The Organisation 

Edinburgh University Students’ Association is a student-led charity that offers support to more than 39,500 students, all of whom are automatically a member of the Students’ Association.

The total income of Edinburgh University Students’ Association is close to £12m, with £8.6m of that figure coming from commercial activities (bars, cafes, shops, nightclubs, a gym and a catering business). The organisation receives an additional £3m in grant income from the University. Some of the income generated is used to run the student support activities, such as The Advice Place, the Peer Support programme or the Activities Office.

The strategic plan, which runs from 2015 to 2019, is helping them put the organisation at the heart of students’ lives and to make sure students have the best possible experience while at university. They can influence the student experience through academic and social support or through the facilities they provide.

The Opportunity

Edinburgh University Students’ Association has been on a journey over the last five years and how they operate as an organisation has been central to that journey. This is a Head of Department role within the Corporate Services team, reporting directly to the Finance Director. The Corporate Services team has recently undergone a small restructure which has resulted in the creation of this position. This newly created role presents the opportunity for the successful candidate not only to have a positive impact on the corporate services team, but on the wider organisation as well.

Job Description

The Head of Department role is extremely varied and has overall responsibility for financial and management accounting including sales, purchase and nominal ledgers, payroll, treasury, internal reporting, financial systems, stock control and cash handling functions.

The jobholder will liaise with external parties such as auditors and the bank, and with trustees and staff of the Association. A crucial part of this role will be the development and improvement of financial controls, processes and systems.
Key responsibilities of the role include:

• Provide leadership, support and guidance to the Finance, Business Support, Management Accounting and Cash Handling teams
• Ensure that full financial controls are developed and implemented across the team, with an emphasis on speed and accuracy of processing
• Undertake detailed monthly balance sheet controls and reconciliations and at least a quarterly full reconciliation
• Undertake quarterly and year end VAT returns for the Association and its trading subsidiary and ensure all taxation is paid within statutory deadlines. Ensure that processes are maintained so as to maximise the VAT recovery rate across the Students’ Association
• Take oversight of payroll & pension processing for Association staff, acting as backup to the payroll administrator; act as the primary contact for pension scheme enquiries
• Bank / treasury management, ensuring that appropriate funds are available at all times and recommending investment options for surplus funds
• Fixed asset management
• Ensure that monthly reporting for trustees and external parties is produced accurately and on time, and includes commentary on the results
• Ensure that regular, detailed management information is provided to the Association’s Heads of Department (HoD) to an agreed timetable. This includes weekly flash reporting and monthly reports
• Lead the development and improvement of the reporting systems and processes in place across the organisation to enable flexible, multi-level reports are available to all managers
• Ensure that the budget is delivered on time, and that forecasts are produced as appropriate during the year
• Take oversight of stock management systems and processes, working with operational teams to ensure that full controls are in place and applied
• Act as the first point of communication for financial and business reporting matters within the Association, and with external parties
• Working with operational teams, develop cash management controls, standard procedures and best practice; ensure that these are applied in all operational areas
• Develop an operating model for cash handling in the Students’ Association, which meets operational and business security needs during University semesters and during the Festival Fringe

The Candidate

A summary of the key candidate requirements are as follows:

• CCAB (or equivalent) qualified accountant with minimum 3 years post-qualification financial and management experience
• Experience of developing new and improving existing reporting systems and processes
• Proven experience of leading and developing teams
• Experience and understanding of mid-size corporate accounting systems such as Sage 200
• Experience of financial reporting in a commercial environment
• Experience of procurement / stock management systems
• Experience of business intelligence applications such as Cognos, Crystal Reports or TM1
• Experience of systems implementation
• Payroll knowledge or experience
• Cash handling experience
• Understanding of the Charity SORP and a not-for-profit environment
• VAT understanding in a partial-reclaim environment
• Good working knowledge of Microsoft Office, in particular Excel

The salary on offer is paying up to £45,000 depending on experience