View Vacancy - MNL - Regional Finance Senior Officer, AO (MATL Cover)

The British Government is an inclusive and diversity-friendly employer.  We value difference, promote equality and challenge discrimination, enhancing our organisational capability. We welcome and encourage applications from people of all backgrounds. We do not discriminate on the basis of disability, race, colour, ethnicity, gender identity, religion, sexual orientation, age, veteran status or other category protected by law. We promote family-friendly flexible working opportunities, where operational and security needs allow.
Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (Operations and Corporate Services)
GTPC (Global Transaction Processing Centre)

The British Embassy Manila is a large diplomatic mission delivering a dynamic and rapidly expanding programme of activity in support of the UK’s objectives on prosperity, security and consular matters. The Embassy is a modern, diverse and inclusive employer where everyone contributes to the Embassy’s CORE Values of Collaboration, Opportunity, Respect and Excellence.

MAIN PURPOSE OF THE JOB:

To support the operational delivery of the Global Transaction Processing Centre (GTPC) to Missions in Asia Pacific, MENAD, EECAD, SAAD and Africa providing reconciliation services to 150 posts, overseeing the accurate and timely processing of Network Post Accounts and receipts.

Provide a quality check function for the team, supporting a culture of continuous improvement to not only meet, but exceed the service standards set by the Service Level Agreement while working to improve financial compliance across the FCDO.

Purchase Order Supplier Maintenance 

  • Process all SM, PO, DS transactions in your areas within Service levels agreements focusing on delivering 97% and above KPIs throughout the year.
  • Complete workload as identified in daily workload plan including Supplier & Staff set ups, Distribution Set(DS) ups, Bank Amendments, clean ups and Purchase Order creation and PO other requests.
  • Investigate any rejected payment reasons that may be related to supplier/staff set-up.

Accounts Payable – Invoice Processing

  • Process all supplier invoices, staff reimbursement in the system within service level agreements focusing on delivering 99% and above KPIs throughout the year.
  • Complete workload as identified in Workload management including recording of supplier invoices, staff reimbursements, debit memos, Network Post Accounts (NPAs), cash-in-transit forms, approved Non Discretionary payment Requests and payroll-related.

Accounts Payable – Payments

  • Process all assigned payment transactions including Payroll, Debit Memos, NPAs and urgent payment requests within Service level agreements and in compliance to Standard processes and P2P guidelines. Any deviations from processes are appropriately escalated and monitored to reduce risk.
  • Identify any rejected payments promptly. Liaise with banking providers as well as internal teams to investigate and resolve payment rejections and refunds.
  • Comply with Banking Regulations and FCDO financial policies in particular P2P handbook, Challenge and Escalation procedures and Audit recommendations.
  • For manual banking payments perform 1st level bank approval.  Ensure accuracy checks are completed, that details entered in PRISM match details on the banking platform.
  • For Electronic/cheque/Wire payments, perform quality check of batches before payment processing by reviewing validity and completeness of supporting documentations as well as checking accuracy of invoice entry details including matching of bank account information setup in Oracle and Banking platforms.
  • Ensure strict adherence to management and usage of banking tokens and access information.

Accounts Receivable & Reconciliation

  • Process all accounts receivable and reconciliation transactions in your areas within Service levels agreements.  
  • Complete workload as identified in daily workload plan including receipts, NPAs, reconciliation, cash & bank balances and adjustments in the system.
  • Investigate and pursue the reconciliation of any aging items.
  • Investigate any rejected payment promptly registering it in the Bank Amendment Tracker. 

Operational Delivery

  • Comply with financial guidance in particular P2P handbook, Challenge and Escalation procedures and audit recommendations.
  • Support Manager to assist with daily workload of team addressing bottlenecks and ensuring payments and requests are processed within SLAs while still maintaining acceptable accuracy level.
  • Provide assistance in resolving issues related to their respective area and process.
  • Monitor and ensure compliance to standard processes ensuring that any deviations from process are appropriately escalated and monitored to reduce risk.
  • Manage all data according to Information Management / GDPR guidance ensuring it is stored correctly, weeded regularly and shared according to personal data management controls.
  • Review all relevant monitoring tools to take action as necessary.
  • Timely ensure that all requests and queries in shared mailbox, and sharepoint are managed and resolved.
  • Timely escalation of unresolved aging items to line manager.

