Financial Analyst

Job Description

The Finance department is a shared services function working across the NCIs to provide a comprehensive, cost-effective finance service to each organisation, and helping to co-ordinate joint projects where appropriate. The team also provides support to, and promotes best practice across the wider Church in relation to financial matters, including monitoring the financial health of Dioceses, Cathedrals, Theological Education Institutions etc.

The Finance team is currently supporting their NCI clients with some major change and transformation projects, as well as undergoing significant changes to their own ways of working to ensure they can deliver a high-quality Finance service which meets the needs of the NCIs. This includes undertaking a Finance Transformation Programme to help Finance develop their service (replacing an ageing finance system as well as associated process improvement and changes to ways of working) and supporting the Church of England Governance Programme which will reshape the National Church Institutions themselves.

This has led to the creation of a Financial Analyst position for an interim period of 12 months to provide a range of financial analysis and management information to support key stakeholders across the NCIs. We are seeking a newly qualified finance professional, with excellent analytical skills, strong Excel data manipulation skills and clear communication skills.

Responsibilities

Financial planning, reporting and monitoring

• Management of the production of regular management accounts for each of the NCIs including:
• Ensuring that monthly, quarterly and year end close is complete and all necessary transactions are recorded in SAP accurately and on time, with no material errors, omissions or miscoding.
• Undertaking variance analysis between budgets, forecasts and actuals and drafting management accounts for review by the Finance Business Partners.

Investigating discrepancies and unexpected variances, making corrections if required.

Providing support for the financial planning processes (annual budgets and regular forecasts) including developing and maintaining a consistent set templates for use by budget holders.

Finance Business Partnering

• Working with budget holders both independently and with support of the Finance Business Partners to build understanding of their financial position and performance, including:
• Providing business partnering support for designated departments including providing constructive challenge to hold budget holders to account for financial performance, probe key issues, financial assumptions underpinning the budgets and focus on priorities.
• Building strong relationships with senior managers and budget holders and supporting them with the preparation of budget and forecast submissions, identifying key risks and opportunities and providing advice.
• Preparing monthly management reports and liaising directly with budget holders in monthly meetings to provide insight and advice into variances.
• Support in the preparation of other business reporting requirements such as board reports, lenders report etc.
  
  

Support for NCI projects and programmes

• Working with the Finance Business Partners and Project Teams to provide financial support for relevant programme activity (including pan-NCI projects) as appropriate, including
• Preparing financial models or analysis to support the production of project business cases.
• Develop and maintain robust Excel templates for use by project managers and finance staff in the production of project budgets, budget monitoring reports and reforecasts.
• Undertake necessary project accounting tasks at month end to ensure that project financials are up-to-date and reflect an accurate view of project progress, including preparing accrual/prepayment/adjustment journals as required.

Support the production of project budgets and regular project finance reports for major NCI projects as required, working with Project Managers to ensure information is presented accurately and consistently for Project Board meetings.

Grant financial monitoring and accounting

• Support the grants operational team with the financial set up, budgeting, monitoring, and reporting of grants to ensure:
• Grant related financial transactions are recorded, tracked, and reported in line with internal policies, procedures, and compliance requirements.
• Grant budgets, forecasts, and financial summaries are prepared and maintained to support decision making and programme delivery.
• Grant expenditure is monitored against budget, identifying variances and working with the grants team to resolve issues.
• Accurate and timely financial information is provided to support funding allocations, grant approvals, payment schedules, and reporting cycles.
  
  

Qualifications

Essential

Knowledge/Experience

• Experience of working in a management accounting / financial analysis role for a large organisation.
• Experience of assisting in developing budgets and forecasts.
• Experience of providing support, commentary and analysis to budget holders or other stakeholders.
• Experience of developing new financial templates and financial models to support the production of ad hoc or regular analysis or improving existing financial templates and models.
• Experience of using financial systems packages including financial reporting tools.
  
  

Skills & Abilities

• Excellent IT skills including advanced Excel and data manipulation skills.
• Able to analyse information and extract pertinent information for management.
• Excellent attention to detail with a strong focus on quality presentation.

Well organised and able to prioritise competing demands.

Customer-focussed and able to partner effectively with key stakeholders.

Ability to work calmly and effectively under pressure.

Excellent interpersonal skills to achieve cooperation and results from others.

Effective communication skills both written and oral, able to communicate effectively with stakeholders at all levels, including those with limited financial literacy.

Proactive, self-motivated and enthusiastic.

Qualifications & Training

• Newly qualified CCAB or equivalent professional accounting body qualification
  
  

Desirable

• SAP experience.
• Experience of working in the charity sector.
• Experience of working in the housing or pensions sector
  
  

About Us

The National Church Institutions comprises a wide variety of teams, professions and functions that support the mission and ministries of the Church of England in its vision to be a church, centred on Jesus Christ, for the whole nation - a church that is simpler, humbler, bolder.

We Include. You Belong.

Our Belonging and Inclusion Strategy aims for everyone in the National Church Institutions (NCIs) to feel that they belong, and are valued for who they are and what they contribute. Together, our people contribute in different ways towards our common purpose, whichever NCI they work in and whatever their background.

Living out our values in all that we do, we:

• Strive for Excellence
• Show Compassion
• Respect others
• Collaborate
• Act with Integrity
  
  

We believe our commitment to belonging and inclusion fuels our progress and drives us forward. The NCIs are a safe, inclusive workplace for people of all backgrounds and walks of life. We welcome applications from people of all faiths and of no faith. We want to encourage applications from a diverse group of people who share our values. Even if you have never thought about working for us before, if you have the skills and experience we’re looking for then we would like to hear from you.

Use of AI in your application

We appreciate that you may want to use AI tools to help you with your application. We're happy for you to use AI to come up with ideas and help structure your thoughts, but you shouldn't use AI to fabricate information or write your whole application for you. One of our values is integrity, and although we want you to demonstrate your best self, we don't want an AI-generated persona. If you simply copy and paste AI-generated content into your application, this will reduce your chances of success.