficient, and cost-effective manner possible.

Role And Responsibilities

Accounts Payable

• Assist in the preparation of payment requests for invoices and other reimbursements for further approval by department and budget managers ensuring compliance with the organization’s accounting, financial and operational policies as well as coding accuracy, appropriate authorizations, business purpose and evidence of value for payment.

• Prepare and schedule vendor disbursements and staff expense reimbursements utilizing the accounting and treasury systems. Payment methods include check, cash, direct debit, and electronic transfer.

• Create and maintain vendor-specific payment templates in the treasury and/or accounting systems for electronic payments.

• Post payments in the accounting system in an accurate and timely manner in Unit 4

General Accounting

• Prepare bank and petty cash, prepayments, accruals, travel advances and other balance sheet accounts reconciliations as assigned.

• Prepare schedules and propose journal entries to support monthly and fiscal year-end closing and annual financial statement audits.

• Ensure compliance with institutional policies, statutory requirements, country accounting, procurement and Human Resources requirements

• Ensure compliance with terms and conditions for restricted grants, contracts, or other funding sources.

• Compile requested documentation to support the annual financial statement and other statutory audits.

• Participate in the ongoing development and education of non-finance staff regarding institutional and local office policies and procedures.

Budgeting & Reporting

• Support the development of IFAW Zambia budgets and related work plans as part of the annual budgeting and planning cycle.

• Analyse monthly actual-to-budget performance and provide supporting narrative summaries and produce monthly, quarterly and annual project reports for use by management and project teams

• Maintain Excel-based (or other systemised) detailed tracking systems to efficiently and accurately account for restricted grants and other projects and process budget adjustments. Ensure timely and complete supporting documentation for all related transactions.

• Provide ongoing education and information to staff regarding restricted grant award terms and conditions.

• Support the preparation of grant reporting for submission to funding agencies.

• Support program teams with creating work orders, updating budgets, and forecast numbers in Unit 4.

Grant Management

• Organise/participate in site visits and provide financial management capacity-building support to grantees.

• Review financial reports from Grantees to ensure completeness and compliance with award terms.