Customer Service

  • Identify issues and work to resolve.  Escalate to line managers issues that need may affect current operations. 
  • Work with Post staff to ensure proper delivery of services by answering queries and providing guidance / instructions to avoid errors in the future.
  • Act as first point of contact for the Customer Engagement Team ensuring responses are actioned within SLA.  

Continuous Improvement

  • Timely report to line manager any incidents, identify corrective measures and suggest practical and repeatable solutions to prevent similar incidents occurring in the future.
  • Proactively identify and suggest improvements in payments processes to enhance efficiencies and quality of delivered results, paying particular attention to any failing KPIs
  • Support a culture of continuous improvement by actively participating in internal and external cross-team process improvements projects as necessary
  • Coordinate with other function teams on changes/issues to ensure seamless flow of data/information

***This is a 6-month Fixed Term Maternity Cover Role. 

RESOURCES MANAGED (STAFF & EXPENDITURE): 

  • N/A

  • 1 year experience of working in the FCDO Global Transaction Processing Centre or fast-paced BPO/shared service
  • Data entry experience – with high attention to detail
  • Proficient in MS Excel and other Microsoft applications
  • Understanding of Purchase to Pay (P2P). 

LANGUAGE REQUIREMENTS:

  • Language:    English and Filipino    
  • Level of language required: Strong oral and written English language ability. Filipino is desirable but not essential.
  • Customer service background
  • Financial Background/Qualification
Changing and Improving, Managing a Quality Service, Delivering at Pace, Working Together
5 December 2022
Administrative Officer (AO)
Fixed Term, Temporary
36
6 months
Asia Pacific
Philippines
Manila
British Embassy
1
PHP
37,907
2 January 2023
31 May 2023

The British Embassy offers a competitive compensation package, 36-hour work week, guaranteed 13th and 14th month pay, 20 days paid annual leave (calculated on Pro-rata basis if joined after 1 January), extensive medical insurance, life insurance and access to a guaranteed 5 days of learning opportunities a year. 

Employment offers are subject to successful clearance of pre-employment checks. Staff recruited locally by the British Embassy Manila is subject to Terms and Conditions of Service according to local Philippine employment law.

No accommodation or relocation expenses are payable in connection with this position. All candidates must be legally able to work and reside in the country of the vacancy with the correct visa/work permit status or demonstrate eligibility to obtain the relevant permit. Any costs related to obtaining or renewing permits and visas are the responsibility of the successful applicant.

Employees who are not liable to pay local income tax on their Mission salary may have their salaries reduced by the equivalent local income tax amount.

Candidates are expected to have a valid NBI Clearance.

Please note that the deadline for applications is 23:55 on the day mentioned in the above field “Application deadline”.

Please be aware that the deadline for submitting applications is considered to be the time zone for the country where the vacancy has arisen.

We advise you to allow enough time to complete and submit your full application since only applications completed and submitted before the deadline will be considered.

Note : All applicants are required to mandatorily fill the online application form completely including the employment and educational details, experience, professional skills and behaviour based questions. We will be thoroughly reviewing the applications and incomplete form in any respect may not be considered while shortlisting for the next stage.

For inclusivity and diversity, please remove the following personal information when uploading your CV: name, address, email address, age, date of birth, gender, and nationality.

The start date mentioned in the job advert is a tentative start date and the successful candidate will be required to undergo security vetting procedures. Any offer of employment will be subject to the candidate achieving suitable clearances.

Please be aware that you will only be able to apply to vacancies for Country Based Staff roles with the British Government through this official tal.net site (operated by Oleeo). Jobs may be advertised on third party websites, however our adverts will always link back to the official tal.net site. If you complete and send an application through any other site, we will not receive it.

This opportunity is closed to applications.