Financial Assistant

An exciting opportunity has arisen at East Suffolk & North Essex Foundation Trust for a keen, enthusiastic and motivated individual to join the Financial Services Department.

The role will require a mix of office based working located at the Colchester Hospital site and working from home as required.

Financial Services very much supports this approach and our teams work from home where possible.

There will be occasions when it will be necessary to work at the office. As part of this role that would be expected for two days a week.

Internal applicants currently employed by ESNEFT will be offered on a secondment basis only

**Your principal responsibilities will be**:

- Produce in a timely and accurate manner, sales ledger invoices and credit notes, ensuring that the customer account detail, VAT rate, general ledger code and authorisation are correct before input.
- Liaise with hospital departments where necessary regarding account details, pricing disputes and invoice queries. Liaise with the Financial Management Department regarding financial coding of invoices.
- Assist in chasing overdue unpaid invoices as required.

One of the largest Trust’s in East Anglia, East Suffolk and North Essex NHS Foundation Trust (ESNEFT) provide hospital and community health services to people living across a wide geographical area. We deliver care from two main hospitals in Colchester and Ipswich, six community hospitals and in patients’ own homes. You will be joining a team of almost 12,000 amazing colleagues providing care to approximately a million people.

Along with supporting you to achieve your career goals we offer a generous pension scheme, unsocial hours payments (if applicable), 27 days annual leave on commencement (pro rata) and access to a range of NHS discounts. Our Staff Health and Wellbeing programme offer a variety of services. We offer a range of flexible working opportunities.

Financial Services is a team of twenty people made up of three departments; Accounts Payable, Accounts Receivable and Cash Management which work closely together.

Our philosophy is thatTime Mattersto everyone. Across the Trust, we concentrate on improving the things we do and removing those which do not work or cause time delays for our staff and patients.

If you are passionate about patient care and want to develop your skills and knowledge then we are keen to hear from you.
- Possess excellent communication skills both written and verbal, including being comfortable with online video communication.
- Excellent interpersonal skills.
- Studying towards the Association of Accounting Technician (AAT) qualification or have equivalent relevant experience.
- Have good IT skills and demonstrate experience of using computerised financial ledgers, word processing and spreadsheets.
- Be comfortable working to formal procedures.

**Responsibilities**:

- Support the day-to-day management and ongoing development and maintenance of financial accounting systems and procedures of the Financial Services team.
- Support the Trust’s Financial Controller in the provision of fundamental accounting and financial systems maintenance in order to effectively deliver the core financial services duties of the Trust.
- Participate fully in the Financial Accounts agenda to maintain robust financial controls regarding statutory returns, control account reconciliations and other aspects of financial accounting.
- Adhere to all legal and accounting requirements.
- Support the Financial Controller and Financial Accountant in producing information for inclusion within the Trust’s monthly and annual accounts within the timescales and procedures laid down.
- The processing of billing requests on the computerised Integra system, in accordance with organisational policies and ensuring VAT is correctly accounted for.
- Responsible for dealing with routine and complex queries regarding debt collection both internally and from customers, providing assistance as required.
- The reconciliation of customer accounts and investigation of outstanding debts.
- Provide advice to debtors in line with Trust Policies.
- To be responsible for the maintenance and updating of procedures for all roles performed.
- To support and deputise for the Accounts Receivable Team Leader in providing an efficient and effective accounts payable service.

For full details of the responsibilities and duties of this role please see the attached job description.