Finance Assistant

YMCA South Midlands; Milton Keynes; On-site; GBP 24,000 - 29,000; Full time

Job summary

YMCA South Midlands is seeking a Finance Assistant to join our finance team in Central Milton Keynes. This role focuses on processing high volumes of financial transactions, reconciling accounts and investigating discrepancies with precision and reliability.

You'll work closely with Finance, Housing and Support colleagues, maintain accurate records, support audits and help strengthen our financial processes through careful data checking and methodical cash allocation.

Qualifications

• Experience processing financial transactions in a high-volume environment.
• Excellent attention to detail and a strong commitment to accuracy.
• Experience completing reconciliations and/or cash allocation.
• Confidence scrutinising financial data and identifying discrepancies.
• Strong numerical skills and the ability to investigate when figures do not reconcile.
• Experience using accounting or finance systems and good Excel skills.
• A methodical and organised approach to work and ability to follow controls.

Responsibilities

• Processing resident rent and service charge payments accurately and on time.
• Allocating and reconciling income across our finance and housing systems.
• Scrutinising financial information and identifying errors, anomalies and discrepancies.
• Investigating differences and following them through to resolution.
• Completing regular cash and account reconciliations.
• Raising accurate sales invoices for conferencing and other income.
• Supporting credit control and monitoring outstanding balances.
• Managing invoice workflows and responding to finance queries.
• Maintaining complete and accurate financial records.
• Checking data before it is processed or reported.
• Supporting annual audit preparation and providing accurate supporting information.
• Following established financial controls and processes.
• Identifying opportunities to strengthen the accuracy and efficiency of our finance processes.

Skills

Attention to detail

Numerical skills

Excel skills

Data entry

Tools

Xero

Inform Housing

Job description

Finance Assistant | Full-time | 37.5 hours per week | Central Milton Keynes

We're looking for a highly accurate, reliable and detail-focused Finance Assistant to join our Finance Team.

This is a role for someone who genuinely enjoys working with numbers, checking information and making sure everything balances. You'll be processing a high volume of financial transactions, scrutinising data, reconciling accounts and investigating discrepancies, so accuracy and attention to detail are absolutely essential.

You'll need to be comfortable working methodically and consistently, including completing tasks that can be repetitive but are critical to getting our finances right.

If you're the person who spots when a figure doesn't look right, enjoys getting to the bottom of discrepancies and takes real pride in producing accurate work, we'd love to hear from you.

About the Role

You'll play an important role in ensuring our financial information is complete, accurate and up to date. This will include processing and reconciling resident income across our finance and housing systems. You'll need to carefully scrutinise information, identify discrepancies and investigate them until they are resolved.

You'll work closely with colleagues across Finance, Housing and Support, while taking personal responsibility for the accuracy and quality of your own work.

Your responsibilities will include:

• Processing resident rent and service charge payments accurately and on time
• Allocating and reconciling income across our finance and housing systems
• Scrutinising financial information and identifying errors, anomalies and discrepancies
• Investigating differences and following them through to resolution
• Completing regular cash and account reconciliations
• Raising accurate sales invoices for conferencing and other income
• Supporting credit control and monitoring outstanding balances
• Managing invoice workflows and responding to finance queries
• Maintaining complete and accurate financial records
• Checking data before it is processed or reported
• Supporting annual audit preparation and providing accurate supporting information
• Following established financial controls and processes
• Identifying opportunities to strengthen the accuracy and efficiency of our finance processes

About You

More than anything, we're looking for someone who is accurate, dependable and conscientious.

You'll enjoy working with detailed financial information and won't be tempted to rush through a task just to get it finished. You'll check your work, question information that doesn't look right and take responsibility for resolving issues.

You'll be someone we can rely on to complete important financial processes accurately and consistently.

Ideally, you'll have:

• Experience processing financial transactions, ideally in a high-volume environment
• Excellent attention to detail and a strong commitment to accuracy
• Experience completing reconciliations and/or cash allocation
• Confidence scrutinising financial data and identifying discrepancies
• Strong numerical skills and the ability to investigate when figures do not reconcile
• Experience using accounting or finance systems
• Good Excel skills
• A methodical and organised approach to work
• The ability to follow financial processes and controls consistently
• The discipline to manage routine and repetitive tasks accurately
• The ability to prioritise your workload and meet deadlines
• A strong sense of personal responsibility and reliability
• Confidence asking questions when information does not look right

It would be an advantage if you also have:

• Experience using Xero
• Experience within housing, charity or social housing finance
• Experience using Inform Housing Management System or a similar system
• An understanding of resident accounts or rent accounting

Why Join Us?

You'll be joining a supportive organisation where the quality of our Finance function really matters.

You'll have the opportunity to:

• Take ownership of important financial processes
• Develop your finance knowledge and experience
• Work with a supportive and collaborative team
• Help strengthen our financial systems and processes
• Make a genuine contribution to a purpose-driven organisation

Everyone is Welcome Here

At YMCA South Midlands, we believe everyone should feel they belong.

We welcome applications from people of all backgrounds, experiences and communities. We are committed to building a diverse and inclusive workforce that reflects the people we serve and where everyone is treated with dignity, respect and fairness.

As a Christian charity, our faith inspires our values and our commitment to serving others. We welcome people of all faiths and none, and appointments are made on merit.

Reasonable Adjustments

We want every candidate to have the opportunity to perform at their best throughout our recruitment process.

If you have a disability, long-term health condition or are neurodivergent and would benefit from any reasonable adjustments during the recruitment process, please let us know when you apply or contact us at any stage. We'll be happy to discuss how we can support you.