Accountant

Humanity & Inclusion is a not-for-profit organization with no religious or political affiliation. It operates as a federation made up of a network of associations that provide it with human and financial resources, manage its projects and implement its actions and social mission.

For more details on the association: https://www.hi.org

MISSION CONTEXT

The actual intervention context is characterized by remote management modalities of intervention, through Partners. Bring constant support and guidance to the teams and maintain technical quality in the frame of the HI integrated approach is the main challenge to take up.

OBJECTIVES

Under the line management of the Finance Manager, the Accountant will be responsible for the accounting and finance activities of the Hub according to HI financial processes and procedures, respecting donors’ rules and regulations and local legislation in practice, and ensure that the deadlines are handled according to HI standards and regulations.

S/he will work closely with other shared services units (Logistics and HR) and projects teams and acts as a focal point on partnership financial follow-up matters.

The accountant should provide support to the Finance Manager analysis of financial data, in order to ensure good follow-up of Partners BFU and Office management.

The accountant must keep all the data confidential, and share it only with the authorized persons.

ACCOUNTABILITIES

Line manager: Finance Manager

Supervise: NA

In direct coordination with:

• Partners: finance focal points;
• Beirut hub: Operational Team & Support Services;
• Coordination based in Amman: Finance team and Support services
• Hosting mission: Lebanon mission’s Support Services department

RESPONSIBILITIES

Responsibility 1: Responsible for the implementation of financial procedures and Cash flow management

Objective: Respect HI financial procedures and make sure they are respected and that payments are in line with legal obligations and internal procedures

Benchmark: quality of accounting deliverables, respect of HI and donors’ rules and procedures, respect of monthly deadline as per the financial calendar,quality of forecasts and respect for deadlines; quality of management and control of cash-flow

Activities:

• Realize cash payments in respect of HI procedures and guidelines from the cash boxes he or she is responsible for, and records the transactions in a Cash ledger;
• Prepare bank payments (checks or transfers), sends to his/her line manager for validation and signature, and records the transactions in a Bank Ledger;
• Monitors the number of chequebooks available and orders new ones as necessary; Organize monthly movements to the bank to collect bank statements and ad-hoc movement when a bank transfer is needed;
• Give advances to authorized persons and records them in an advance ledger and clears them when all supporting documents are provided;
• Ensure the validity of the invoices (quality of invoices and validation) and that all supporting documents are provided and coherent;
• Translate to English all HI invoices and any other necessary documents;
• Carry out cash and bank reconciliation with line manager on a monthly basis or whenever requested by his/her line manager;
• Limit cash flow shortage by anticipating cash and money change needs and make sure to keep the adequate quantity of money in the cashbox and safe;
• Respect the Financial Calendar as defined each year in line with HQ deadlines and regional internal financial monitoring process;

Responsibility 2: Accountancy and Accounts management

Objective: Ensure the respect of accountancy guidelines and the proper use of funds in respect of donor-specific guidelines and make sure the financial calendar deadlines are respected and properly followed.

Benchmark: quality of monthly accountancy (in the system and original documents), quality of follow up on payable and receivable accounts, respect of finance calendar deadlines, quality of reports, quality of archive in the server;

Activities:

• Maintain updated excel cashbook for the different accounts of the office (Cash and bank accounts);
• On a daily basis, makes entries in the accounting Information System (NAVISION), ensuring that the descriptions of the entries are accurate and consistent with accounting allocations and that all the required fields are completed;
• Prepare partners’ reports on a monthly basis for accountancy registration and confirms budget allocation with Projects Managers and budget holders;
• Analyze and correct entries based on coordination and/or HQ feedback and comments;
• Takes delivery of supporting documents and translates the essential elements into English (one of HI’s working languages) using the relevant templates;
• Prepare financial controls reports for transfers, receivable and payable accounts and send to line manager for consolidation with monthly financial closure reports;
• Support the Finance Manager in mid-yearly and yearly closure (preparation of partners’ accruals, accounts’ accruals, banks circularization, etc.);
• Ensures the legibility and monthly scanning of supporting documents and keep a proper archive of all financial documents (soft and hard copies) on a server and paper documents in a safe location;
• Prepare the quarterly sending of supporting documents (paper) to HQ;
• Prepare the declarations of VAT and HQ transfers on a monthly basis and submit them on a quarterly basis to the Lebanon mission;
• Provide, when requested by the Ministry of Finance, a sample of supporting documents declared to VAT directorate;
• Provide analysis on General ledgers and accounts reconciliation (third party accounts: advances, VAT, partners);
• Prepare any supporting documents asked for by internal or external auditors and Compliance department at coordination;

