The Financial Administrator is the financial business partner of the head office, reporting to both the Line manager and supporting the Brand Finance Team. The expectations of the Financial administrator are as follows:

• Manage the Finances of the head office (reconciliation, analysis of income statement, tracking of expenditures and CAPEX)
• Coordinate the finance-related activities at the head office, while driving adherence to the Group policies, approval framework and procedures. Finance-related activities include procurement, assisting with event set up, facilitating trackers for brand finance, ad hoc reconciliations and administration of our bursary programmes.
• Backup bursar duties when we have gaps with respect to finance-related operations at the campus to ensure optimal customer service (billing, debtors, procurement and parents queries, etc)
• Custodian of the internal control system at the head office (training and enforcing policies, facilitating finance processes)

1. Responsibilities Include:

Project work:

• Given that the role is largely for head office and will only focus in individual schools if there is a gap head office procurement and managing the SET bursary programme is the core responsibility. Project work to clear finance reconciliations will be allocated to this role and if assistance is needed at school level then projects will be delayed.

Procurement

• Procurement planning and tracking:
• Plan with Brand team members and/or Principals the procurement needs (OPEX & CAPEX) for the year, embed the requirements in the budget.
• Have planning meetings with Brand team members and/or Principals to plan procurement operations and track CAPEX and expenditure status.

• Train school staff on procurement policy, procedure and approval framework: 3 quotes, plan in advance, how to receive goods etc.
• Source-to-Pay operations
  • For procurement managed at ops level, source quotes when applicable and obtain the relevant approvals, manage the PO, GRV in D365. Initiate vendor creation request when needed.
  • Process staff expense claims
  • Manage Procurement card - Tracking purchases, Submission for Pcard re-loads, Monthly Recons, etc.
  • Manage store cards (Makro and Builders warehouse) – recons
  • For procurement managed centrally at GSS level, raise purchase requisition and notify delivery. Track GSS SLA KPI, to ensure delivery done timeously at school and suppliers paid on time
  • Attend to GSS AP queries on SharePoint.

Billing

• Obtain and track billing information for monthly billing change requests (leavers/joiners, non-academic service registration/de-registration, fee reduction change etc) to be submitted to GSS.
• Submission of ad hoc aftercare billing to GSS.
• Attend to account queries
• Review accuracy of fee reduction (incl. sibling discounts) used for billing, twice a year.
• Request CXO to log calls to correct sibling linking’s on STASY, when needed.
• Review fee bible monthly before billing run, ensure that all change requests reflected correctly.
• Review monthly SAGE postings of ad hoc billing.
• Based on bums on seat recon against fee schedule, log on required fee bible corrections on the billing change requests.
• Billing of third parties (hire of premises, etc).
• Coordinate Bums on seat count with school staff and populate Bums on seat file, submit to Brand Finance.

Bursary and discounts

• Track school fee reduction master list (bursary, sibling discount, staff discount, Discovery discount).
• Prepare the annual review of the bursaries with the Principals & Parents: prepare analysis, request parents to apply for bursary renewal if recommended by Principals, etc.
• Deploy bursary discontinuation letters to bursary holders who breach the Debtors policy.

Debt management

• Assist Principals with the validation of the monthly list of pre-suspensions/suspensions/terminations/Grade 12 exclusion list and the enforcement of the actions required.
• Monitor fee payer and students’ adherence to the sanctions (suspension/termination/grade 12 exclusion).
• At the time of student application, review financial clearance forms of new joiners / transfers to confirm enrolment at school.
• Support GSS with queries relating to the handover of defaulting accounts (>500 rands) to Pre-Legal Team
• Review list of candidates for bad debt write-off.
• Yearly Non re-enrolment campaign: submit applications for debt exception committees, coordinate controls and activities for the maintenance of the non re-enrolment list and enforcement of the non re-enrolment (registration day, post registration day controls,…)

Refunds to parents and debtors in credit balance

• Submission of Refund request to AR controller.
• Review the holding deposit refund requests and liaise with Brand Finance.
• Attend to Brand Finance queries relating to DIC (Debtors in credit).

Cashbook

• Review un-allocated deposits (payments made into one of the Community Schools accounts).

Asset management and CAPEX application

• Completion of Capex Application documents.
• Initiate the Procure-to-Pay process with all the approved CAPEX (PO and GRV) and provide capitalization requests to Brand Finance.
• Completion of asset transfer and disposal documents.
• Perform yearly asset count and provide feedback to Brand Finance.

Financial reporting - month end closing

• Provide list of fixed asset additions and disposal for processing by Brand Finance, with the below supporting documentation and additional info:
  • Additions: invoice, CAPEX authorization pack, insurance when applicable, date of delivery of CAPEX.
  • Deposal’s: CAPEX authorization certificate, scrapping certificate when applicable, insurance cancellation proof and date.
  • Transfers: transfer support and approvals.
• Feedback to the Fixed asset administrator on status and changes of approved CAPEX.
• Interbrand loan account entries, when applicable (with required support).
• Prepaid expense invoices to be sent for processing by Brand Finance.
• Provide a list of accruals and supporting documents to be processed by Brand Finance (if GRV cannot be done on time).
• P-card reconciliation.
• Fundraising accruals reconciliation.
• VAT and Hire of premises - Check all hire of premises accounts and send billing template to GSS for billing by the 3rd of each month and copy Brand finance.

Business & Decision support to Brand Team

• Checking of available budgets before spending.
• Analyse Monthly Financials – Income Statements (YTD) vs PY and Budget and sharing with Brand team members.
• Develop annual budgets and revised budgets (including CAPEX detailed listing).
• Identify profit optimization opportunities and share with Brand CFO.

 Competencies Include:

Skills:

• Must be able and willing to drive
• Project management with potential to manage multiple projects at once.
• People management – stakeholders and work colleagues
• Excel skills
• Analytical and critical thinking abilities
• Performing reconciliations

• B Com Degree or a 3-year Financial Diploma or similar.
• Excellent Excel skills (Vlookups and Pivot tables)
• Minimum of 2 year’s experience in a School bursar /Financial administrator role