Finance and Operations Administrator

About The Role

We are looking for a highly organised and detail-focused Financial Operations Administrator to support the day-to-day financial management of Ecotricity's New Ventures businesses and projects.

Working closely with Finance Managers, project leads and the Finance Director, you will help ensure that financial processes run smoothly, expenditure is properly controlled and recorded, and project teams have clear and up-to-date information on their budgets.

The role covers everything from supplier set-up, purchase orders and invoice processing through to reconciliations, budget monitoring, forecasting and audit support.

Key responsibilities

Financial administration

• Set up new suppliers and undertake appropriate due diligence checks.
• Act as a point of contact for supplier queries and help resolve issues promptly.
• Raise and manage Purchase Order requisitions.
• Process invoices and ensure supporting documentation is complete and appropriately filed.
• Prepare and maintain credit card transaction reports.
• Undertake monthly transaction reconciliations, investigating and resolving discrepancies where required.
• Maintain accurate and well-organised financial records across the New Ventures businesses and projects.

Budget management and forecasting

• Support the preparation and ongoing management of project and operational budgets.
• Monitor actual expenditure against approved budgets and identify material variances.
• Provide project leads with monthly actuals-to-date and budget variance reports.
• Meet with project leads to review expenditure, investigate overspends and discuss future forecasts.
• Maintain up-to-date forecasts to provide an accurate picture of expected expenditure and future funding requirements.
• Identify potential overspends or additional funding requirements at an early stage and escalate these to the relevant Finance Manager and/or Finance Director for review and approval.
• Support appropriate cash-flow and runway planning, ensuring future funding requirements are identified well in advance.

Expenses and expenditure

• Reconcile and analyse expenses submitted by employees, contractors and consultants.
• Ensure expenditure is in line with agreed project budgets, contracts, consultancy agreements and internal policies.
• Query expenditure where appropriate and work with project leads to resolve discrepancies.

Monthly financial reporting

• Attend monthly finance meetings with the relevant Finance Manager and project leads.
• Prepare and provide accurate financial information ahead of meetings, including actual expenditure, committed costs, budget variances and forecasts.
• Highlight financial risks, emerging overspends and other issues requiring management attention.
• Follow up agreed actions and ensure financial records and forecasts are updated accordingly.

Audit and year-end support

• Support the annual audit process across the relevant New Ventures businesses.
• Attend audit meetings as required.
• Ensure financial records and supporting documentation are complete, accurate and filed in a timely manner.
• Upload documentation and information to the audit portal in response to auditor requests.
• Assist with the preparation of Trustees' Reports and other year-end financial documentation where applicable.
• Liaise with Finance Managers, project leads and auditors to ensure requests are dealt with promptly.

About You

You will be organised, numerate and comfortable working across several businesses or projects at the same time. You will have a strong eye for detail and be confident questioning expenditure or following up missing information when something does not look right.

You should be comfortable working with budgets and spreadsheets and able to turn financial information into clear, practical information for colleagues who may not have a finance background.

You will ideally have

• Experience in a finance administration, accounts or financial operations role.
• Experience of purchase orders, invoices, supplier management and reconciliations.
• Good Excel or spreadsheet skills.
• Experience of budget monitoring and forecasting.
• Strong organisational skills and attention to detail.
• The confidence to investigate discrepancies and challenge expenditure where appropriate.
• The ability to manage competing deadlines across multiple projects.
• Good written and verbal communication skills.
• Experience of supporting audits or year-end processes would be an advantage.
• Experience working across multiple businesses, projects, charities or start-up ventures would also be useful.

About Us

Healthcare plan, life assurance and generous pension contribution
Volunteering Day
Hybrid Working
Various company discounts (including shops, gyms, days out and events)
Holiday of 25 days (plus bank holidays) & ability to buy/sell days
Cycle to work scheme, car pooling and onsite parking available

As a valued member of the team, you will be supporting the Group Environmental Policy and its associated sustainability objectives and targets.

Flexibility Statement

The fast moving nature of the business means that from time to time you may be asked to perform duties or tasks outside of your original job description on an ad hoc basis. This allows the company to utilise our people in the best possible way at all times and helps our colleagues to make the best contribution in a changing environment.

Ecotricity is Britain's overall greenest energy company- it's more than just green energy - the breadth and depth of our work on green issues is unmatched. When we started back in 1995, we were the first company in the world to provide a new kind of electricity - the green kind.

Our mission was, and remains, to change the way energy is made and used in Britain - by replacing fossil fuels with clean, renewable energy.

We don't just supply green energy, we use the money from our customers' bills to make it ourselves too - we have built windmills and sun parks in Britain. We call this turning 'bills into mills'.

We don't just focus on energy though- we built the Electric Highway, Britain's leading network of electric vehicle charging points; we helped Forest Green Rovers become the greenest football club in the world; and we launched Britain's greenest mobile phone service, Ecotalk, where they use the money from their customers' bills to protect and regenerate Britain's lost rainforests.

Ecotricity is an equal opportunities employer and is committed to providing equality for all.