Job title: Finance Officer
Salary: C3 £32,061 - £33,699
Hours: 37 hours per week
Contract: Fixed Term (Until 28th February 2027)
Location: Civic Hall, Leeds with opportunity for hybrid working
Leeds City Council is one of the largest employers in the region with over 14,000 employees. We seek to recruit and develop talented individuals who embody our council values and ambitions.
About you
- As a Finance Officer, you will bring to the role:
- Educated to a minimum of GCSE level including English and Mathematics at grade C or above
- Good communication skills, both verbal and written, and sound numeracy skills
- Good IT skills including the use of Microsoft office applications, particularly Excel
- A flexible approach to work demands and team-working
- Ability to work quickly and accurately both within a team and on your own initiative and experience of working successfully to strict deadlines
About the role
Leeds City Council delivers over 500 different services to residents and is dedicated to bringing the benefits of a prosperous, vibrant and attractive city to the people of Leeds. High quality, effective financial management is key to delivering the Council’s ambitions.
This is a great opportunity to work in a financial role at Leeds City Council, where we can offer a variety of work in a vibrant and forward-thinking environment. As our next Finance Officer, your role is integral to our Operational Finance team where you would provide a comprehensive financial administration support service to the wider Financial Management Service.
You might be assisting with financial queries or supporting the provision of a responses to a Freedom of Information (FOI) requests. The role includes processing financial and treasury management transactions, reconciling financial information and supporting the completion of grant claims and returns. You might also be delivering training to colleagues or providing them with advice on financial matters.
What we offer you
We take pride in offering the best employee experience, with benefits including:
- a competitive salary and annual leave entitlement plus statutory holidays
- membership of the West Yorkshire Pension Fund with generous employer contributions
- flexible and hybrid working arrangements subject to service requirements
- a clear career pathway and continuing professional development opportunities
- a range of staff benefits to help you boost your wellbeing and make your money go further
How to apply
Please complete the online application form.
Read our guidance for further advice on completing your application.
If you have any queries or would like an informal chat about the role please contact Kerry Nicholl, Finance Manager. Call 0113 3789391 or email kerry.nicholl@leeds.gov.uk.
We welcome applications from everyone and actively seek a diverse range of applicants from all backgrounds and cultures. We particularly encourage applications from, but not limited to, women, carers, veterans as well as LGBT+, ethnically diverse, disabled and care experienced people.
This role is based in the UK. Home Office guidance states that candidates must evidence their right to work in the UK prior to commencing employment, either as a UK or Irish citizen, under the EU Settlement scheme or having secured any other relevant work visa.
If you do not have the right to work in the UK, you must consider your own eligibility for sponsorship for a particular role through the Skilled Worker visaroute before applying. To be eligible for sponsorship you'll usually need to be paid the standard salary rate of at least £41,700 per year or meet one of the other eligibility criteria. Please ensure you are eligible before applying.
Job Description
Job purpose:
Working as part of the team providing a comprehensive financial administration support service to the wider financial management team, the post-holder will model the Council’s values and behaviours in order to help us achieve our ambition of being the best council in the country.
Responsibilities:
- Assist budget managers and other officers with queries of a financial nature in relation to budget, budget monitoring, year-end and balance sheet accounts.
- Assist with annual financial processes including the preparation of budgets and year end accounts, monitoring and finalising of balance sheet accounts and processing of Treasury Management Transactions
- Support the provision of responses to Freedom of Information (FOI) requests, maintaining a directory of all FOI responses.
- Reconcile financial information held within FMS to other financial systems.
- Co-ordinate responses to Councillor questions and other ad-hoc information requests.
- Responsibility for supporting budget holders for lower risk, less complex budget areas.
- Support Finance Managers in the completion of grant claims and returns.
- Support the coordination of responses to financial queries and requests for information and analysis from budget holders and corporate colleagues.
- Communicate new starters/leavers and other workforce changes to the financial management workforce to the BSC.
- Delivering training to budget holders and junior staff on MS Dynamics and providing ad-hoc advice re process, coding and other financial matters.
- The duties outlined are not meant as an exhaustive list and will also comprise any other duties within the spirit of the post commensurate with the job evaluation outcome for this post.
Qualifications:
- Educated to a minimum of GCSE level including English and Mathematics at grade C or above.
- Studying towards AAT qualification or equivalent.
Essential requirements:
Candidates will only be shortlisted if they can demonstrate that they meet all the following essential requirements.
Skills Required
- Good communication skills, both verbal and written.
- Good IT skills including the use of Microsoft office applications, particularly Excel.
- Sound numeracy skills and the ability to work with large data sets.
- Good interpersonal skills.
- The ability to work within tight deadlines.
- Knowledge of Financial Regulations and Contract Standing Orders.
- Flexible approach to work demands and team-working.
- Ability to work quickly and accurately both within a team and on own initiative.
- Ability to deliver training to budget holders and junior finance staff.
- Ability to organise and coordinate various queries to meet tight deadlines.
Knowledge Required
- Working knowledge of accountancy in a financial service background including budget planning, monitoring and closure of accounts.
- Have a sound working knowledge of standard IT applications used in an office environment and the use a computerised financial ledger.
- Understanding of employees’ responsibility for health and safety.
Experience Required
- Experience of the annual financial cycle.
- Experience of maintaining good working relationships in the delivery of financial services.
- Experience of working successfully to strict deadlines.
Essential behavioural and other characteristics
- Understand and embrace Leeds City Council values and behaviours and codes of conduct
- Committed to continuous improvement in all areas and work towards delivering the Leeds Ambitions of health and wellbeing, inclusive growth, thriving strong communities, and a resilient sustainable city
- Able to understand and observe Leeds City Council policies and procedures
- Carry out duties having regard to an employee’s responsibility under Health, Safety and Wellbeing
- Participate in appraisal, training and development activities to ensure up, to date knowledge and skills
- Be aware of and support difference and ensure equality for all working in an anti-discriminatory manner, upholding equality and diversity of Leeds City Council
- Recognise and appropriately challenge any incidents of racism, bullying, harassment, victimisation, and any form of abuse, reporting any concerns to the appropriate person
- Flexible and adaptable to change to assist other services as required commensurate to grade.
- The Council has adopted a flexibility protocol and the role will be expected to work within these parameters
