Finance Assistant

The Finance Assistant will support the efficient delivery of finance services and transparent utilization of financial resources at the WFP Global Payments Solution Centre in Budapest. The role involves accounts payable, general accounting, and financial reporting tasks to enhance financial operations and compliance.

Responsibilities

• Assist in providing procedural and technical support to staff within the areas of finance and budget, to ensure compliance with WFP financial policies, rules and regulations.
• Verify vendor claims, advances and other receivables and observe appropriate procurement procedures, to ensure that suppliers are paid in a timely manner and in conformance with WFP finance rules and regulations.
• Ensure case and transactions accuracy, alignment with internal controls (eligibility, policy compliance and duplicate checking) and report any discrepancies to supervisors.
• Receive and open cases in the Case Management Platform, review relevant documentation for completeness, validity and conformity with current rules and regulations.
• Process transactions in SAP as initiated by case requests or regularly scheduled activities, including parking and processing various payable documents, offsetting of receivables and verifying the net liability.
• Respond to customer cases status and other questions and escalate inquiries requiring more extensive research to the supervisor.
• Update and close cases to reflect accurate status.
• Upload HQ bank statements and clear transactions in the General Ledger; perform reconciliations and prepare relevant reports; regularly monitor and clear treasury clearing accounts; meet regularly with concerned stakeholders on outstanding open items under treasury clearing accounts.
• Process outgoing invoices, manage Value Added Tax receivables, support UNDP, FAO and UN New York payables, process expense accrual adjustments quarterly, manage UNDP service clearing accounts related tasks and transactional workload.
• Analyze open donor receivables and payables, follow up on overdue items, allocate donor contribution receipts to relevant grants, facilitate actualization of in-kind contributions and clear related donor open items.
• Support oversight acquisitions, disposal and transfers of fixed and intangible assets; process monthly amortization and depreciation; facilitate capitalization of intangible assets; analyze supplies, consumables, and other expenses for potential errors and inconsistencies.
• Support in analyzing, accounting and reporting of leases in line with IPSAS 43 requirements; facilitate periodic reconciliations and agreement analyses; monitor automated processing in the concerned accounting systems.
• Monitor parked documents and send alerts to the concerned users; act as vendor and customer master data focal point for the Branch and conduct annual master data review; support in processing of accounting transactions for WFP Global Offices; provide guidance on the financial and accounting topics to the users worldwide; support in addressing of internal and external audit queries.

Requirements

• At least 1 year of relevant work experience in a related business stream with experience in finance and accounting work.
• For High School Diploma Holders: A minimum of 5 years of relevant work experience in finance and/or in a service center is required.
• For University Degree Holders: A completed degree from an accredited institution in fields such as finance, project management, business studies, accounting, economics, mathematics, statistics, management information systems (MIS), industrial engineering, international relations, public administration, or social sciences will be considered equivalent to 4 years of work experience.
• Fluency (level C) in English language.
• Fluency (level C) or intermediate knowledge (level B) of another UN language: Arabic, Chinese, French, Russian, Spanish, and/or Portuguese (a WFP working language) is desirable.
• Strong focus on accuracy and consistency, while processing large volume of transactions.
• Experience in processing accounting and financial transactions and supporting in preparation of financial reports.
• Experience in monitoring, analyzing, interpreting and reporting data, using Excel and at least one of the following SAP ERP modules: Financial Accounting, Grants Management, Materials Management, Assets Accounting, and Funds Management.
• Knowledge and experience in the application of financial and accounting policies, IPSAS/IFRS/US GAAP or other accounting standards.
• Working knowledge of Microsoft Office applications (Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Teams, Outlook).
• Good attention to details, teamwork, communication and client orientation skills, and ability to work in a multicultural environment.
• Experience in liaising on financial and accounting aspects with stakeholders from various functions and geographical locations is desirable.
• Experience in preparation of financial statements is desirable.

Skills

• Finance and Accounting
• Financial Transaction Processing
• Financial Reporting
• Data Analysis
• Excel
• SAP ERP Financial Accounting
• SAP ERP Grants Management
• SAP ERP Materials Management
• SAP ERP Assets Accounting
• SAP ERP Funds Management
• Financial policies application
• IPSAS knowledge
• IFRS knowledge
• US GAAP knowledge
• Microsoft Office Suite
• Accounts payable
• General accounting
• Financial Statement Preparation

Languages

English, Arabic, Chinese, French, Russian, Spanish, Portuguese