Service Charge Finance Officer

**Service Charge Finance Officer**
**Salary**: Circa £27,000

**Job Type**: Full Time, Permanent
**Location**: Head Office

**Benefits**: Competitive pension, 26 days holiday plus bank holidays, increasing with service, cycle to work scheme, season ticket loans for public transport plus much more.
Reporting to the Service Charge team leader, the Service Charge Finance Officer will provide a comprehensive and professional service charge function to Great Places Housing Group.
**GREAT PLACES - THE BUSINESS**
Great Places Housing Group is a modern, forward-looking profit-for-purpose organisation. Our vision is to create great homes in great communities none of which would be achievable without the great people in Great Places’ workforce. Whilst social purpose isvery much at the core of what we do we balance this responsibly with a commercial perspective to ensure our vision is sustainable in the longer term.
**CORPORATE RESPONSIBILITIES**:

- To ensure the responsibilities of the post are carried out in a way that reflects the standards, vision and values of Great Places;
- To deliver value for money and manage resources effectively and efficiently, ensuring that targets (financial and non-financial) are met;
- To promote Great Places to employers, sector bodies, and the local community, developing effective partnerships with employers, the funding agencies and other representative bodies;
- To observe all policies / procedures / working practices / regulations and in particular to comply with Great Places Equality and Diversity Policy, Health and Safety Policy and Safeguarding Policy
- To undertake appropriate training and staff development.
- To identify and develop individual contribution in the delivery of the Great Places competency framework

**PURPOSE OF ROLE**:

- To support budget holders in the annual setting of service charges including providing historic costs, group contract costs and ensuring templates balance and are accurate with costs split correctly between leaseholders, tenants and housing benefit eligibleand ineligible charges;
- To produce annual accounts for audited and non audited schemes in accordance with the group timetable;
- Monthly variance analysis of service charge income and expenditure by scheme to ensure costs are allocated to the correct schemes with corrective action taken and escalation of issues as appropriate;
- Provide a full accounting function for Private Managed schemes including updating core financial and housing systems, bank reconciliations, purchase and sales ledger, treasury and audited Service Charge and Statutory Accounts

**KEY RESPONSIBILITIES**:

- To regularly meet and support budget holders and contract managers by providing analysis and scheme performance information highlighting overspends and poor financial management;
- Prepare routine journals to ensure the service charge accounts accurately report income and expenditure and the balance sheet accurately reports assets and liabilities for each period;
- Use the monthly variance analysis to support the production of the Directorate Packs, analysing in month and year to date variances against budget and projection and quantifying the year end impact and any potential impact to future years budgets;
- Advise and train budget holders in matters of financial understanding, service charges and budgetary control;
- Calculate and update all service charge working papers and produce specified balance sheet account reconciliations on a monthly basis and ensure discrepancies are corrected;
- Keep up to date on all relevant service charge legislation;
- Provide information for the annual service charge audit and respond to auditor queries ensuring a clean audit;
- To regularly visit schemes and complete inventory of all chargeable services and equipment with budget holders;
Ref: 133 932