Strategic:
· Provide advice to academic and research staff regarding specific projects, best practice, terms and conditions and the University Financial Manual.
· Assist in reviewing future order books for some themes / schools and highlight areas of concern with regard to either declines in growth compared to the corporate plan, or significant growth above the corporate plan to enable timely intervention to be made.
· Assist in reviewing changes in accounting regulations (such as FRS 102) and assist in ensuring that any changes that impact on research, consultancy or large projects are highlighted, options are evaluated and revised accounting policies are drafted and implemented on a timely basis.
· Assist in reviewing changes in VAT legislation to ensure these are correctly accounted for.
· Assist in reviewing changes in corporation tax legislation to ensure these are accounted for when processing research, consultancy and large projects.
Operational:
· Liaising with academic and research staff, Heads of School Finance, School Management Accountants, Procurement staff, Research Team staff, Contracts staff and Research and Innovation Unit staff to ensure that claims accurately reflect costs incurred by the University, while maximising possible returns to the University in line with the contract.
· Responsible for ensuring the statutory accounts accurately reflect research and consultancy income in compliance with relevant accounting standards.
· Calculation of monthly work in progress/income in advance for some themes/schools for month-end posting. Ensure all the necessary calculations and paperwork for year-end WIP/IIA is completed for the statutory accounts.
· Forecasting of firm research and consultancy and large projects income and expenditure by project, theme and School for inclusion in the quarterly accounts and discussion during budget and planning meetings.
· Working with Contracts and Principal Investigators from relevant themes/schools to ensure any potential legal issues (extensions, time is of the essence etc.) are dealt with on a timely basis before they lead to a potential breach.
Process:
· Ensure that all research and consultancy, large project claims and invoices for relevant themes/schools are raised and allocated over relevant accounting periods on a timely basis and that all required back paperwork is submitted to ensure that payment can be made.
· Monitoring the funds on larger grants such as GCRF, CASE and CDTs.
· Liaising with external auditors for project audits to ensure that satisfactory data is made available to auditors to enable them to complete and sign audit reports for claims. This will include auditors from Research Councils, the EC, and MoD, DEFRA etc. or their representatives.
· Monitoring and maintaining records of staff posts on contracts, giving approval to HR to advertise and appoint where funding is in place.
Staff:
· To ensure the smooth running of the work of the team members, including supervision, training, allocation of work, problem solving and use of disciplinary process where necessary.
Other:
· Assist other parts of the Research Accounting team when workload requires
· Assist Internal and External Audit as and when required.
· Any other duties as requested by the Head of Research Accounting, Monitoring and Claims or Director of Finance
Planning and organising
Daily tasks
Managing staff and dealing with School and Service department staff queries. Giving approval to HR to advertise and recruit for new project staff where funding is available Preparing and submitting claims to customers and sponsors on a timely and accurate basis.
Monthly tasks
Calculation and posting of project WIP/IIA, closing completed projects, reviewing problem projects and reporting issues to principal investigators and school accountants.
Quarterly tasks
Calculate and publish forecast of income & expenditure calculations for the Director of Finance for budget and planning meetings, highlighting any significant KPI issues that may impact on achieving the Corporate Plan. Production of other project reports to enable school and finance staff to monitor project progress.
Yearly tasks
Yearend WIP/IIA calculation and posting for statutory accounts in compliance with accounting standards. Planning cycle reviews across specific themes and Schools with regard to research and consultancy income.
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