Finance Business Partner

Work For Scotland; City of Edinburgh; Hybrid; GBP 48,000 - 68,000; Full time

Job summary

Work For Scotland is seeking a finance professional to support student funding and financial management within the SAAS framework, reporting to the Finance team in a high-impact public sector setting.

You will handle monthly reports, provide financial advice to stakeholders, and oversee budgeting, forecasting, and audits across the organisation, ensuring robust controls and governance.

Responsibilities

• Provision of high quality monthly financial reports to required timescales, providing accurate, relevant and timely management information.
• Provide financial advice and assistance to stakeholders, and build and maintain effective working relationships with business areas including with the wider Scottish Government.
• Contribute to the completion and quality assurance of input to corporate financial exercises in accordance with corporate timetable. Ensuring working papers provide a full audit trail and are retained and easily accessible during the audit process.
• Providing assistance in updating the financial ledger for example performing monthly reconciliation’s and preparing and processing journal entries.
• Review budget monitoring returns, undertake the first check of forecasts, year to date actuals, and budget data, and ensure that explanations make sense and support the figures, challenging areas where more explanation is required.
• Assisting in the maintenance of overall financial control, to ensure the integrity of financial data on the ledger and the accuracy of the supporting systems and records.
• Ensuring adequate financial controls and clear audit trails are in place around accounting and reporting processes.
• Working flexibly across the team and shifting direction quickly to meet changing priorities and demands.
• Management of staff across the finance function.
• Leading the annual accounts and audit processes.
• Budget management including forecasting, and in year adjustments.
• Leading budget monitoring return for an entity (Agency/Programme).
• Relevant monthly and quarterly reporting.
• Reviewing of work undertaken by other finance team members.
• Monthly meetings with budget holders.
• Running the annual accounts process for the entity and being the lead contact for auditors.
• Project work specific to the entity.
• Deputising for the Head of Finance (Agency/Programme)
• Staff Management.

Job description

Job description

Are you a finance professional who wants to help support students in Further and Higher Education?

This role provides qualified financial support to either for SAAS expenditure.

As part of SAAS, a national public body responsible for delivering student support on behalf of the Scottish Government, the postholder will contribute to the effective financial management of a high volume, high impact service operating within a complex policy and governance environment.

Working within the Finance team, the role provides broad exposure across budgeting and forecasting, stakeholder engagement, influencing and challenge, product and project costing, and financial accounting.

It offers a high degree of autonomy and the opportunity to build strong relationships across the Scottish Government, supporting informed decision making and ensuring sound stewardship of public funds within the Scottish Government framework.

This role sits within the Business Partnering Team in the Finance team at SAAS and plays a key part in supporting the organisation’s financial stewardship and strategic delivery.

The team provides high quality financial reporting, analysis and advice across the organisation, ensuring robust financial management, appropriate treatment of expenditure and compliance with governance and control frameworks.

Responsibilities

General Job Particulars:

• Provision of high quality monthly financial reports to required timescales, providing accurate, relevant and timely management information.
• Provide financial advice and assistance to stakeholders, and build and maintain effective working relationships with business areas including with the wider Scottish Government.
• Contribute to the completion and quality assurance of input to corporate financial exercises in accordance with corporate timetable. Ensuring working papers provide a full audit trail and are retained and easily accessible during the audit process.
• Providing assistance in updating the financial ledger for example performing monthly reconciliation’s and preparing and processing journal entries.
• Review budget monitoring returns, undertake the first check of forecasts, year to date actuals, and budget data, and ensure that explanations make sense and support the figures, challenging areas where more explanation is required.
• Assisting in the maintenance of overall financial control, to ensure the integrity of financial data on the ledger and the accuracy of the supporting systems and records.
• Ensuring adequate financial controls and clear audit trails are in place around accounting and reporting processes.
  Working flexibly across the team and shifting direction quickly to meet changing priorities and demands.
• Management of staff across the finance function.
• Leading the annual accounts and audit processes.
  

Specific Job Particulars:

• Budget management including forecasting, and in year adjustments.
• Leading budget monitoring return for an entity (Agency/Programme).
• Relevant monthly and quarterly reporting.
• Reviewing of work undertaken by other finance team members.
• Monthly meetings with budget holders.
• Running the annual accounts process for the entity and being the lead contact for auditors.
• Project work specific to the entity.
• Deputising for the Head of Finance (Agency/Programme)
• Staff Management.