Job Description – Finance Officer

Hours: Part time three days per week

Salary: £36,400 - £37,580 FTE (Pro Rata - 3 days per week)

Reports to:          Head of Finance

Location:             Whitechapel, London

Department:        Finance & Operations

The B Corp movement

B Lab UK is part of the global B Corp movement with the mission to inspire and enable people to use business as a force for good. Certified B Corps seek to redefine success in business by putting social and environmental impact on a par with profit. The B Corp community is a global movement of businesses that provide leadership by demonstrating their commitment to people and planet. There are now over 9,000 B Corps spanning 102 countries and 160+ sectors. Some names you might have heard of include Patagonia, The Guardian, and Divine Chocolate.

The role

With the growth in demand from businesses to join the B Corp movement, we have created this role to assist the Finance team with a range of activities as we move to a new accounting system that meets the needs and demands of our growing organisation.  We outsource the day to day bookeeping work but the Sales Ledger invoicing will remain in house.

We are looking for a team member who has ideas and thoughts on how to improve the way we work and can input into the development of Finance Policy and Procedures.

Tasks and responsibilities will include: 

• Checking the finance email inbox and other forms of communication, dealing with queries, actioning and/or forwarding as appropriate and capturing all relevant information

• Working with Finance Officer and other team members to ensure completeness of member data such as invoicing address, contact details, pricing and credit terms in relevant databases (Salesforce and Xledger)

• Liaising with the outsourced service and internal staff members to ensure supplier queries are resolved and payments are made in a timely manner

• Working with the Head of Finance to prepare year end information for the external audit

• Working with the current Finance Officer to maintain a centralised record of all relevant communications.

• Assist Debit Card holders with administrative tasks linked to card usage

• Working with Finance staff to document and implement financial processes and procedures

• Assist with continuous improvement of systems, controls and working practices in finance and other areas of the organisation

 Skills and Experience  

 Essential (used in short-listing)

●     Previous experience in a Finance Officer or similar role

●     Great attention to detail, with the ability to grasp information quickly

●     Sales Ledger experience

●     Wider bookkeeping, year end and external audit experience

●     Good spreadsheet and systems skills

●     Excellent organisational skills, proactive and use initiative to create improvements and find solutions

●     Excellent customer service skills

●     Comfortable working in a fast-paced and dynamic growing organisation

●  Organised with the ability to plan work to meet deadline

Desirable

●     Experience of Salesforce or other CRM

●     Experience of Xero or Xledger accounting system

●     Purchase Ledger experience

●     AAT qualification

●  Credit Control experience

Person Specification

●     Passionate about the role that business can play in creating the future that benefits all people and the planet.

●     Polite, tactful and firm manner.

●     Confidence, professionalism and perseverance.

●     Strong verbal and written communication skills. Able to demonstrate a professional manner in writing or remotely, and face to face

●     Ability to maintain confidentiality and deal with commercially sensitive information

●     Self-motivated, proactive and structured worker, happy to work independently as well as with other teams.

●     Committed to justice, equity, diversity and inclusion

●     A quick learner

●     A strong work ethic, keeping to deadlines with the ability to prioritise, a finisher of tasks

●     Eligible to work in the UK (we will not be able to provide visa sponsorship)

 What we give you

• Purpose driven work enabling B Lab UK’s mission of redefining the role of business as a force for good

• Hybrid and flexible working, we have a high trust environment and are advocates for right place working

• Hybrid working (min 1/2 days per week in office)

• Flexible working hours (based around core working hours)

• Opportunity to work 4 days a week 

• 25 days holiday plus bank holidays (pro rata for part-time staff)

• 1 additional annual leave day (pro-rata for part-time staff) for each complete annual year of service, up to a maximum of 30 days

• Our office is closed between Christmas and New Year, no need to take extra holiday!

• Private Medical and Dental cover

• £200 per annum tax free Annual Wellbeing allowance and Employee Assistance Programme

• 2 paid volunteer days per year

• Enhanced Parental Leave and family friendly policies, including carers leave

• Learning and Development opportunities

• Enhanced Pension and Life Assurance

• Cycle to Work Scheme

• Income Protection policy

• Working in a flexible office workspace

How to apply:

All applications must be made through Be Applied.

If we can offer accommodations for you in the recruitment process, please contact hiring@bcorporations.uk. 

We use a blind recruitment process, to avoid biased screening, where the initial selection is based on answers to predefined questions and an anonymised CV review which are scored by a panel against predefined criteria for the role.

N.B. the anonomysed scoring panel does not see the applicant's CVs or any other information about them (until interview stage). Please ensure your answers to the questions are specific and give real examples of what you have done to demonstrate your experience and skills that are required for the role.

All candidates will be contacted after the initial screening process. The short-listing process will consist of at least 2 panel interviews. Candidates may be asked to prepare and present a task. Interviews will likely to be remote, and one conversational in-person interview.

B Lab believes an equitable and inclusive work environment and a diverse, empowered team are key to achieving our mission. We’re not looking for candidates who are “culture fits.” We’re looking for candidates who can expand our culture and challenge business as usual. We strive to foster an environment where all staff can bring themselves to work by their own definition, and we strive to provide all candidates with an equitable and accessible recruitment process.