Finance Manager

Experience Needed :  At least five year’s progressive experience in Financial management position (NGOs or INGOs related experience is preferred).

Education Level:        Bachelor’s Degree, Finance /Accounting (or equivalent certification and experience) and recognized Accounting qualification CPA or ACCA

Contract Length:       Fixed Term Contract 

Reports to:                   CEO 

Location :                    Maadi

About Life Makers Foundation

Life Makers Foundation (LMF) is an Egyptian youth-led, voluntary, and non-governmental umbrella organization. It was established in 2011 to foster youth engagement in addressing emerging challenges at the local and global levels. Since its establishment, LMF has worked closely with community-based organizations to build youth capacities and support their efforts to develop their societies and respond to humanitarian needs and disasters. LMF operates in 24 governorates through a non-formal network of partner youth-led organizations and registered offices across Egypt, with a broad portfolio of projects and local initiatives in the sectors of Health, Education, Livelihoods, Humanitarian Assistance, Environment, and Youth Participation.

LMF adopts the core principles of humanity, neutrality, impartiality, and independence in its operations to ensure the provision of assistance with no discrimination towards differences in ethnicity, religion, race, or any other consideration. LMF provides development and humanitarian interventions for the most vulnerable while preserving their dignity and ensuring their participation.

Life Makers is a voluntary, non-governmental, non-religious, non-political, and non-partisan movement that was launched in 2003 to mobilize the best of the human spirit to alleviate human suffering and protect human life and human rights.

Job Purpose:

The role of the Finance Manager is to lead and manage the finance team in ensuring; the integrity of finance systems, that controls and procedures robust, timely and accurate production and analysis of financial management information and accurate payroll administration.

The Finance Manager is to provide the business specification required to build and maintain the Life Makers Foundation (LMF) Finance and Accounting system (ERP). Moreover, Finance Manager is responsible for providing financial information, technical support, quality strategic insight and inputs to planning, budgeting and reporting processes, undertaking financial analysis and reporting to enable the finance teams, budget holders, and partners to perform strong financial management by making informed decision in programme implementation and follow up. 

Additionally, Finance Manager is responsible for taking initiatives to ensure that funds are used in the best possible way by maintaining, improving and enforcing adherence and compliance with Life Makers Foundation internal control systems, managing and building the capacity of Life Makers Foundation staff and partners.

Furthermore, Finance Manager is responsible for grants management and to ensure sound management of funding in line with Life Makers Foundation guidelines and donor requirements, while providing financial management support to LMF teams in the field. The Finance Manager will also provide support on donor reporting, proposal development and revisions of existing projects, as well as lead on communication with donors. These tasks should be carried out in close coordination and integration with the relevant team.

Key Responsibilities:

Financial Planning and Decision Making

•   Facilitates in budget development and need of the finance department.
•   Participates in Budget Management meetings to ensure that payments, commitments and accruals are well managed in relation to donor/LMF expenditures.
•   Analyses financial spend and trends and Advices the COF about cost efficiency in operations
•   Provides information to the CFO on issues arising from Interdepartmental meetings that relate to budget allocations for various needs for the departments
•   Prepare annual and quarterly budgets and reports.
•   Assist the CFO in management of the financial reserves and Non-Allocated Fund (NAF) by ensuring that costs relate to donors are accurately allocated.

Treasury function

• Establish and maintain financial cash flow.
• Reviews cash forecasts from offices/programs and consolidate the LMF Cash forecast.
• Ensures the LMF maintains the stipulated level of cash balances.
• Contributes LMF strengthening measures in cash management
• Picking best practices in cash management from NGOs for use in strengthening cash management in the LMF.
• Developing and reviewing of controls to ensure strong checks and balances
• Reviews cash balances from all offices and makes decision in the event of emergency cash needs
• Ensure forex transactions are well recorded and are well planned based on need in charge of all banks correspondences.

Financial Accounting

• Ensures that all Payments adhere to LMF and donor policies and are made on a timely basis
• Document key gaps in the LMF payment cycle and recommends improvements on a continuous basis.
• Ensures data quality of all transactions entered into ACTIVIS (ERP) and lead in data quality improvements in the country office
• Ensures Journals and invoice posting are well supported before being entered into ACTIVIS (ERP)
• Promotes awareness of the accounting codes for LMF by sharing tools that make it easy for finance and non-finance to identify appropriate codes
• Ensures that every finance staff delivers on the single account reconciliation for all balance sheet accounts
• Supports finance and awards/grants team training needs for ACTIVIS (ERP) and facilitates their capacity building
• Ensures proper work flow between departments to ensure that transactions are captured within acceptable timelines
• Sets and Ensures that Finance department meets soft close and hard close deadlines and that all unusual transactions and unsupported entries are investigated and resolved in a reasonable manner
• Facilitates donor reporting by ensuring that all data is captured in ACTIVIS (ERP) and costs are accrued at close out where applicable
• Reviewing financial systems procedures and practices to ensure that it is compliant to LMF policies and donor policies
• Maintenance of effective filling of financial documentation and ensure they can be accessed on demand within reasonable time

Internal Controls and Risk Management

•  Spearheads the maintenance of effective controls by ensuring that transactions adhere to LMF policies
•   Actioning Mitigating measures in the LMF risk register that relate to financial management
•  Identifies gaps in internal controls document and resolve within acceptable timeliness
•   Review expenditure procedures, including adherence of procurement processes
•   Developing and updating an Induction pack for LMF finance and non-finance and Induction of new staff into LMF financial procedures
•  Disseminate, create awareness and conduct refresher trainings on LMF documents that facilitate effective controls
• Conduct field visits to assess effectiveness of controls and support Field Finance coordinators and budget holders in their financial performance

