Senior financial accountant

Band 7 · Financial accountant · 495 job evaluation points

Senior financial accountants lead the annual accounts process and the accounting for complex areas, such as intangible assets, leases, and cloud arrangements.

Responsibilities

Plan and lead the annual accounts timetable and the external audit.
Write accounting papers on complex judgements, such as capitalising software development or cloud configuration costs.
Manage capital accounting, including asset lives, depreciation, and impairment of software assets.
Manage cash forecasting and drawdown of funding within cash limits.
Prepare statutory and funder returns, such as consolidation and capital returns.
Manage and develop a small team of financial accountants.

Skills

Skill	Expected level	What this level means
Financial reporting and statutory accountsThis reference	Practitioner (3)	You can: prepare the annual accounts and statutory returns to a timetable apply accounting standards to complex areas, such as leases, cloud computing arrangements, and intangible assets write accounting papers that explain judgements and estimates manage the external audit of the accounts and respond to findings
Treasury and cash managementThis reference	Practitioner (3)	You can: manage the organisation's cash flow forecast and drawdown of funding manage bank accounts, payment methods, and banking controls plan cash for large or irregular payments, such as multi-year software licences
Financial controls and auditThis reference	Practitioner (3)	You can: test and improve the controls for a financial process manage audit requests for an area and agree actions on findings write and update financial procedures work with counter-fraud specialists to reduce fraud risk
TaxThis reference	Practitioner (3)	You can: manage the organisation's tax returns and tax reconciliations advise on the tax treatment of contracts, such as software licences, cloud services, and shared services maximise tax recovery within the rules
Public sector financeThis reference	Practitioner (3)	You can: advise managers on funding rules, including ring-fenced and time-limited funding manage capital and revenue limits for a programme or directorate prepare returns and evidence for funders and spending controls
Financial managementUK GDaD PCF	Practitioner (3)	You can: negotiate, influence or set budgets in complex environments write or input into business cases and can communicate business-value propositions
Stakeholder relationship managementUK GDaD PCF	Working (2)	You can: identify important stakeholders and communicate with them clearly and regularly tailor communication to stakeholders' needs and work with them to build relationships while meeting user needs build and reach consensus with stakeholders work to improve stakeholder relationships using evidence to explain decisions
People managementThis reference	Working (2)	You can: supervise day-to-day work and give feedback take part in recruitment and induction hold regular one-to-one conversations
Corporate governance and complianceThis reference	Working (2)	You can: support committee meetings, papers, and minutes keep governance registers up to date

Typical qualifications and experience

A recognised accountancy qualification, with substantial post-qualification experience, or equivalent.

Band 7 outline

Knowledge: Highly developed specialist knowledge, typically to master's level or equivalent experience.
Autonomy: Works to organisational policy; decides how results are achieved; is the expert others consult.
Scope: Several products or services, or a specialist function.
Leadership: Leads a team or a professional practice area.
Accountability: Delivery of a service or specialist function, and its budget if held.

Job evaluation (illustrative)

Factor	Level	Level summary	Points
Communication and relationship skills	5	Gives highly complex or contentious information needing developed persuasion and negotiation, presents to large groups, or communicates where there are significant barriers to acceptance.	45
Knowledge, training, and experience	6	Specialist knowledge across the range of the specialism (postgraduate diploma level or equivalent).	156
Analytical and judgemental skills	4	Judgements on complex facts or situations needing analysis, interpretation, and comparison of options.	42
Planning and organisational skills	4	Plans a broad range of complex activities or strategies, adjusting them as needed.	42
Physical skills	3	Developed skills needing speed or accuracy, such as advanced keyboard use.	27
Responsibility for patient and client care	1	Helps patients, clients, or relatives during incidental contact.	4
Responsibility for policy and service development	3	Implements policies for own area and proposes changes that affect other areas.	21
Responsibility for financial and physical resources	4	Holds or sets the budget for a department or service, or buys or maintains its assets.	32
Responsibility for people	3	Manages a group of staff day to day, teaches core or specialist training, or gives core HR advice.	21
Responsibility for information resources	5	Designs and develops major information systems, or runs information systems for several services as the main duty.	34
Responsibility for research and development	2	Regularly does research, development, trials, or equipment and system testing as part of the job.	12
Freedom to act	4	Results are defined, but the job holder decides how to achieve them, within broad policy.	32
Physical effort	1	Sitting, standing, and walking, with little physical effort.	3
Mental effort	3	Frequent concentration on unpredictable work, or occasional prolonged concentration.	12
Emotional effort	1	Rare exposure, or occasional indirect exposure, to distressing circumstances.	5
Working conditions	2	Occasional unpleasant conditions, frequent travel or outdoor work, or near-continuous screen use on most days.	7
Total (Band 7: 466 to 539)			495

Financial resources is level 4 because the job manages the organisation's cash position and capital accounting.