Grants Accounting Manager

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Starting Date: ASAP/Mid-Month January / February 2025

Contract type: Full-time and open-ended

Salary: 57'400 GBP, commensurate with relevant experience and skills

Location: London, UK

Application closing date: 20.12.2024

About the Job

The Grants Accounting Manager will report to the Global Head of Finance and is responsible for supervising the grants financial management, supporting the procurement and sub-granting contracts, with respect to compliance for grants. The Grants Accounting Manager will identify potential risks, be detail-oriented, collaborative and a self-directed team member with strong financial management skills.

The Grants Accounting Manager will coordinate closely with Fundraising and Project Teams to ensure smooth processing, financial management, and administration of grants and contracts. The Grants Accounting Manager will supervise the Grants Accountant.

Responsibilities

The Grants Accounting Manager will be responsible for the following and other duties as assigned:

Manage grants compliance

Assuring compliance with donors' financial requirements, rules and regulations, and internal and external deadlines for grants:

• Overseeing financial reporting requirements, maintaining grants policies, procedures and supporting documents, training Better Cotton staff and project partners to ensure compliance with donors' financial requirements.
• Ensuring that the organisation operational processes support the grant processes, working in close collaboration with Fundraising team.
• Working closely with the project teams to ensure that required procurement processes are followed.
• Ensuring that the project teams know their responsibilities of creating a clear audit trail, coordinating the project audits and liaising with auditors.
• Following-up on audit recommendations, helping create processes and policies to implement appropriate corrective actions.

Support grant proposals

Supporting grant proposals, including budget development and final review:

• Advising budget holders on best practice, with the objective of creating a fully costed budget of the project including overheads.
• Reviewing financial aspects of grant agreements (and amendments) and providing recommendations on the financial management and reporting requirements.
• Improve visibility and validation of match funding commitments with Functions heads.

Manage grants - Financial management and accounting

Supervising the grants financial management, working in close collaboration with the Fundraising and Project Teams:

• Leading the development and enhancement of the grants financial management processes and systems. Develop and monitor KPIs for grants.
• Assuring the accuracy, completeness, and integrity of the information within SalesForce and FinancialForce systems.
• Managing completion of grant-related financial reports, accurate and timely reports as per donors' requirements, and supervising the grants financial management.
• Supporting in ensuring processes and dashboards are created for grants/projects budget holders to enable budget monitoring and forecasting.
• Supporting the projects teams in reviewing grant budgets, ensuring adherence to Better Cotton policies and donors' requirements.

Manage risks related to grants

Identifying and addressing potential risks, supporting the implementation of the mitigation plans:

• Identifying and flagging any financial risk related to grants.
• Set up efficient and effective financial control systems for grants.
• Ensuring appropriate financial controls are maintained, as well as preparing internal documentation working in close collaboration with Fundraising and projects teams.
• Supporting the development, implementation, and maintenance of general internal controls.

Support organisational processes

• Supporting the Budget and Forecasting for the organisational budget preparation and monitoring.
• Ensuring grants budgets are recorded and approved modifications to budgets are updated in FinancialForce.
• Supporting the Fundraising team translate the strategy into targets for resources, human and financial (income) resources, and managing agreed targets and priorities.
• Supporting with the year-end processes and statutory audits.

Profile

The selected candidate will have the following skills, knowledge, and experience:

Essential

• Recognised qualification in Accounting, Finance, or Business Administration
• Relevant accounting experience in a finance support function and in producing internal reports on the financial situation of the project
• Experience working with an ERP or accounting package for projects
• Close attention to detail and accuracy, strong numeracy, analytical and organisational skills
• Excellent command of Excel and literacy in Word, PowerPoint and Outlook
• Ability to present complex information effectively to a range of non-financial persons
• Demonstrated experience in grants financial management and compliance with contracts (in particular with donors contracts)
• Demonstrated experience in financial reporting to donors, audit preparation and coordination
• Ability to manage multiple priorities and projects, to set targets and workload for themselves and others
• Experience of working in both not-for-profit and profit-making organisations
• Fluency in English, both written and spoken, with attentive listening abilities and able to communicate clearly and concisely
• Flexibility, initiative, ability to work autonomously and to manage workload to deliver work to deadline
• Excellent interpersonal and teamwork skills, with a service-oriented attitude

