WHAT DOES A FINANCE ADMINISTRATOR DO?
Published: Mar 11, 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.