Finance Assistant

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Note: Applications will be accepted until 11:59 PM on the Posting End Date.

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At UBC, we believe that attracting and sustaining a diverse workforce is key to the successful pursuit of excellence in research, innovation, and learning for all faculty, staff and students. Our commitment to employment equity helps achieve inclusion and fairness, brings rich diversity to UBC as a workplace, and creates the necessary conditions for a rewarding career.

Job Summary
The role of the Finance Assistant is to support Accounts Receivable Coordinator in supporting the accounts receivable processes, collection, and monthly financial accounting in the Faculty of Medicine (FoM). As part of the FoM Finance team, you will process the Accounts Receivable and Credit functions for FoM while working in a team setting as a member in the area of credit, collections, billing, cash receipts, accounting journals, account reconciliation, and month-end transactions and reporting.

The Finance Assistant, working in a team setting, will provide support to all departments in the FoM to prepare and review journal transactions and receivable transactions, and enter these correctly into the Workday Financial Management System (WFMS) or other online systems. The responsibilities include timely and accurate processing of all accounting transactions for the FoM; preparation and data-entry of journal vouchers, requisitions, and payments on WFMS or using other online systems such as Adaptive for budget data and account reconciliation and account analysis to ensure accuracy of information; data-gathering to respond to queries from Internal Departments, Schools, Centres, and Institutes plus external customers; participating in the year-end processes; interpreting and accurately communicating written policies and procedures; participating in the processing of salary increases for Faculty members; producing invoices for monthly salary and benefit recovery bill-backs to external agencies or for internal and external cost recovery processes; and preparing budget variance reports, analysis and financial statements as required. The position also requires strong interpersonal and customer service skills as it involves frequent problem resolution with various units throughout the FoM. The duties will vary from day to day and will involve a wide variety of tasks in the service of the Academic Finance Portfolio.

May involve some travel between Faculty of Medicine sites, the Point Grey campus, hospitals, faculty departments, etc. This may involve relocation to other offices and/or sites within the Faculty of Medicine.

Organizational Status
The Faculty of Medicine (FOM) comprises nineteen academic basic science and/or clinical departments, three schools, and several research centres and institutes. The Faculty's annual consolidated budget is over $600 million including operating, research, special purpose, endowment, and trust funds. The Faculty has approximately 2200 administrative support, technical/research and management, and professional staff, as well approximately 650 full-time academic and 8500 clinical faculty members. Together with its partners including BC s six Health Authorities and their affiliated teaching hospitals, the Faculty provides innovative programs in the areas of health and life sciences through a province-wide delivery model. University-based teaching, research, and administrative sites include UBC Point Grey, UBC Okanagan, Diamond Health Care Centre, and the Universities of Victoria and Northern BC, home to our affiliated medical school training programs as well as other education centres. Faculty, staff, and students are also located within our clinical academic campuses in hospital settings and other regionally based centres across the province.

Work Performed

• Prepares and data enter journal vouchers, verifying the accuracy of the information including account coding, reviewing backup documentation, ensuring authorized signatures are valid or within WFMS business processes, and processing and recording information into the WFMS related to accounts payable or to revenue accounting, manually or online, on behalf of departments, based on compliance with UBC, FoM and taxation policies and guidelines. Documents created, reviewed, and processed may include requisitions, domestic and international travel claims, and journal vouchers for all the units within the FoM.

• Reviews and validates transactions (invoice and contract requests, requisitions, and journal vouchers) prepared online or manually by other staff, whether in the departments or in the FoM finance team, checking for correctness of coding and ensuring compliance with policies, and adequacy of supporting material. Reviews the accuracy, calculation, and completeness of the information provided on travel requisitions, cheque requisitions, cash receipts, and journal vouchers.

• Ensures proper authorization and backup documentation are obtained prior to processing in WFMS.

• Assesses the accuracy of GST, PST and/or HST on invoices and self-assesses such taxes where necessary.

• Responds to queries and provide support to staff and faculty in the units within FoM to help in the valid preparation of invoices, contracts, aging reports, payments, and journal transactions, interpreting financial policies and procedures as relevant.

• Interprets and ensures adherence to specific policies with respect to UBC policies, Faculty of Medicine policies, and Tri-council policies and ensures they are correctly applied.

• Reviews accounting journals for the application of policies and procedures.

• Performs duties related to web-based finance forms, such as tracking transactions, filling out credit forms, or providing banking deposit information as required by customers and FoM units.

• Enters cash receipts for cheques and cash payments received and prepares cash deposit bags for deposit.

• Perform account reconciliations, monitors aging reports and collection/payment, and investigate errors and fix discrepancies on various accounts (general purpose operating, endowments, fee-for-service, research, special purpose project grants, and petty cash) which may include preparing and entering correcting journal entries, following up on outstanding items and resolving issues with various departments within the Faculty.

• Email customer with copy of invoice letting customer know invoice is outstanding and to provide payment. Aging Report is ran by the A/R Coordinator on a monthly basis and collections are done within the same month. Responsible for monitoring aging report and collections.