Desirable

• Experience working with international organisations
• Aptitude for manipulating data with computer systems
• Advanced computer and IT skills
• Experience with using FinancialForce (Certinia) & SalesForce
• Ability to work in a multicultural environment with respect for diversity
• Interest in and commitment to sustainability

What we offer

• Competitive salary
• Hybrid working - One day/week in the central London office
• The opportunity to work from anywhere in the world for up to one month per year
• Flexible working, with core hours from 10 am to 4 pm local time
• Continuous learning and development
• Pension scheme
• 25 days paid annual leave, plus 8-9 Bank Holidays and a further 3 discretionary days off over Christmas/year end period.
• Enhanced parental benefits
• A warm, positive working environment where everyone is valued
• The opportunity to make your mark and make a difference.

Working arrangements

The position is full-time (40 hours per week) and will be based in London. Better Cotton offers flexible working, with core hours being 10 am - 4 pm.

Apply now

Send us your CV (2 pages maximum) and a brief cover letter (1-page maximum) by or before 20.12.2024 via this link.

In your cover letter, please include an explanation of why your experience is specifically relevant to this role at Better Cotton. We want to see your personal style - what makes you tick and why you think your next opportunity is here with us.

Our hiring process

Initial Screening:

If you are selected, you will be contacted for an initial screening, which may involve a brief phone interview or video call. The purpose is to learn more about you, confirm basic qualifications, and discuss the role and organisation.

Interviews:

If you are confirmed after the initial screening, you will be invited for interviews. The interview process at Better Cotton may include one or more rounds of interviews with various stakeholders, such as the hiring manager, team members, and potentially senior management.

Assessment and Testing:

Depending on the role, you might be required to complete assessments, technical tests, or skills evaluations to gauge your competency and suitability for the position.

Reference Checks:

Once you progress further in the process, reference checks are conducted to validate your work history, skills, and qualifications, and for some roles, your education and criminal history.

Offer stage:

After completing interviews, assessments, and reference checks, the hiring team evaluates your performance and fit for the role. If you are selected and your references are relevant and satisfactory, you will receive a formal job offer letter outlining the terms of employment, compensation, benefits, and any other relevant details.

About Better Cotton

Better Cotton is a global not-for-profit organisation supporting the production of more equitable and sustainable cotton at farm level. We exist to catalyse the cotton farming community with partners, governments and others to continuously drive positive impact by setting standards and facilitating the supply and demand of more sustainable cotton from farm to brand. In just 15 years we have aligned more than a fifth of the world's cotton with our standard and helped farmers and farming communities thrive. Join us in building a better, more sustainable future for cotton worldwide.

About our Values

The post holder will be expected to operate in line with our workplace values which are:

• Trustworthy (including honest, transparent, credible)
• As having Integrity (including responsible, authentic)
• Positive (including problem-solving, pragmatic)
• Engaging (including adaptable, inclusive, holistic)
• Daring (including courageous, innovative, game-changing)

Being you @ Better Cotton

Better Cotton is committed to creating a diverse environment and is proud to be an equal opportunity employer with a strong commitment to good practice and transparency in the management of natural, human, and financial resources.

We have a zero-tolerance approach to any attitudes or behaviours that put children or adults at risk of harm. Safeguarding incidents are acts of serious misconduct and are grounds for disciplinary action, up to and including, dismissal and referral to relevant authorities for criminal prosecution. Therefore, all offers of employment are subject to satisfactory references and appropriate screening checks.