Job Introduction

The Financial Controller will be responsible for leading the finance team and managing the day-to-day financial operations for the School and associated charities and companies. This includes month end and year end processes and management of the sales, purchase and general ledgers, bank accounts, expenses system and fixed asset register. They will also be responsible for maintaining a strong control environment, ensuring the accuracy of the Trial Balance and providing a responsive and customer facing transaction processing service. 

Key responsibilities for this role will include:

• Owning the month end and year-end financial accounting processes to deliver accurate and timely trial balance to support the production of monthly Management Accounts.
• Support the year end process to deliver a clean audit and accurate and timely Annual Accounts.
• Responsible for the accuracy and timeliness of the Purchase requisition to Invoice Payment process, fee and extras billings including for fundraising and commercial activity, and collection of income.

They will be responsible for leadership and development of the team to effectively embed the recently implemented iFinance system. They will drive continuous improvement in financial processes, ways of working and engagement with all internal and external stakeholders and customers.

Role Responsibility

Key relationships

Internal customers

• Finance Bursar
• Bursar & COO
• Finance team
• Financial Planning & Analysis Manager
• Budget holders on all transaction processing queries
• Owners of key financial inputs (e.g. Head of Payroll Pensions & Benefits, Development office for gift aid)
• School leadership teams
• Internal Audit in relation to financial accounting (when appointed)

External customers

• HMRC (Corporation Tax, VAT, MTD, Gift Aid)
• External Audit
• Banks and other advisers

Leadership and management

• Leading by example through visible and impactful line management of the finance team.
• Providing the necessary training, guidance and support for staff members to enable them to carry out their duties effectively, maintaining visibility with the team and stakeholders.
• Driving the development of the team to ensure delivery of a visibly customer focused (internal and external) ways of working.
• Acting as a technical expert on day-to-day accounting matters.
• Deputising for the Finance Bursar as required.
• Advising and engage with members of School’s management teams on relevant financial matters as necessary.

​Accountable for

• Leading the transactional accounting team to provide a responsive, efficient and customer facing transaction processing service. Develop and maintain relationships with internal and external stakeholders.
• Ensuring the accuracy of the Trial Balance through both ad hoc and regular forensic review of key figures and processes. 
• Ensuring all balance sheet reconciliations and control accounts are completed and reconciled monthly in accordance with a month end close timetable.
• Ensuring bank accounts are reconciled monthly.
• Processing and post journals to ensure that income and expenditure is accurately and appropriately recorded.
• Working with the Payroll, Pensions and Benefits team to ensure that salaries journals are posted accurately each month.
• Owning the Chart of Accounts and ensure that it is fit for purpose. 
• Ensuring compliance with Charity and other accounting regulations, including correct allocations between reserves and an accurate Fixed Asset Register. 
• Supporting decision making on capital expenditure as required.
• Working with the Financial Planning & Analysis Manager to ensure that the budget is loaded into the iFinance system before the start of the financial year.
• Management of the accuracy and timeliness of the Purchase Requisition to Invoice Payment process.
• Management of the accuracy and timeliness of the billing process and collections. Including iSAMs ledger management (as well and iFinance).
• Responsibility for fixed asset and depreciation accounting (as well as the Fixed Asset Register).
• Managing and instigating the BACS receipts and payments processing on PTX.
• Managing and overseeing the staff expenses processing.
• Managing the credit card and debit card accounting and processes.
• Production and review of aged debtor and aged creditor reports on a monthly basis.
• Working with the Development team to ensure accurate and timely reporting and management of Gift Aid, and compliance with HMRC requirements.
• Owning the year end process to deliver a clean audit and accurate and timely Annual Accounts, including input on the final design and wording and provision of information for the Audit, Risk & Compliance Committee.  Manage any audits required for any other regulatory reasons.
• Ensuring timely and accurate returns and compliance with all HMRC requirements, including VAT, Gift Aid and other taxation.  Support the Head of Payroll, Pensions & Benefits as required to ensure HMRC compliance with all employment tax issues.  Lead on providing other tax advice as required by the charity.
• Ensuring a professional and responsive relationship between the transactional accounting team and Internal and external Auditors and timely and accurate responses to Internal and External Audit information requests and recommendations.  Ensure timely delivery of agreed internal and External Audit actions and process changes.
• Ensuring iFinance and other financial systems are able to deliver accurate numbers and strong controls through the work of the team. 
• Working with the Finance Bursar to develop and maintain the department’s risk register, ensuring appropriate risk mitigations are in place and reviewed regularly.
• Working with the Finance Bursar to ensure business continuity plans are in place and reviewed regularly.
• Working with the Finance Bursar to develop, embed and maintain appropriate financial policies and procedures.  Ensure regular review of key processes.
• Ensuring the School’s finance policies and procedures for recording financial transactions operate in accordance with statutory guidelines, Companies House and Charity Commission financial regulations and guidelines set out in the school’s policy and procedures.
• Consistently looking for improvements that can be made to financial systems and processes to ensure that the school benefits from the use of new technology, products and services. 
• Adopting a coaching leadership style to lead the finance team to achievement of its objectives. 
• Any other duties as required.

