Accounts Assistant

Newcastle University; Newcastle upon Tyne; On-site; GBP 27,000 - 29,000; Full time

Job summary

A leading UK university is seeking an Accounts Assistant to join the Contract Financial Management team. This full-time, fixed-term position involves supporting financial operations, managing research project budgets, and ensuring compliance with financial regulations. Ideal candidates should possess strong communication, numerical, and IT skills, ideally with experience in large organizations. The role offers a competitive salary and a variety of benefits, fostering a collaborative working environment.

Benefits

Generous holiday package

Pension schemes

Health and wellbeing initiatives

Qualifications

• High degree of literacy, numeracy and IT skills and experience.
• Experience in financial reconciliation and project financial management.
• Strong communication skills, both written and verbal.

Responsibilities

• Create research projects in the SAP financial management system.
• Prepare and submit starting certificates for grants.
• Produce financial statements and invoices on deadlines.
• Provide budgetary information and advice to researchers.
• Ensure compliance with funder and University regulations.

Skills

Communication skills

Numeracy

IT skills

Organizational skills

Education

A level standard (minimum 3 x grades A-C)

AAT qualified (desirable)

Tools

SAP financial systems

Job description

Salary: £27,319.00 - £28,031.00 per annum

Newcastle University is a great place to work, with excellent benefits. We have a generous holiday package; plus the opportunity to buy more, great pension schemes and a number of health and wellbeing initiatives to support you.

Closing Date: 11 Janaury 2026

The Role

Newcastle University Finance unit is a large team of skilled and experienced colleagues who manage the financial business activities of the University. We provide a professional and proactive service to our students, colleagues and stakeholders. We are committed to supporting the personal and professional development of our team.

We have an exciting fixed term opportunity for an Accounts Assistant within our Contract Financial Management team. The team provides expert funder advice and financial management for University research and non-research projects, which can involve multi-million-pound budgets and multiple domestic and overseas institutions.

This is a broad-based role which provides plenty of interest and variety. You will gain a good grounding in all aspects of finance in a large organisation. Once trained you will take responsibility for a diverse range of projects and use your initiative and judgement to make decisions and resolve problems.

We are looking for a confident communicator who can build positive relationships with colleagues and stakeholders. Good numerical and IT skills are essential and you must be able to work accurately to tight deadlines. To thrive in the role you will need to be well organised and customer focussed.

Informal enquiries are welcomed and should be addressed to Donna Slassor via email [e-mail]

The post is full time, fixed term for 12 months. The closing date is 11 January 2026 and interviews will be held on 21st January 2026.

For internal candidates the post is available on a secondment basis, you should discuss this with your current manager before submitting your application.

Please ensure you upload a covering letter with your CV when applying for this role.

We are committed to building and maintaining a fair and inclusive working environment and we would be happy to discuss arrangements for flexible and/or blended/hybrid working.

Key Accountabilities

• Creating research projects in the SAP financial management system in order to facilitate the most effective structure to ensure appropriate controls
• Preparing and submit starting certificates to ensure grants start within the required timescales.
• Producing research invoices/financial statements to specific deadlines and with regard to funder regulations and University policies.
• Preparing audit files to ensure that funder, University and statutory regulations are fulfilled.
• Providing comprehensive budgetary information and advice to researchers on the financial aspects of their funding to enable them to discharge their financial responsibilities.
• Reviewing and correct research project financial data in order to ensure funder conditions are met and to advise on the maximisation of cost recovery within the appropriate regulations.
• Maintaining and update data on the SAP financial management system relating to research projects (e.g. structure, budget, and timescale).
• Calculating and check salary award increases and update the salary budgets in projects. To apply to funders for extension in funds where applicable or advising researchers to do so.
• Ensuring the timely closure of completed research projects in SAP and the completion of final reconciliations.

The Person

Knowledge, Skills and Experience

• High degree of literacy, numeracy and IT skills and experience
• Strong communication skills, both written and verbal
• Experience in the reconciliation of financial ledgers
• Experience of working effectively in a large and complex organisation
• Experience of SAP financial systems is desirable
• Recent relevant experience of the set up and financial management of projects, and Research Funder financial knowledge is desirable.

Attributes and Behaviour

• Embraces change, reviewing and revising plans to meet with changing circumstances, changing ways and policies in light of new information.
• Communicates effectively, using appropriate tools and methods tailoring content of communication to the audience, changing style, tone and format appropriately.
• Plans workload and tasks in a systematic way, ensuring all activities are completed on time using systems and tools to ensure records and audit trails are clear and up to date.
• Works collaboratively with others, plays a positive role in teams and establishes and builds good working relationships.
• Delivers a high quality service to both colleagues and customers, demonstrating attention to detail and a positive attitude.

Qualifications

• Education to at least A level standard (minimum 3 x grades A-C) or equivalent standard by experience.
• It is desirable that you are AAT qualified (Association of Accounting Technicians) or equivalent.

Newcastle University is a global University where everyone is treated with dignity and respect. As a University of Sanctuary, we aim to provide a welcoming place of safety for all, offering opportunities to people fleeing violence and persecution.

We are committed to being a fully inclusive university which actively recruits, supports and retains colleagues from all sectors of society. We value diversity as well as celebrate, support and thrive on the contributions of all of our employees and the communities they represent. We are proud to be an equal opportunities employer and encourage applications from individuals who can complement our existing teams, we believe that success is built on having teams whose backgrounds and experiences reflect the diversity of our university and student population.

At Newcastle University we hold a Gold Athena Swan award in recognition of our good employment practices for the advancement of gender equality. We also hold a Race Equality Charter Bronze award in recognition of our work towards tackling race inequality in higher education REC.

We are a Disability Confident employer and will offer an interview to disabled applicants who meet the essential criteria for the role as part of the offer and interview scheme.

In addition, we are a member of the Euraxess initiative supporting researchers in Europe.

Requisition ID: 28945