Job Description

Date: 06-Aug-2022 Location: Singapore, East Asia, SG Company: British Council
The British Council builds connections, understanding and trust between people in the UK and other countries through arts and culture, education and the English language. We work in two ways – directly with individuals to transform their lives, and with governments and partners to make a bigger difference for the longer term, creating benefit for millions of people all over the world. We help young people to gain the skills, confidence and connections they are looking for to realise their potential and to participate in strong and inclusive communities. We support them to learn English, to get a high-quality education and to gain internationally recognised qualifications. Our work in arts and culture stimulates creative expression and exchange and nurtures creative enterprise. We connect the best of the UK with the world and the best of the world with the UK. These connections lead to an understanding of each other's strengths and of the challenges and values that we share. This builds trust between people in the UK and other nations which endures even when official relations may be strained. We work on the ground in more than 100 countries. In 2019-20 we connected with 80 million people directly and with 791 million overall, including online and through our broadcasts and publications.


Role Purpose:

• To support the Financial Planning and Analysis team by providing accurate consolidation, review and analysis of the financial data linked with plans, forecasts or performance review.
• To ensure the financial data used to consolidate the regional position is complete, accurate and represents accurately the reality of our product portfolio. To achieve this, the post-holder will make sure all adjustments needed to represent correctly the current state of our businesses are entered in the system and any variances resulting from the analysis is explained properly, in the context of the regional business strategy and taking into account the specific economic/business context associated with different markets/countries where the activity takes place.
• To liaise with the local SBU leads, country staff and Regional Financial Controller’s team when and where required, to ensure errors are corrected and prevent distortions resulting from financial accounting aspects.
• To implement new ways of automating financial planning and reporting/consolidating information, making sure it is fully in line with SBU’s business needs.

Main accountabilities but not limited to the following:
Accountable for the analysis and interpretation of long and short term financial and operational plans for the SBU through management reporting, analysis and interpretation of financial trends:
Planning, forecasting and budgeting:

• Support the planning process for shared costs, by making sure the tools and procedures necessary to deliver timely and accurate information are in place and automated as far as possible.
• To support the Regional FP&A lead in data consolidation exercises, presenting them in a user-friendly form, including graphical representation of the trends and clear documented assumptions.
• To highlight errors or potential risk areas that require attention, as part of the variance review process.
• To integrate financial with non-financial data (such as audience engagement) as part of our planning and reporting processes.
• To provide the necessary training and one-to-one support to Country SBU leads or other members of the team, as required.

Financial analysis:

• To create effective mechanisms that facilitate financial projections, trend analysis and variance analysis in an effective way, using tools such as Power BI
• To work with the Regional FP&A Manager on the processes involved in the review and variance analysis.

Management Reporting:

• To investigate any material variances as part of our month end process and ensure the adjustments required take place before hard-close.
• To identify deviations and errors in our master data, including proper reporting structures, including Profit Centres, Cost Centres, WBS and GLs. To implement changes required to correct this within a month after identification/detection.
• To provide enough information that enables the production of complete and business informed commentaries.
• To support the team with any ad-hoc request, enquiry or review process.

Business Performance Management:

• To support proper business performance review by ensuring there is no ‘unallocated’ income/expenses and by creating mechanisms to minimise the actuals reported under ‘NONE’ and ‘Unassigned’ categories.
• To review regularly (monthly) that actuals follow the same assumptions than plan/forecast for any process involving allocation (staff, OPSS and Indirects)
• Assist individual managers in solving data hygiene / SAP issues.

Additionally, the post-holder is expected to cover other members of the team absences and leave periods.


Role specific knowledge and experience:

• Minimum 1 year of experience in Operational financial management and or management accounting.
• Ability to work under pressure.
• Good time management and data management.
• Ability to work in virtual teams
• Part qualified with a recognised accounting body.
• Good Power BI skills
• Experience working with SAP. (desirable)

Further Information:
Pay Band: 6
Contract Type: Indefinite contract
Location: Flexible within EA (Australia, Myanmar, China, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Japan, Korea, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore, Taiwan, Thailand and Vietnam)
Requirement:

• Candidates have the right to live and work in the country in which the role is based.

Closing Date: Sunday, 21 Aug 2022- 23:59 Singapore Time (GMT +8)


A connected and trusted UK in a more connected and trusted world.


Equality , Diversity, and Inclusion (EDI) Statement


The British Council is committed to policies and practices of equality, diversity and inclusion across everything we do. We support all staff to make sure their behaviour is consistent with this commitment. We want to address under representation and encourage applicants from under-represented groups, in particular, but not exclusively, on grounds of ethnicity and disability. All disabled applicants who meet the essential criteria are guaranteed an interview and we have Disability Confident Employer Status. We welcome discussions about specific requirements or adjustments to enable participation and engagement in our work and activities.


The British Council is committed to safeguarding children, young people and adults who we work with.


We believe that all children and adults everywhere in the world deserve to live in safe environments and have the right to be protected from all forms of abuse, maltreatment and exploitation as set out in article 19, UNCRC (United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child) 1989.


Appointment to positions where there is direct involvement with vulnerable groups will be dependent on thorough checks being completed; these will include qualification checks, reference checks, identity & criminal record checks in line with legal requirements and with the British Council’s Safeguarding policies for Adults and Children.


If you have any problems with your application please email askhr@britishcouncil.org


Please note: Applications to this role can only be considered when made through the Apply section of our careers website. Our ‘ASK HR’ email is only to be used in case of a technical issue encountered when applying through the careers website. Emails with supporting statements and CV/Resumes sent to this email address will not be reviewed and will be deleted.