Thanda was founded in 2008 and is changing the way people see themselves in the rural community of Mtwalume on the South Coast of KZN. Their innovative Early Childhood Development, After-School, Organic Farming, and Creative Learning Programmes work directly with over 1600 individuals daily.
Thanda seeks to appoint a Finance Manager to be based in Hibberdene, KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa.
Employment type: Full time position, and will be based in their administrative office
Reports to: Head of Operational Development
Salary: R192 000 – 240 000 CTC per annum, depending on skills, qualifications, and experience
The purpose of this position is to play a key role within the Finance team, and will be responsible for administering Thanda’s grant allocation system as well as compiling ongoing reports on various aspects of Thanda financial situation. The Finance Manager also plays an important role in preparing for the organisation’s annual financial audit. The ideal candidate for this job is someone with strong background in finance and experience in a similar role. It is essential that the successful candidate has an extremely high level of attention to detail, and is very thorough and reliable. As the ongoing financial reports provided by the Finance Manager will be used by Thanda’s leadership team to support strategic making, it is important that the Finance Manager is able to maintain a sense of the Thanda’s overall financial situation at all times. They are looking for someone who is simultaneously detail-orientated, can think analytically and can be strategic.
Responsibilities:
Administer Thanda’s grant finance allocation process
Review and understand all grant agreements, in particular understand the intention and purpose of each grant received;
Review and understand all project budgets;
Liaise with Head of Operational Development to ensure full understanding of how spending should be allocated to individual grant budgets;
Regularly allocate all spending to specific grants, ensuring that finance allocations for grants are always up to date;
Ensure that grant budgets are spent within correct timeframes;
Maintain grant allocations in a format easily accessible to the Finance Team;
Provide up-to-date information on spending as requested;
Gather information on all income, and communicate this information to the Head of Operational Development monthly.
Prepare financial reports for each of Thanda’s grants.
Review grant agreements and liaise with the Head of Operational Development to ensure awareness about when funder reports are due;
Three weeks before grant reports are due, liaise with the Head of Operational Development to ensure that grant budgets are spent within the correct timeframes;
Ensure grant allocations for each grant are complete, ideally two weeks before reports become due;
Prepare financial reports for each grant;
Ensure that financial reports for each grant are made available to the Head of Operational Development and to the Reports Manager, ideally two weeks before each external report becomes due.
Prepare Monthly Financial Statements, and other reports on Thanda’s Financial Position, to support effective strategic decision making at leadership level.
At the monthly Finance Meeting, provide a monthly report that shows a cash flow forecast, the status of reserves, and an update on grant spending and budget funding;
Provide the Finance Team with a monthly report (commentary), together with the financial statements.
Clearly show breakdown of capitalized expenditure monthly;
Generate Profit vs. Loss statement for various income generating projects as requested;
Identify, highlight and initiate remedial action on accounts with financial implications to the organization as needed;
Provide Programme Managers with updates on their budget spend monthly.
Lead Audit Process so that draft Audited Financial Statements are fully supported and accurate.
Prepare draft annual financial statements;
Ensure that all supporting schedules have been completed;
Ensure that all supporting documentation is correct and in place before submission to auditors.
Oversee internal controls within finance to reduce risks.
Proactively identify areas of internal controls that require improvement, and communicate suggested improvements to the Executive Director;
In consultation with the Executive Director, implement such improvements.
Oversee the Senior Bookkeeper.
Liaise with the Senior bookkeeper to ensure that financial records are kept up to date;
Assist the Senior Bookkeeper with queries, and/or resolving issues with accounting system.
Assist with other tasks as delegated by the Head of Operational Development or Executive Director.
Requirements:
B.Com Degree OR at least 5 years’ experience in a similar role together with relevant education required
At least two years professional work experience required
Strong background in finance required
Experience in preparing financial reports required
Experience with audit procedures preferred
Managerial experience preferred
Detail-orientated personality
Advanced Excel skills
Understanding on how to utilise accounting applications to extract information and reports (and if necessary input transactions relevant to a particular responsibility of the incumbent).
Ability to create systems and improve procedures
Ability to manage multiple tasks on tight timelines
Ability to meet deadlines and work well under pressure
Ability to follow procedures
Flexible and adaptable personality
High levels of responsibility, energy, and enthusiasm
Willingness to learn new things
Ability and willingness to work evenings and weekends, if necessary in order to meet specific deadlines
Their rural Community Centre roughly twice a month. However, following a probationary period, partial remote work arrangements (two or three days per week remote) are possible. The culture at Thanda is one of passion, energy, hard work, and a good sense of humour. Their promote flexible working hours with an atmosphere of trust and team-work. Their are not only looking for the right person for the job, but the right person for the team.
Directions to apply: Please send the following to [email protected]
Your CV (max 4 pages)
A one page cover letter (explaining why you are interested in working at Thanda specifically, and how your skills are relevant to job description)
Please do not send any additional documents (such as identity documents or certificates)
In the subject line of your email, please write “Application: Finance Manager 2020_[Insert Your Name]”
Applications will be reviewed on a rolling basis up until the deadline.
Please do not call our offices. If you have questions, please ask them via email.
Only shortlisted applicants will be contacted. If you do not hear back from us by 10 November 2020, please assume that your application has been unsuccessful.
For more information about Thanda, refer to https://thanda.org/