Audit and Compliance

• Facilitates the audit by ensuring that documents are availed during audits and feeds into the audit management by the IA function
• Implement the audit recommendations from various audits and maintain a tracker of all audit queries.
• Managing the Fundraising license (opening, fundraising tools, closing the period, presenting the report)
• Ensures statutory deductions are made on time.
• Review LMF procedures and business processes to ensure that they are in compliance with tax and audit requirements and raise a report to the CFO
• Keep abreast with new developments on tax, legal and NGO board NGO requirements and updates management on the same
• Ensures that records are well documented and filled 

Payroll Management

• Ensures that the payroll process is efficient and takes measures to ensure that any gaps are addressed
• Reviews the LMF payroll to ensure that tax and other deductions are done accurately
• Coordinates with Awards/grants for Matrixes to ensure that Payroll expensing is done in a timely fashion once and that payroll is accurately allocated.
• Supports the field offices to resolve any payroll issues that come up.

Financial Reporting

•  Overall Responsible for balance sheet management of all accounts by ensuring each staff delivers on the reconciliation of their respective accounts.
• Prepare the annual financial statements and schedules and ensures that LMF adheres to audit readiness.
• Preparation of the MFR and schedules within stipulated timelines and analysis the reports to the CFO.
• Reviews Central Accounting Authority and Ministry of Social Solidarity reports on LMF financial performance and takes necessary action where performance needs to be improved and raise a report to the CFO.
• Feeds into the LMF financial management aspects.
• Provides the CFO with monthly, quarterly and other adhoc reports as required
• Prepares liquidation schedules
• Ensures prepayments for medical and other staff benefits are expensed in a timely manner
• Ensures that Provident provision is captured accurately and paid out timely

Staff management, mentorship and development.

• Facilitate recruitment of new finance staff
• Support finance staff to set clear performance objectives and measurable ambitious KPIs that are aligned to the LMF finance KPIs
• Ensure proper coordination of leave plans to ensure all area offices are adequately staffed at all times.
• Support staff achieve their potential through effective delegation, capacity building and mentorship
• Perform appraisals and feedback for continuous improvement
• Facilitate monthly and quarterly finance meetings to build high spirited team
• Teambuilding for the finance department
• Take corrective action for unacceptable performance
• Develop staff capacity by training and promoting staff as appropriate and in coordination with HR, ensure availability of appropriate professional development opportunities for staff.
• Ensure the safety, security, health, and well-being of staff and that staff management and other processes and policies and systems reflect LMF principles of equity and fairness.
• Ensure accountability to beneficiaries and humanitarian principles are mainstreamed in all programmes

·     Core Competencies and Skills

Achievement focused:

• Follow Results-based management (RBM) in achieving planned goals and objectives.

Working Smart:

• Achieve more in less time.
• Balances between work life and personal life to ensure the sustainability of high-quality performance.
• Able to contribute and create a participatory, enjoyable, fulfilling, and rewarding work environment.

Accountability:

• Holds self-accountable to making decisions and managing resources efficiently.
• Holds the team and partners accountable to deliver on their responsibilities - giving them the freedom to deliver in the best way they see fit, providing the necessary development to improve performance.

Ambition:

• Sets ambitious and challenging goals for himself/herself (and the team), takes responsibility for self-development and encourages others to do the same
• Widely shares their vision, engages, and motivates others to contribute to the bigger vision of LMF.
• Future orientated and thinks strategically.
• Thinks globally and acts locally.

Collaboration:

• Builds and maintains effective relationships with project team, colleagues and external partners.
• Values diversity as a source of competitive strength.
• Approachable, good listener and easy to communicate with.

Creativity:

• Develops and encourages new and innovative solutions.
• Willing to take disciplined risks.

Integrity:

• Honest and encourages openness and transparency

Requirements  

• At least five year’s progressive experience in Financial management position (NGOs or INGOs related experience is preferred).
• Bachelor’s Degree, Finance /Accounting (or equivalent certification and experience) and recognized Accounting qualification CPA or ACCA. 
• Demonstrable accounting, budget and financial management skills.
• Excellent stakeholder management and strategic influencing skills.
• Ability to oversee implementation of new procedures and controls.
• Strong interpersonal skills and ability to establish and maintain effective working relations with a team, including cultural sensitivity, assertiveness and negotiating skills.
• Proven skills on managing changes, achieving results, ensuring quality, team building and capacity building.
• Strong computer skills, Excel, Word and Accounting packages.
• Ability and willingness to work under pressure as part of a professional team.
• Willingness to travel to field offices occasionally.
• Fluency in English, both verbal and written.
• Excellent communication skills.
• Ability to be proactive and logical in problem-solving scenarios.
• Ability to liaise remotely with a wide range of people at all levels and across different cultures and to act with credibility, tact and diplomacy.
• Thorough – high attention to detail and takes pride in delivering accurate, high quality work.
• A thorough understanding of financial systems and procedures.
• Ability to write clear and well-argued revision requests.
• Proven capacity to supervise, train and coach staff in grant management and finance technical skills.
• Strong time management skills with an ability to plan ahead, anticipate requirements, and obstacles, and an ability to juggle competing priorities successfully, and to work to tight deadlines
• Conscientious and client focused 
• Maintains a calm disposition and positive outlook particularly when working under pressure 
• A full appreciation of the value of co-operation, both internationally and within a team environment
• Ability to work both in an advisory and a hands-on implementation capacity.
• Experience coordinating successful funding proposals and preparing donor reports, including log- frames.
• Commitment to Life Makers Foundation.

Desirable

Experienced in a multi-currency multi sector finance environment

Additional job responsibilities

The job duties and responsibilities as set out above are not exhaustive and the post holder may be required to carry out additional duties within reasonableness of their level of skills and experience.