WHAT DOES A FINANCE ASSOCIATE DO?
Published: Mar 13, 2025 - The Finance Associate prepares and reviews audit files for select entities, liaises with auditors and external lenders for financial covenant reporting, and coordinates distribution analysis for ad hoc distributions. Manages payment processes within the investment structure, ensures timely creditor payments, and oversees weekly to quarterly cash movement reporting. Coordinates Luxembourg tax returns and liaises with external tax advisors, ensuring compliance and timely tax filings while providing support for annual financial audits and fiscal closings.
A Review of Professional Skills and Functions for Finance Associate
1. Finance Associate Duties
- AP Support: Provide support to Account Payables processes, including invoice analysis and preparation, posting in the ERP, and performing the relevant controls.
- Reporting Support: Provide support to the Reporting activities by contributing to the preparation of data and information.
- IT Knowledge Development: Developing the knowledge of Navionics IT infrastructure, sales channels, and the analysis of the most efficient data extraction tools.
- Finance Knowledge: Develop a basic knowledge of all Finance functions and provide support to ensure the continuity of Finance Department activities.
- Administration Management: Perform Administration and General Affairs activities including physical and digital management of document archives, shipments, and custom support activities, Compliance support activities.
- Project Leadership: Lead small to medium projects in the area of Finance focus.
- Knowledge Leverage: Leverage knowledge to participate in the development and implementation of solutions.
- Service Partnership: Partner with colleagues across the organization to understand requirements and deliver high levels of customer service.
- Solution Implementation: Performs implementation of solutions with increasingly low guidance from management.
- Financial Management: Manage key financial processes, including forecasting, budget planning, and performance reporting.
- Financial Communication: Architect financial commentaries and documents to support key financial deliverables.
- Finance Collaboration: Collaborate with CFO on equity fundraising, raising corporate debt, and structuring new finance options.
- Executive Support: Support executive team in completing special projects, ad-hoc reporting, and analysis.
- Data Maintenance: Maintaining accurate records and participating in preparing daily analysis and reporting packages that identify what’s happening within the area of responsibility.
- Record Keeping: Maintaining an organized set of detailed records and files to document financial transactions (internal book entry, bank reconciliations, internal report reconciliation).
- Invoice Control: Ensure that all invoices are controlled, procedures followed, and all relevant information is received.
- Office Support: Participating in various office and administrative duties to ensure a smooth flow of processes.
- Administrative Management: Responsible for general administrative tasks in the Finance Department.
- Payment Processing: Post wire payments in the auction/client database system.
- Payment Research: Review and research pending credit card payments.
- Vendor Management: Set up and maintain vendors in accounting software.
- Inbox Management: Manage the Accounting Inbox daily including Client, Customer Service, and Bidder request.
2. Finance Associate Details
- System Coordination: Coordinating with business segment leaders and finance business partners to build system functionality to meet the demands of a growing business.
- Dashboard Design: Designing and implementing models and dashboards for Anaplan end-users to enable user input and self-service reporting to streamline and automate the budget and long-range-planning process.
- Financial Modeling: Financial modeling using data from multiple sources and standardizing into system-readable lists and fields.
- Metric Development: Developing success metrics and building automated tools to track GLG products and services.
- Plan Management: Manage mid and long-range business plans for select Corporate Departments, including the annual budget, quarterly forecast, and 3-year plan processes.
- Cost Forecasting: Maintain and develop reliable cost forecasting processes utilizing business manager inputs and internal databases, as well as judgment and knowledge of historical performance and trends.
- Reporting Assistance: Assist with the production of periodic financial reporting materials and presentations regarding business performance, including variance explanations for actual versus projected results, for Senior Management and the Board of Directors.
- Strategic Initiatives: Responsible for several operating and strategic initiatives outside of the typical finance function, including serving as a representative for business intelligence efforts and partnering with the Accounting team on the financial close process.
- Management Reporting: Assist in preparing monthly management report.
- Data Verification: Verify data from different reporting tools on a daily/ weekly/ monthly basis.
- Duty Coordination: Coordinate with the internal and external parties to handle day-to-day duties.
- Cash Management: Manage all aspects of cash and digital assets for the Group.
- Treasury Support: Provide finance and treasury assistance with new business initiatives.
- Email Management: Sort emails and send to appropriate team member.
- Negotiation Participation: Participate in the negotiation and closing of documentation related to the investment.
- Investment Support: Act as primary backup to Partners on assigned existing portfolio investments.
- Financial Coordination: Prepare or coordinate the preparation of monthly financial calls, quarterly board materials, and portfolio valuations.
- Legal Support: Assist the Partners with all aspects of ongoing legal documentation requirements for the assigned portfolio.
- Management Collaboration: Participate in regular calls with management teams.
3. BSP Finance Associate Responsibilities
- Investment Knowledge: Understand various types of complex investments and how they function within the portfolio.
- Calculation Accuracy: Responsible for accurate calculation of Funds’ net asset values, fees, and accruals.
- Accounting Oversight: Oversee month-end closings and maintain full accounting records as well as work with third-party administrator.
