Assistant Financial Accountant

St. Helens and Knowsley Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust; Knowsley; On-site; GBP 28,000 - 36,000; Full time

Job summary

Mersey and West Lancashire Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust is seeking an Assistant Financial Accountant to lead the Accounts Receivable team from Knowsley Community College. This full-time post (37.5 hours) involves debt management, balance sheet reconciliations and supporting audits across the Trust.

The role requires strong Excel skills, data analysis ability and experience in NHS finance. You will work within the Finance Department at Knowsley and contribute to financial reporting and controls.

Qualifications

• AAT Level 4 Diploma or equivalent experience in accounting
• Experience in supervisory or team-leading roles preferred
• Strong Excel skills including lookups and pivot tables
• Ability to analyse and present complex financial data clearly

Responsibilities

• Oversee daily management of Accounts Receivable
• Provide monthly debt management analysis and action plans
• Prepare monthly balance sheet reconciliations and support audits

Skills

Communication

Analytical thinking

Problem solving

Organised

Negotiation

Pressure management

Change management

Education

AAT Level 4 Diploma in Professional Accounting

Tools

Excel

Oracle General Ledger

BI / Business Intelligence

Job description

Job overview

An exciting opportunity has become available within the Finance Department at Mersey and West Lancashire Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust.

The position of Assistant Financial Accountant will be based at Knowsley Community College and will be full time (37.5 hours).

Potential interview date

Friday 13th November 2026 (TBC)

Main duties of the job

• Responsible for daily management of the Accounts Receivable team.
• Provide monthly debt management analysis and action plans to senior managers.
• Provide monthly Trust-wide balance sheet reconciliations, including analysis and actions/advice to resolve.

Working for our organisation

Mersey and West Lancashire Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust serves a population of over 600,000 with a workforce of over 10,500 dedicated and skilled staff across 21 sites.

Acute Care

Providing emergency and maternity services at Whiston, Southport and Ormskirk hospitals, and medical and surgical specialties across all our sites.

Primary Care

Providing primary care services at Marshalls Cross Medical Centre situated in St Helens Hospital.

Community Services

Providing adult community services for St Helens and a wheelchair service in Chorley, South Ribble, and West Lancashire. Our inpatient unit at Newton Community Hospital is where patients needing acute hospital beds can continue rehabilitation. We also provide urgent care at our Urgent Treatment Centre located in St Helens town centre.

Specialist Regional Services

We provide the Mersey Regional Burns & Plastic Surgery Unit at Whiston Hospital and the Spinal Injuries Unit at Southport Hospital to more than 4 million people across the whole of Merseyside, West Lancashire, Cheshire, Isle of Man and North Wales.

Achievements

• Rated Outstanding by CQC Inspection August 2018
• Top 100 places to work in the NHS (NHS Employers & Health Service Journal)
• National Preceptorship Accreditation (2023) for Nursing & AHP Preceptorship Programme.

Detailed job description and main responsibilities

Accounts Receivable/Debt Management

• Leading debt management calls between the Trust and NHS Shared Business Services and agreeing action points.
• Negotiating with customers to recover debt in a timely manner.
• Preparing management reports/analysis for Accounts Receivable to help with communicating information at a higher level and aid decision making. This will involve the use of advanced Excel skills such as lookups and pivot tables.
• Making suggestions on debt write-offs in line with debt management policy.
• Potential to have to deal with upset customers who may be struggling financially to pay an invoice.
• Planning workload with the team, setting key performance targets.
• Providing performance feedback, coaching and training to the team.
• Assisting with Freedom of Information requests.
• Supporting both Internal and External audits ensuring data requests and any recommendations are acted upon.

Balance sheet reconciliations

• Reconciling control accounts of the Trust on a monthly basis. Following up on queries and also monitoring control accounts done by other staff to ensure they are being managed in an accurate and timely fashion. This involves the use and understanding of both internal and external data resources.
• Assisting in the preparation of reports and information for year-end accounts including ensuring evidence for auditors is available.
• Answering queries raised by finance colleagues, other staff members and sometimes the public, regarding issues relevant to the position. If unable to deal with then pass on to the correct person/department.

Clinical and professional responsibilities

Maintaining professional registrations as necessary.

Adhering to relevant code of practice of professional body.

Administrative responsibilities

Ensuring all relevant procedure notes and associated forms are completed and adhered to in line with departmental policy and audit requirements.

Teaching and training responsibilities

Actively participating in the annual performance development review to identify personal needs.

Teach and train Accounts Receivable staff and other staff members as necessary.

To attend Trust statutory and mandatory training sessions.

Line Management/Supervisory responsibilities

Deputising for the Deputy Financial Accountant as and when required.

Undertaking annual performance development reviews of Accounts Receivable staff.

Day to day management of Accounts Receivable Staff eg sickness recording, approval of annual leave

Person specification

Qualifications

Essential criteria

• Association of Accounting Technicians (AAT) Level 4 Diploma in Professional Accounting and/or education or significant experience to degree level

Knowledge and Experience

Essential criteria

• Supervisory experience
• Evidence of planning and organising tasks required to achieve a specific outcome within a specified timeframe without direction from line manager
• Experience of analysing, interpreting and presenting complex data and producing robust forecasts
• Highly computer literate including MS Word, Excel, able to extract data, create and manipulate complex spreadsheets

Desirable criteria

• Significant Financial accounting experience
• Experience of working in NHS finance
• Experience of the Oracle General Ledger System including Business Intelligence
• Experience of providing training and support to others in own specialist area

Skills

Essential criteria

• Good standard of communication skills including the ability to effectively communicate complex financial information to nonfinance managers
• Acts professionally in all dealings with colleagues and in liaising with external bodies; must be able to adapt style appropriately to deal diplomatically with senior personnel
• Good standard of written communications
• Excellent problem solving and analytical skills
• Well organised, able to plan and prioritise own workload
• Good negotiating, persuasive, motivational, influencing skills
• Ability to work under pressure and to meet tight deadlines
• Ability to support change
• Ability to handle a range of emotive situations
• Ability to manage conflicting priorities
• Requirement to concentrate for long periods when inputting data and when analysing data/statistics

Equality, Diversity, and Inclusion

We actively cultivate a professional environment of fairness, equality, dignity, and respect for all individuals. We welcome individuals from all backgrounds and value the unique skills, perspective and experience you bring. We are grounded in the belief that diversity enhances our collective strength, fostering innovation and excellence within our workforce. We welcome all applications irrespective of people's race, disability, gender, sexual orientation, religion/belief, age, gender identity, marriage and civil partnership, pregnancy/maternity and in particular those from under- represented groups.

As a Disability Confident Leader, we commit to offering an interview to all disabled applicants who meet the minimum criteria for the job (the essential criteria) listed in the personal specification.

The Trust may contact you during the recruitment process for your feedback on your experience.