Finance Operations Specialist- AVMS

Absa Group; Johannesburg; On-site; ZAR 200,000 - 300,000; Full time

Job summary

A prominent banking institution in Johannesburg seeks a skilled individual to manage accounts payable and receivable operations. This role involves team leadership, risk management, and ensuring high-quality client service. Candidates should have over 10 years of relevant experience and strong financial management skills. Join us on our journey to empower Africa's tomorrow and shape our future together.

Qualifications

• 10 years of experience in accounts payable, accounts receivable, and collections function.
• 5 years of management experience in relevant areas is preferred.

Responsibilities

• Manage daily operations and enhance team performance.
• Ensure compliance with risk management frameworks.
• Oversee accounts receivable and payable operations.
• Deliver high-quality client service and resolve queries.
• Engage internal stakeholders to ensure effective collections.

Skills

Computer literate (MS Excel, Word and Outlook)

Leadership skills

Communication skills

Quality and Quantity Orientated

People skills

Problem solving skills

Conflict Handling skills

Time management

Education

Diploma in Finance or Accounting

NQF Level 4

Higher Diplomas: Financial Sciences

Job description

Empowering Africa’s tomorrow, together…one story at a time.

With over 100 years of rich history and strongly positioned as a local bank with regional and international expertise, a career with our family offers the opportunity to be part of this exciting growth journey, to reset our future and shape our destiny as a proudly African group.

Job Summary

To act as the touch point between the various internal service providers responsible for accounts payable, accounts receivable (including billing, receipting, reconciliation and collection) with a view to optimise liquidity, vendor relations and customer service delivery within the business.

Job Description

Key accountabilities

Accountability: People Management

• Coordinate and collaborate with team members to ensure effective daily operations.
• Support the line manager for the area to develop a high performing team by conducting daily and weekly operational performance discussions and assisting employees to prepare the portfolio of evidence for formal performance development discussions.
• Engage functional team members on a daily basis on how to improve their own productivity and use of the bank's processes and systems.
• Based on service levels agreed, monitor team performance to ensure that objectives are reached.
• Make recommendations to functional line managers on how to improve the plans and suggest how resources could be reallocated in case of excessive workload.
• Review and propose updates to functional teams' role descriptions on at least an annual basis to ensure that they are fit for purpose and contain all the accountabilities of each team member. Explain any updates to functional line managers.
• Review leave plans in place and make recommendations to the functional line manager to adjust the plans if required. To ensure that business objectives are achieved.
• When required, recommend to the functional line manager to initiate disciplinary processes for team members. Participate in collecting the evidence for the case.
• Identify employees that are not meeting short-term productivity or control targets and make recommendations to the functional line manager to place employees on the Performance Accelerator Programme.

Accountability: Risk Management

• Ensure that processes, control requirements and risk management frameworks that have been designed for the area are understood by all members of the team.
• For audit findings that have an impact on the area, work with the functional line managers to understand what actions are required to close out findings. Monitor and report in the implementation of required actions.
• During scheduled audits and management assurance reviews, ensure that all information required by the auditors are provided timeously.
• Report all Risk and Loss events as a result of error or fraud highlighted within the accounts payable and accounts receivables functions. Ensure that the issues are thoroughly investigated and closed or escalated as per policy.
• Ensure that the functional teams understands all compliance requirements and highlight gaps to the functional line managers.
• Ensure that all regulatory requirements are adhered to.

Accountability: Manage Accounts Payable Operations Collaboration

• Ensure follow-ups on clerk inboxes for backlogs on scanned invoices on a daily basis and ensure that the dashboards from FSSA reflect the status of accounts payable accurately
• Manage clerk backlogs, workflows and assist in resolving these issues on a weekly basis in collaboration with FSSA.
• Check correctness of invoices processed on SAP when requested to do so or as part of investigations.
• Check correctness of payments processed when requested to do so or as part of investigations.
• Authorise operational journals within agreed mandates.
• Review and test the correctness of daily, weekly and monthly reports compiled and distributed to stakeholders by FSSA.
• Prepare monthly reports to management that support robust decision making.
• Engagement with the recons team to ensure that reconciliations are prepared and iteratively optimised with a view to automate as much as possible.

Accountability: Manage Accounts Receivable Operations Collaboration

• Reconcile the monthly billing between product system and GL
• Ensure that accurate invoices are generated and shared with customers timeously
• Ensure that accurate statements are generated and shared with customers
• Establish strong working relationships with the accounts payable managers at all AVMS clients
• Ensure follow-ups on clerk inboxes for invoice, receipting and statement queries on a daily basis.
• Perform ad hoc statement to statement reconciliations for customers with queries to ensure accurate reporting and effective collections.
• Check correctness of receipt allocation processed on the Product system when requested to do so or as part of investigations.
• Authorise customer related debit and credit notes within agreed mandates.
• Review and test the correctness of daily, weekly and monthly reports compiled and distributed to stakeholders by FSSA.
• Prepare monthly reports to management that support robust decision making.
• Engagement with the recons team to ensure that the foreign payments recon is balanced and journalised on a daily basis.

Accountability: Manage Collections Operations Collaboration

• Engage with all Accounts Payable Managers at clients where a payment is missed to ensure speedy resolution of technical arrears.
• Engage internal stakeholders to flag and resolve service delivery issues that result in customers withholding payment.
• Meet with BB Collections weekly to agree AVMS Operational action items needed to ensure effective collections on arrears accounts.
• Review and test the correctness of daily, weekly and monthly reports compiled and distributed to stakeholders by BB Collections.
• Prepare monthly reports to management that support robust decision making.

Accountability: Deliver Client Service

• Provide training and guidance to business owners regarding the internal processes/invoice formats for payments done daily, as and when required to do so.
• Resolve queries received from internal customers with regards to payments, billing, receipting and collections by identifying relevant transactions in the GL and Product System and obtaining detailed information from invoices and statements.
• Maintain good working relationships with colleagues by sharing knowledge, skills and information continuously.
• Build and maintain good working relationships with various departments in order to reach business objectives on a daily basis.
• Identify trends in nature of queries by implementing procedures to correct root causes of queries.
• Live the Absa values by being an example to the staff as well as internal and external customers.

Accountability: Self Development

• Proactively utilize development interventions as per agreed individual training & performance development plan discussed during Health Checks.
• Effectively utilize Electronic media - be able to utilize Email in order to communicate effectively.
• Manipulate intranet use to gain access to Absa Policies and Procedures in order to keep abreast of the evolving changes in the environment.
• Be able to use intranet to verify Absa Policies and procedure.

Role/Person specification

Education and experience required

• NQF Level 4
• Diploma in Finance or Accounting
• Essential: 10 years’ experience in accounts payable, accounts receivable and collections function
• Preferred: 5 years management experience in billing, accounts payable, accounts receivable or collections function

Knowledge and skills: (Maximum of 6)

• Computer literate (MS Excel, Word and Outlook)
• Leadership skills
• Communication skills
• Quality and Quantity Orientated
• People skills
• Problem solving skills
• Conflict Handling skills
• Time management

C

Education

Higher Diplomas: Financial Sciences (Required)

Absa Bank Limited is an equal opportunity, affirmative action employer. In compliance with the Employment Equity Act 55 of 1998, preference will be given to suitable candidates from designated groups whose appointments will contribute towards achievement of equitable demographic representation of our workforce profile and add to the diversity of the Bank.

Absa Bank Limited reserves the right not to make an appointment to the post as advertised