General

In addition to the specific duties and responsibilities outlined in this job description, all Westminster employees should be aware of their specific responsibilities towards the following:

• Adhere to all Safeguarding, health and safety and fire regulations and to co-operate with the Charity in maintaining good standards of safeguarding and health and safety.
• Adherence to, understanding of and commitment to the Charity’s ethos, values, vision and expectations    
• Uphold ethical and professional standards and not behave in a manner that is likely to bring the Charity into disrepute.
• Promote and sustain a responsible attitude towards equality, diversity and inclusion within the Charity.
• Demonstrate a commitment to ongoing registration requirements or any national professional or occupational standards associated with the role.
• Demonstrate a commitment to ongoing learning and development and to participate in any training relevant to the role.

Hours of work

09:00 - 17:00, with one hour unpaid lunchbreak. Flexibility to these hours will be needed at busy times to carry out the role effectively

The Ideal Candidate

Please refer to the below (attached) person specification.

Equal Opportunities

We are an equal opportunities employer. We therefore encourage candidates to apply irrespective of age, disability, marriage or civil partnership status, pregnancy or maternity, race, religion and belief, gender identity, sex or sexual orientation.

Safeguarding and Child Protection

Westminster School is committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children. Applicants must be willing to undergo child protection screening appropriate to the post, including checks with past employers and the Disclosure and Barring Service.

Package Description

Required for: as soon as possible.

Location: Dean's Yard - Westminster School

Contract: full-time, temporary (fixed-term contract of 9 months).

Hours of work: 09:00 - 17:00, with one hour unpaid lunchbreak. Flexibility to these hours will be needed at busy times to carry out the role effectively.

Please note, this is a fully onsite role.

Salary: c. £75,000 per annum (prorated to reflect the length of the contract).

For this role, there is no fixed closing date. Applications will be considered on receipt and interviews may occur at any stage.

About the School

Working at Westminster

Westminster School is a busy, purposeful and vibrant place to be and an excellent workplace. The community is made up of 750 pupils, 120 teaching staff and 108 support staff.

Westminster School is friendly and welcoming, and all newcomers quickly become part of the rhythm of life here.

There is a real sense of community here as, being a boarding school many members of staff and pupils live on site and the School’s premises are very much treated as a home away from home. School life starts before breakfast and continues way beyond the working day; as a result, there is always a lively atmosphere in and around School and always someone to share a tea and biscuit with in the Common Room. Support staff as much as teaching staff are encouraged to embrace the School’s day-to-day activities, whether that be attending an evening concert or a morning service in the Abbey.

At Westminster we will always select the best candidate for every position. We do know, however, that we can only truly choose the best person on every occasion if a broad and diverse pool of candidates see the job advertised and are encouraged to apply.

As such, we continue to work on how our job roles are encountered, and particularly welcome applications from groups who have traditionally been underrepresented here.

Westminster School is for everyone, regardless of gender, ethnicity, sexual orientation or any other protected characteristic. We hope you are encouraged to apply.

The School

Westminster School is a selective day and boarding school for boys aged 13 to 18 and girls aged 16 to 18. There are approximately 360 boys in the Lower School (Years 9 to 11) and 400 boys and girls in the Upper School (Years 12 and 13). One quarter of the pupils board, and the School is structured and run as a boarding school, with an extended day and week and a strong House-based system of pastoral welfare, for boarding and day pupils alike.

Westminster is an ancient school, whose origins can be traced to a charity school established by the Benedictine monks of Westminster Abbey. Its continuous existence is certain from the early 14th century. Henry VIII personally ensured the School’s survival by statute and Elizabeth I, who confirmed royal patronage in 1560, is celebrated as the School’s foundress. Westminster is rare amongst long-established schools in remaining on its original site in the centre of London. Its proximity to Parliament and Westminster Abbey, and the use of the Abbey for its chapel, together with the stimulating diversity of the South Bank and West End, account in part for its special atmosphere and outlook.

The School is one of the foremost centres of academic excellence both in this country and internationally. Central to its academic ethos is the dialogue between teachers and their pupils, whether in the classroom or in tutorials, inspiring enjoyment of intellectual enquiry, debate and search for explanation and the development of skills of rational, independent thought well beyond any standard examination syllabus. The desired environment is happy, busy and purposeful; the pupils are intellectually, socially, ethically and politically engaged, with plenty of opportunities to develop initiatives and to articulate and defend their views, in line with the enduring values of the liberal tradition reflected in the School’s Charter. That tradition is fully committed also to the nurture of each pupil’s spiritual, moral, emotional and physical development and wellbeing – with a particular emphasis on drawing out individual talent wherever it lies - and to the preparation of young people for fulfilled private and public lives beyond School.

Westminster School