- Capital Monitoring: Monitor monthly capital subscriptions and redemptions.
- Financial Review: Review quarterly/annual financial statements and work papers provided by third-party administrator.
- Fee Calculation: Perform calculation of hurdle rates and related incentive fee calculations & allocations.
- Performance Analysis: Update and analyze month-to-date, year-to-date, and inception-to-date performance returns.
- Investor Support: Assist Business Development team with ongoing investor requests and ad-hoc fundraising requests.
- Interdepartmental Liaison: Interact effectively and liaise with multiple groups within the Firm, including but not limited to Tax, Management Company, GP Finance, Valuation Group, Investor Relations, Operations, and Investment Professionals.
4. Finance Associate - Private Equity Accountabilities
- GAAP Adherence: Maintain accounting books of Luxembourg entities on a regular basis to the appropriate accounting standard (Local Lux GAAP).
- Data Provision: Provide accounting data to the external service provider to ensure timely production of statutory interim and annual accounts for all Luxembourg-based entities and first review of interim and year-end accounts for the entire financial administration for the Luxembourg entities.
- Audit Preparation: Prepare and review audit files for a limited number of entities.
- Auditor Liaison: Liaise with auditors and external lenders, including the preparation of financial covenant reporting.
- Distribution Review: Review and coordinate distribution analyses in preparation for distributions on an ad hoc basis.
- Payment Coordination: Coordinate payments processing within and for the investment structure, ensuring timely payment of creditors.
- Cash Reporting: Weekly, monthly, and quarterly reporting on cash movements.
- Payment Processing: Process payments for funding and distribution memos.
- Liquidity Monitoring: Monitor intercompany loan balances and maintenance of liquidity forecast for the entities within the investment structure.
- Accounts Oversight: Provide oversight of accounts payable and general liquidity.
- Tax Coordination: Coordinate the preparation and submission of Luxembourg corporate tax returns, VAT returns, and payment of any amounts due to the tax authorities.
- Tax Liaison: Liaise with the external tax advisors for the timely filing of tax returns and arranging for payment of any amounts payable.
- Internal Coordination: Liaise with the internal tax department to ensure the timely delivery of all tax reporting requirements for Fund (tax reporting) purposes.
- Legal Coordination: Coordinate CBP teams in New York/London in the preparation of legal matters.
- Cash Management: Cash flow projections, external loan monitoring, deal closings, repatriation of cash.
- Entity Improvement: Substance improvements of the Luxembourg entities and coordinate any activity between the directors, deal team members, advisors, and other stakeholders.
- Audit Support: Support with tasks related to the annual financial audit and tax/990 filings with auditors.
- Fiscal Closing: Support with closing the books for the fiscal year and preparation of all requested audit schedules, analyses, and support documentation.
5. Senior Finance Associate Functions
- Complex Accounting: Perform advanced tasks related to the monthly and annual close processes, including complex journal entries and account reconciliations.
- Financial Reporting: Assist in the preparation of monthly and annual financial statements and related reporting packages.
- Consolidation Management: Manage the foundation’s consolidation process, including accounting for subsidiaries, subsidiary ledger data integration, intercompany account analysis, and monthly elimination entries.
- Payroll Analysis: Analyze foundation-wide payroll at the departmental level, reconcile required regulatory filings back to the foundation’s payroll records and accounting records, and collaborate with the human resources department to better integrate HR and payroll records into the accounting system.
- Asset Management: Maintain and analyze the foundation’s fixed-asset accounting records.
- Real Estate Accounting: Perform all real estate accounting-related tasks, coordinate with external property management firms to align processes and resolve financial issues related to real estate.
- Audit Support: Support the annual financial tax and audit processes, respond to requests from external auditors and tax accountants, and coordinate the status of open items.
- Technical Research: Research technical accounting and tax issues and draft accounting memos to document complex matters/decisions, coordinate with management, external financial accountants, and tax accountants where appropriate.
- Intranet Content: Prepare accounting/reporting content for the Finance pages on the foundation’s intranet, including the monthly close calendar, and support updates to the foundation’s accounting policies and procedures manual.
- Regulatory Compliance: Remain current on GAAP, IRS regulations, and other regulatory developments impacting private foundations.
- Process Improvement: Support ongoing efforts to improve processes and automate manual tasks, and propose strategies to make operations more efficient.
- Accounts Management: Accounts payable and receivables, including research discrepancies.
- Expense Management: Ensure all monthly expenses are submitted each month, creating accruals.
- Bank Reconciliation: Ensure all transactions are entered for monthly bank reconciliations.
- Payroll Administration: Prepare and submit payroll documents, upload payroll entries into the payroll system each pay period.
- Financial Entries: Post revenues, bank deposits, expenses, and payments in the accounting system in accordance with GAAP.
- Financial Reporting Support: Support with the monthly, quarterly, and annual financial reporting to the SED and Board of Trustees.
- Grant Reporting: Support with the completion of all federal, state, local, and foundation grant administration/reporting.