Finance Assistant (Vat Team)
Service: Finance (Transactions)
Grade scale: Grade 2 level 2
Reports to: Finance Officer
Purpose of the job
Assist with the council’s VAT function in preparing VAT returns, ensuring compliance with VAT regulations and monitoring financial transactions to ensure appropriate VAT treatment.
Key tasks and responsibilities
- Providing advice to all council Resources in respect of the VAT function, processes and procedures.
- Ensure preparation and submission of statutory VAT returns across all council business units, ensuring compliance with VAT regulations, working with accuracy and to set timescales.
- Analyse transactions in Accounts Payable, Sundry Debtors and Income Management systems to ensure appropriate VAT treatment for financial transactions.
- Process VAT journals in General Ledger and assist with reconciliation between VAT returns and General Ledger.
- Contribute to any plans to implement changes to VAT legislation impacting on council functions.
Person specification
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Criteria |
Essential |
Desirable |
|---|---|---|
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Education, qualification and training |
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Demonstrate a good understanding of VAT legislation |
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Skills, knowledge and experience |
Comfortable using Microsoft Office applications such as Word, Excel, and Outlook, and able to produce standard documents, organise information, and communicate appropriately. Work in a highly professional manner; exercise confidentiality and discretion at all times Knowledge and experience of working in a financial environment |
Experience of working to deadlines Experience of working with financial systems |
|
Personal qualities |
Ability to prioritise and organise workload, deliver results against agreed timescales and achieve deadlines Demonstrates effective written and verbal communication skills, including the ability to present ideas clearly Demonstrate solid customer care skills To work in a flexible, adaptable manner and to always act with discretion and tact Inclusive and supportive team player |
|
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Other |
To demonstrate behaviours consistent with honesty and openness; treating people fairly and with respect |
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Safer recruitment checks
As part of our approach to good practice and safer recruitment we carry out a number of pre-employment checks
- Asylum and Immigration right to work in the UK.
- Reference check: external candidates require 2 references, one of which must be from present or most recent employer; Internal candidates require 1 reference from current line manager.
- Candidate Disclosure Scotland check, where applicable.
Behaviour framework
The council’s behaviour framework is a set of core behaviours that defines how employees approach work to enable the delivery of key tasks for the role. The expected behaviours for this role are:
Efficient
- Punctual and conscientious in your approach to work.
- Use council resources efficiently, avoiding waste and unnecessary expense.
- Identify inefficiency in processes and communicate this to your manager.
- Meet deadlines and targets in your day-to-day work.
- Understand the impact of wasteful behaviours on the environment and you act to minimise this impact.
Flexible
- Willing to learn new tasks and accept new ways of working.
- Willing to be flexible in your approach to work to meet changing service delivery needs, deadlines, and urgent priorities.
- Help team members when they have urgent deadlines and prioritise your work accordingly.
- Understand the need for change and are open to this across your working life.
Performing
- Is polite, professional and friendly to customers and apply customer care standards and attitudes at all times.
- Works safely to maintain the safety of yourself and other raising concerns about unsafe working practices.
- Meets standards of work required in your role in terms of quality and output.
- Uses initiative to solve problems and raise potential issues.
- Acknowledges when mistakes are made and learns from them.
- Seeks feedback on your performance to learn and improve.
Working with others
- Works alongside internal and external colleagues to meet common objectives.
- Has professional relationships with colleagues and is aware of dignity at work standards.
- Actively and respectfully listens to people in order to understand them and their views.
- Contributes appropriately in team and other meetings and discussions.
- Presents words and views clearly in a way that other people find meaningful.
- Respect diversity and promote equality of opportunity when working with colleagues and members of the public.
Leading
- Role models the standards of behaviours expected of a South Lanarkshire Council employee.
- Displays and enables leadership through sharing knowledge and skills, seeking guidance and providing support to your colleagues, team and the wider community.
- Is aware of and adheres to professional codes of practice and the council’s code of conduct and understand how these impact on employment with the council and public perception of council employees.