WHAT DOES A FINANCE ADMINISTRATOR DO?
Reviewed under Editorial Standards by Lam Nguyen
Updated: Jun 13, 2025 - The Finance Administrator manages day-to-day bookkeeping, processes monthly journals, and ensures accurate VAT returns and HMRC payments. Maintains tight control over debts, oversees supplier payments, and monitors financial records for accuracy. Handles month-end billing, responds to client queries, and produces financial reports for effective decision-making.
A Review of Professional Skills and Functions for Finance Administrator
1. Finance Administrator Duties
- Invoice Processing: Maintaining the processing of invoices for Barnsley Schools from invoice receipt, approval, opening for payment, and release of funds.
- Invoice Processing: Engaged in aspects of processing supplier invoices.
- Investigation: Investigating all invoice queries.
- Stakeholder Liaison: Liaising with internal stakeholders (managers, accounts payable, finance colleagues).
- Supplier Liaison: Liaising with external suppliers to provide payment updates and fix processing issues.
- Reporting: Providing regular updates to the line manager and other managers on processing progress.
- Payment Handling: Preparing payment requests and ensured timely payment of suppliers.
- Data Entry: Updating trackers with invoice values and reference numbers.
- Transaction Processing: Maintaining the system for processing colleague credit card transactions, ensuring correct VAT recovery and coding of expenses to the correct contract.
- Receipt Management: Liaising with engineers and other p-card holders to obtain receipts and other information.
- Portal Maintenance: Maintaining the online processing portal scanning and uploading invoices.
- Query Resolution: Resolving queries via email and phone.
- Invoice Creation: Preparing client invoices – Raising client invoices on SAP for completed works following instruction by Commercial/Finance colleagues.
- Financial Support: Supporting the Finance Manager - During month's end, supporting the Finance Manager with details of the costs during the month, analysis of SAP, ad-hoc queries, and requests.
2. Finance Administrator Details
- Proposal Review: Reviews sales proposals and verifies accuracy alongside standard operating procedures.
- Data Entry: Enters consumer, sale, and financing information.
- Credit Analysis: Obtains and analyzes consumer credit history.
- Payment Processing: Obtains and processes required down payments via credit cards, checks, and cash.
- Contract Management: Prioritizes efficient processing and printing of sales contracts.
- Data Protection: Protects sensitive consumer information and follows Welk Personally Identifiable Information guidelines.
- Contract Execution: Ensures contracts are executed accurately and timely and audits all personally prepared documents.
- Team Collaboration: Collaborates with other onsite department team members.
- Problem Analysis: Analyzes and communicates challenges and questions to the management team.
- Stakeholder Management: Balances competing stakeholder expectations and demands.
- Process Improvement: Proposes ways to improve the team’s process efficiencies.
- Payroll Entry: Inputs hours for monthly payroll for 100 care staff on Sage 50.
- Payment Processing: Processes overtime and statutory payments.
- Communication: Promptly responds to emails and deals with payroll queries.
- Stakeholder Liaison: Liaises with the care homes regarding any anomalies.
- Payment Reconciliation: Reconciles payments received against invoices raised.
- Procurement: Raises POs in a timely fashion.
- Invoice Management: Cross-references invoices received for payment with the POs raised.
- Query Resolution: Deals with all incoming queries from the various care home locations.
3. Finance Administrator Responsibilities
- Legal Assistance: Assists with Legal Matter Management.
- Instruction Development: Assists with the creation of Vendor/Supplier Instructions & Associated Tasks.
- Invoice Auditing: Conducts Invoice Preliminary and Substantive Auditing.
- Task Management: Manages Associated Invoice Task Creation and Follow-Ups.
- Purchase Order Management: Manages Purchase Order Task Creation and Follow-Ups.
- Supply Chain Finance Assistance: Assists with Supply Chain Finance and Processing of Invoices from the date of submission to date of payment.
- Document Management: Manages Market Document Repository.
- Payment Processing: Requests Payment Reports & Marks Paid Invoices.
- Client Liaison: Liaises and Meets with the Client on a Bi/Weekly Basis.
- Query Handling: Assists with General Queries from Vendors and Clients.
- Technical Escalation: Escalates Technical Issues to Product Manager.
- Clerical Functions: Performs a variety of routine and some non-routine clerical/accounting functions in areas including general accounting, fixed assets, accounts payable, accounts receivable, credit, and/or collections.
- Reconciliation: Prepares reconciliations of Accounts and adjustment journals.
- Process Improvement: Participates in process improvement initiatives across the business.
- Stakeholder Communication: Regularly communicates and collaborates with internal stakeholders to solve issues.
- Audit Support: Supports and coordinates with Internal/External Auditors such as Statutory, Tax, and VAT audits.
4. School Finance Administrator Accountabilities
- Order Management: Responsible for raising all purchase orders and processing all suppliers' invoices.
- Financial Assistance: Assists in the raising of journals and invoices for the school.
- Financial Management: Responsible for banking cheques and cash and maintaining appropriate financial records.
- Document Filing: Responsible for filing financial documents.
- Administrative Functions: Carries out all administrative functions of the post.
- Stakeholder Liaison: Liaises with Local Authorities Finance section.
- Compliance: Works within parameters of schools' financial procedure regulations.
- Audit Compliance: Ensures audit trail exists for all aspects of work.
- Administrative Support: Ensures the provision of effective administrative, secretarial, and clerical support to the main school office and the Leadership Team.
- Record Maintenance: Maintains manual and computerized records/management information systems.
- Mail Handling: Sorts, records, and distributes internal and external mail.
- Clerical Tasks: Undertakes typing and word processing and IT-based tasks, e.g., typing of minutes, updating and monitoring spreadsheets.
5. Finance Administrator Functions
- Bookkeeping: Day-to-day bookkeeping and maintenance of accounting records.
- Account Reconciliation: Balancing control accounts/account reconciliations/investigating variances.
- Journal Processing: Processing monthly journals such as prepayments and month-end procedures and reports.
- Tax Handling: Processing VAT returns and HMRC payments.
- Invoice Management: Posting sales and purchase invoices, expense claims, and credit notes.
- Billing Management: Handling the month-end billing process.
- Expense Management: Handling the internal expenses system.
- Debt Control: Keeping tight control on any debts and minimising debtor days.
- Credit Management: Monitoring the debtors and creditors list, chasing unpaid accounts.
- Payment Management: Managing supplier payments, reporting on dues and overdues, etc.
- File System Maintenance: Maintaining an orderly accounting filing system.
- Query Response: Responding to supplier and client queries.
- Subscription Recording: Ensuring subscription purchases are correctly recorded end to end.
- Invoice Processing: Capturing purchase invoices and issuing invoices.
- Invoice Adjustment: Adjusting sales invoices to reflect changes in subscription quantities/types.
- Financial Reporting: Producing relevant financial reports and maintaining appropriate records.
- Report Production: Regular and timely production of reports for management, P&L, Balance Sheet, Debtors & Creditors.
- Financial Presentation: Presenting financial reports at the regular scheduled finance reviews (weekly/monthly).
- Client Reporting: Producing client-friendly subscription reports.
Editorial Process
Lamwork content is developed through structured review of publicly available job postings and documented hiring trends.
Editorial operations are managed by Thanh Huyen, Managing Editor, with research direction and final oversight by Lam Nguyen, Founder & Editorial Lead. Content is periodically reviewed to reflect observable labor market changes.