Finance Associate (Bank Reconciliation)

Organizational Context

The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) is committed to environmental sustainability, integrating it into its strategic objectives and operations. The Shared Services Centre (SSC) in Budapest, Hungary, is responsible for administering process management, quality assurance, and service delivery. The SSC aims to enhance customer satisfaction and drive service excellence through standardization, automation, and self-service capabilities, while optimizing costs.

Job Purpose

The Finance Associate will undertake high-level and specialized finance support activities, leading and coordinating the financial work of the unit. This role ensures the quality, transparency, and consistency of financial processes, requiring in-depth knowledge and interpretation of financial policies, procedures, and practices. The incumbent will provide procedural guidance to managers and staff, and supervise other finance support personnel, contributing to the efficient and effective achievement of the work unit's mandate.

Responsibilities

Key responsibilities include reviewing transactions, investigating and correcting errors, and reconciling accounts to ensure proper clearance. The role involves extracting and analyzing financial data from the corporate system to verify accuracy and validity, and monitoring transactions to ensure they remain within authorized levels. The Finance Associate will prepare worksheets and assist in report preparation by consolidating data. They will also participate in continuous improvement efforts, acting as a focal point for financial process automation analysis, testing, and implementation. Ensuring smooth processing of electronic payments, handling returns and rejections, and liaising with corporate banks on payment issues are crucial. The incumbent will act as an alternate approver for high-value invoices, draft correspondence, respond to queries, and evaluate financial support requirements to adapt service provision and solve operational problems. Additionally, providing procedural guidance, supervising, guiding, and training other finance staff will be integral to the role.

Work Experience

A minimum of five years of relevant experience in finance, accounting, and budget-related support work is required. Thorough knowledge of financial rules, regulations, accounting policies, and practices is essential, along with expertise in processing and approving various transactions and ERP corporate financial systems.

Skills

Proficiency in financial rules, regulations, and accounting practices is required, ensuring adherence to processing controls and performing due diligence. Strong understanding of transaction processing and approval, with an emphasis on audit requirements, document retention, and accuracy. Expertise in ERP corporate financial systems is necessary. Desirable skills include knowledge of the corporate structure and Oracle. A working or intermediate knowledge of another FAO working language (Arabic, Chinese, French, Russian, or Spanish) is also desirable.

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