Senior Research Finance Assistant

Reference
1102953

Branch
University of Warwick

Start date
03/11/2025

Duration
3 Months

Hours and days
Full Time - Monday to Friday - 8:30 - 17:00

Dress code
Smart Casual

Rate of pay
£16.46

Holiday rate
£1.99

Role

To proactively manage a portfolio of externally funded research and research related projects from acceptance to closure including identifying and maintaining action plans to deal with issues on projects and ensuring the completeness and accuracy of claims and invoices. Post holders will be expected to work independently and without supervision for much of the time.

To demonstrate a service ethos, building good working relationships with stakeholders (particularly those in academic departments) through close communication and information sharing, and collaborative working. 

To be knowledgeable on funder rules to ensure compliance so that all relevant costs are claimed and financial clawback and sanctions are avoided. To effectively communicate rules to internal stakeholders. 

Duties and responsibilities

Prepare / submit reconciliations, claims and invoices:

• Perform reconciliations, prepare claims for projects
• Maintain complete, accurate, auditable working papers supporting claims and invoices
• Correct mispostings/remove ineligible spend in a timely manner
• Calculate and account for foreign exchange differences and revalue budgets where applicable
• Ensure claims and invoices are complete and accurate and, following Finance Manager review, submit to funders in line with funder eligibility rules and deadlines. Complete claims on various external funder systems as required.

Financial management:

• Review of profiling of budget on SAP and ongoing maintenance of budgets and forecasts in system, liaising with departments over changes and documenting as appropriate.
• Identify changes to projects and implications of these through close departmental communication. 
• Regular review of project finances and progress projects identified as "high" risk - liaise with departments and project staff to discuss contract non-performance; variations to profile; agree corrective action and document in line with agreed protocols
• Monitor research projects establishing and implementing a clear action plan to address issues. Monitoring assisted/initiated by e.g. investigation of exception reports (leads and lags; projects in system not yet activated; projects with balances over £50k etc.) and queries raised by stakeholders.
• Ensure accurate and complete timesheets are submitted on a regular basis.
• Ensure documents retained in line with document retention policy, liaising with Departments as appropriate.

Promotion of Financial Control:

• Knowledgeable on funder rules including effectively advising departments on application of these, identifying and proposing solutions to related issues (e.g. through the ability to vire budgets), escalating to Finance Managers as necessary; keeping up to date with changes and communicating these, and the implications of them, to internal stakeholders as appropriate.
• Support Finance Manager in acting as a central point of contact for departments and funders, and in the liaison between them regarding project finance and administration.
• Liaise with accounts receivable and funders regarding debt chasing and escalate issues where necessary

Close down of projects

• Monitor finished research projects and ensure appropriate actions are taken for a prompt and orderly close.
• Maintain an action plan for projects which have passed end date but not yet closed off
• On project completion, ensure all required documents and audit trail is archived by the Research Finance Clerks and held on file for the contracted period

Month end processes

• Carry out period end tasks
• Produce a schedule of research projects which need providing for at the quarter/year end and communicate these to the Finance Manager for review and approval.

Audit

• Support Finance Managers to arrange audits and prepare documentation for these.
• Respond to basic audit queries from external or internal auditors.
• Management Information; Reporting and Process developments
• Pro-actively identify and notify Finance Manager of any potential improvements to processes or procedures.
• Support Finance Manager to implement improvements to financial and management systems and with the development of reporting for Research Finance.

Skills and experience

• GCSE passes at grades A-C in English & Mathematics
• Relevant practical accounting qualification such as AAT
• Post-holders must be highly proficient in their use of IT systems, especially Microsoft Excel and Outlook
• Good verbal/written communication and interpersonal skills
• Ability to manage a variety of tasks at any one time, work under pressure and achieve strict deadlines whilst maintaining a high standard of customer service
• Demonstrable experience of working to a high standard of accuracy and attention to detail
• Ability to learn new areas of knowledge and skills rapidly (for example, to understand contractual terms and conditions)

Desirable

• Studying towards or already holding a CCAB professional accounting qualification
• Experience of SAP finance system or equivalent
• Experience of working effectively in a large complex organisation
• Experience in higher education/research support role or similar environment
• Experience of dealing with detailed contractual requirements

Location
On Campus

Additional information
Advert closes: Midnight 22/10/2025