• Responsible for managing petty cash as the Petty Cash Custodian.

• Assists in year-end processes including entering expense accruals via journal voucher, and providing financial processing support to all units/departments within the Faculty.

• Prepares ad hoc financial analysis and reports as required

• Trains new finance staff on work procedures, financial policies and procedures, and/or oversees the work of students and/or temporary staff.

• Provides input for Med Finance policies and procedures, drafts routine correspondence or basic training material, and provides input on the development of training material.

• Maintains and updates spreadsheet for tracking various departmental and FoM finance items.

• Scans files and saves them under predefined naming and filing formats for electronic storage and retrieval.

• Supports the Accounts Receivable function, preparing invoices of actual salaries and benefits or cost-recovered equipment and services billed internally or to hospitals and affiliated agencies on behalf of Faculty departments based on commitment letters and appointment forms. Issues are resolved with Payroll, the departments or the hospitals, and affiliated agencies, and make adjustments as necessary.

• Accountable for keeping the contracts for accounts receivable WFMS up-to-date, and creating new contracts for new employees as they come in, in the WFMS for Accounts Receivable.

• Investigates exceptions in an Accounts Receivable bill-back program and monitor receipts and update collection notes on a monthly basis.

• Assists in year-end processes including invoicing and entering deferred revenue entries via journal voucher.

• Responsible for the file management of all accounting documentation required to be kept in the FoM Accounts Receivable and General Accounting Finance team; or responsible for returning it as needed to the originating department.

• Responsible for archiving documents, organizing them into boxes by fiscal year, completing semi-active records location sheet for logging/tracking, calculating proper destruction date, and obtaining an authorized signature on the sheet before storing.

• Attends training on new systems and procedures. Participates actively in requirements sessions and design/test sessions for new systems development and roll-out. Trains and supports others in the use of new systems especially during major roll-outs.

• As a member of an Academic finance team, provides excellent customer service in the financial area to the departments of the FoM, including acting as a focal point for a portfolio of units and their staff, and providing comprehensive accounts receivable, cash receipts, and accounting journals to them.

• As a focal point for a portfolio of units, has a detailed understanding of that department's customer base and finances, and is able, with the guidance of the A/R Coordinator, to provide support and suggestions related to accounts receivable, cash receipt, accounting journals, and period close processes.

• As a member of an Academic finance team, ensures that the work of the team is accomplished in a timely fashion and that deadlines and service agreements are met. Organize meetings or room bookings in support of team activities.

• Performs all other related duties as directed by the A/R Coordinator.

Consequence of Error/Judgement
This position is responsible for ensuring all financial information entered into Workday Financial Management System (WFMS) is authorized, accurate, appropriate, and substantiated by proper backup documentation. Information and recommendations must be accurate and provided in a respectful, timely, and supportive way. Errors could result in over/under collection, overpayment or non-payment of invoices, incorrect departments/units being charged, and delays in collection for various customers. Such errors could cause inaccuracies in financial planning, financial hardship, or missed opportunities for effective delivery of services to students, faculty, and staff. Also, care must be taken in dealing with the agencies and university community to maintain their trust and cooperation.

The work performed by this position in conjunction with the A/R Coordinator and Financial Analyst/Managers must be accurate and the position must be able to identify errors and exceptions for follow-up and resolutions. Furthermore, the highly sensitive nature of payroll to all employees requires precise attention to avoid delays and errors that could result in incorrect billing and delay or nonpayment of invoices.

Supervision Received
Supervised by A/R Coordinator.

In a team setting, also supports, and may be supervised for specific tasks by, the Finance Manager or Director of Finance, Academic.

Supervision Given
None.

Minimum Qualifications
High school graduation, plus two-year post-secondary diploma in accounting, plus three years of relevant accounting experience, or an equivalent combination of education and related experience.

- Willingness to respect diverse perspectives, including perspectives in conflict with one's own

- Demonstrates a commitment to enhancing one's own awareness, knowledge, and skills related to equity, diversity, and inclusion

Preferred Qualifications

High School graduation and two-year post-secondary diploma in accounting and 3 years of related experience or the equivalent combination of education and experience. Experience with ERP systems preferred. Ability to be thorough, accurate, and have a high level of attention to detail. Ability to effectively use word processing, spreadsheet, and database applications at an intermediate level (Word, Excel). Effective oral and written communication skills. Excellent interpersonal skills. Ability to balance multiple tasks and deadlines. Ability to exercise tact, discretion and confidentiality. Ability to work effectively independently and in a team environment. Ability to work effectively under pressure. Ability to deal with people in a courteous, calm manner. Ability to provide quality service to customer in a courteous, patient manner. Ability to make thoughtful, informed and thorough decisions and exercise sound judgment. Ability to apply generally accepted accounting principles in an appropriate manner. Ability to research transaction details through financial computer systems and paperwork. Ability to analyze problems, identify key information and issues and effectively resolve. Ability to handle a high volume of work exercising strong organization and time management skills. Ability to plan work independently, complete work assigned and meet requirements without ongoing direction.