JOB DESCRIPTION Post: Community Accountant Employed by ...

JOB DESCRIPTION
Post:
Employed by:
Responsible to:
Responsible for:
Hours:
Community Accountant
BVSC Executive Committee
The Development Manager
Secretary 10 hours pw
14 hours per week
Salary: NJC Scale S01 pts 29 - 31
Probationary period:
3 months
Purpose of the Job
To advise and train voluntary and community groups in all aspects of financial
management to enable them to develop and operate their own accountancy
and financial systems.
Duties
The Community Accountant will be accountable for her/his day to day work to
the Development Manager and as member of the BVSC staff team will
participate in the planning of and share responsibility for ensuring the
implementation of policies and priorities and working methods in line with the
aims and objectives of BVSC.
All members of staff are expected to attend meetings of the Executive
Committee and are entitled to take part in discussion there but without the
power to vote.
All members of the staff team are expected to assist with general office duties
(answering the telephone dealing with personal callers in the absence of other
members of staff or office volunteers).
The Community Accountant will report on his/her work to each quarterly
meeting of the BVSC Executive Committee and will carry out her/his work in
accordance with decisions taken by and guidelines laid down by the Executive
Committee.
In particular the Community Accountant will:
1. Provide advice to voluntary and community groups by telephone,
email, letter and in person on all aspects of financial management and
book-keeping including:

developing financial procedures and checks
setting up appropriate book-keeping systems including petty
cash systems
keeping account books up-to-date, bank reconciliations
developing budgets e.g. for grant applications
management reports including budgets, income and
expenditure, balance sheets and cash flow
paying workers PAYE, NI, SSP, SMP and salary calculations
preparing annual accounts for independent examination or audit
if required
insolvency procedures and redundancy payments
ensuring groups operate within legal regulations and guidelines
e.g. Charity Commission Statement of Recommended Practice.
2. Assist groups to select and use appropriate accountancy software
packages
3. Identify the training needs of local groups. Design, develop, publicise
and deliver training courses on a range of topics. Monitor and evaluate
courses.
4. Keep abreast of current legislation and good practice regarding
financial procedures and the keeping of accounts and maintain a
resource of up-to-date information
5. Research and write articles for BVSC’s newsletter Spotlight, and
prepare fact-sheets relevant to the financial needs of local groups
6. Research the community accountancy needs of local groups to ensure
the service continues to meet their needs.
7. Where appropriate work with the Local Authority and other funders in
developing effective approaches to supporting good financial practice
for local groups
8. Advise groups on developing gift aid and assist them with the financial
elements of business planning for social enterprise models and direct
payments
9. Assist groups to recruit new treasurers and volunteer book-keepers

10. Maintain the project’s financial systems and provide quarterly reports to
BVSC’s Executive Committee.
11. Collect monitoring and assessment information and produce reports as
required
12. Carry out any other duties that could reasonably be required.