Responsibility 3: Responsible for partners’ financial and administrative aspects

Objective: Ensure the follow-up on partners’ compliance with HI financial rules and donors procedures and ensure monthly reporting by the partner to HI and by HI to HQ and donors

Benchmark: Respect of the validation process; Monthly reporting of partners’ expenses in accountancy system; quality of partners’ reports sent to HQ

Activities:

• Ensure that partners’ reports are in line with HI and donors’ rules and procedures;
• Follow up on monthly sending of partners’ reports and send reminders when necessary;
• Make sure that partners’ invoices are compliant with financial procedures and in line with the partnership agreement;
• Translate all invoices and receipts (+quotations when necessary) to English using HI forms and check that all supporting documents are received before sending to validation by budget holders;
• Cross-check the eligibility of the reports submitted by partners and cross-check the budget allocation before sending to budget holders for validation;
• Follow up on the validation process with all budget holders and PM to enhance timely validation of all reports;
• Liaise with HI budget holders and partners for comments on reports and clarification or if any missing documentation;
• Draft the monthly accountancy report (Gabarit) of partners’ expenses and send to line manager for cross-check before importing to Navision;
• Provide support to partners on respect to financial procedures and deliver regular refresher on financial requirements;
• Follow up on the exchange rate used by the partners and cross-check with sources of verification;
• Updates regularly the Partner Payment Follow up files and inform line manager when new transfers are due based on validated reports;
• Provide support to his/her line manager in the assessment of new potential partners or in building existing partners’ financial capacities;

Responsibility 4: Administration, Coordination & Reporting

Objective: Ensure the smooth flow of relevant information among departments and Coordination

Benchmark: quality of the monthly report, follow up on the action plan, respect of deadlines, quality of support provided;

Activities:

• Prepare the monthly Situation Report and send it to the line manager;
• Prepare the individual action plan on a monthly basis and submit it to the Line Manager for review and validation;
• Participate actively in meetings (team meeting, support meeting, finance meeting with budget holders and PMs);
• Participate, when needed, in meeting with partners concerning financial-operational issues, etc.;
• Assist, when needed, the line manager in training for HI staff and budget holders on financial aspects;

Note that this job description must remain flexible, to respond to additional tasks or changes as identified by the line manager.

REQUIREMENTS

Education and Experience:

• Mandatory:
  • Bachelor degree in Accounting, Finance, or any other related field;
  • At least 1 year of experience in a similar position as Accountant or Finance Officer preferably with INGO/NGO;
  • Experience in accounting systems/software; Practical knowledge of Microsoft Dynamics Navision is a plus;

• Desirable:
  • Practical knowledge of Microsoft Dynamics Navision is a plus
  • Previous experience in INGO/NGO would be an asset;
  • Previous knowledge of donors’ environment would be an asset;
  • Previous experience with Handicap International would be an asset;

Professional and Personal Skills:

• Strong analytical and observational skills;
• Extremely rigorous and precise, attention to detail;
• Ability to manage priorities, deadlines, and tasks efficiently;
• Ability to perform repetitive tasks with a high degree of accuracy;
• Excellent time management skills and ability to work under stressful conditions;
• Autonomous and comfortable working independently with minimal supervision;
• High level of motivation and proactivity;
• Solution-oriented and problem-solving skills and ability to follow guidelines;
• Diplomacy and high ability to work collaboratively within a team;
• Strong written and verbal communication skills;
• Strong organizational skills;
• Strong interpersonal and intercultural skills;

Computer Skills:

• Strong computer skills especially Excel, Word and Outlook;

Language:

• English language proficiency is a must;
• Arabic language proficiency is a must;

JOB CONDITIONS

• Remuneration: according to HI salary grid
• Starting date: ASAP
• Duration/ Type of contract: 6 months renewable based on a project timeline
• Others: Health insurance