Expense Officer

**The Company**:Islamic Relief South Africa

**Role Name**: Expense Officer

**Location**: 396 Imam Haron Road, Lansdowne, Cape Town, Western Cape South Africa

**Hours of work**: Monday to Friday 8.30am to 16.30pm or 9.00am to 17.00pm

**Role summary**:
Islamic Relief South Africa (IRSA) is seeking a highly efficient Expense Officer to maintain the financial systems and controls of the office, ensuring efficiency, integrity, and transparency. As an affiliate of Islamic Relief Worldwide (IRW), the largest independent Muslim humanitarian organization in the world, IRSA is dedicated to helping the poor and those in need, regardless of their background, to live sustainable and self-reliant lives within safe and caring communities.

As an Expense Officer, you will play a vital role in ensuring the efficient and transparent management of the organization's finances. This is a unique opportunity to work with a renowned humanitarian organization and make a positive impact on the lives of individuals and communities.

**Educational Qualifications, Skills and Knowledge**:

- An Accounting Diploma or Bookkeeping course
- 3 years of experience in accounting/bookkeeping, preferably in an international NGO.
- Competent financial modelling skills in Excel.
- Excellent organizational skills.
- Committed and dedicated.
- Excellent financial skills and analytical skills.
- Experience in working independently and providing initiative in improving finance functions.
- Excellent communication and drafting skills for effective reporting on the institution’s financial performance.
- Flexible in working arrangements and adaptable to new (sometimes unstructured) and stressful working environments.
- Ability to work in a team.
- Competent skills in the use of the organisation’s accounting software.
- Should be good at multitasking.
- Must pay attention to detail, concentration on all aspects of a finance task, and commitment to achieving quality results.

**Key Accountabilities**

Finance Management And Compliance
- Responsible for processing and record keeping of payments, expenditures, and income
- Review and improve department processes by implementing automated systems
- Attend to adhoc tasks from National Finance Coordinator or Head of Department
- Report non-compliance and potential issues or risks to the NFC and Head of Department
- Handle day to day financial matters for the organization
- Maintain financial systems and controls to ensure efficiency, integrity, and transparency
- Accountable for maintaining an efficient accounting system for project-related financial information
- Ensure accurate accounting and reporting on approved budgets and proposals
- Support the National Financial Controller in meeting finance objectives and goals
- Maintain good relations and understanding between head office and regional offices for expense matters.

Weekly Reporting
- Preparing financial reports for NFC and HOD, including staff claims schedules, cash request reconciliations, bank reconciliations, and petty cash reconciliations.
- Maintaining up-to-date records, creating new suppliers, general ledger accounts, and project codes, and conducting financial due diligence on paperwork.
- Accurately capturing invoices, allocating project codes, general ledger accounts, and VAT allocations are crucial for efficient operations.
- Responsible for daily PO review and processing, as well as processing weekly payments to BIO online.
- Ensure proof of payments is shared with Procurement and the originator.
- Follow up on post-payment queries and maintain complete paper trails for supporting documents.
- Update and confirm resolutions on queries raised by purchase orders and payment batches, maintain up-to-date bank statements, and file weekly transactions promptly.
- Submit weekly task reports to the National Finance Coordinator and Head of Department, providing necessary accounting and financial information as requested.

Month-end reporting and processing
- Timeous, complete and accurate submission of month-end deliverables to the NFC.
- Maintain schedules, analyses and reconcile ledgers for expenses and projects on a regular basis by preparing timely and accurate financial information, including monthly reconciliations (bank, suppliers, petty cash, etc.)
- Consolidating regional financial information required to submit towards routine monthly reporting.
- Compilation of month-end reconciliations and report on the month-end deliverables (Petty Cash, bank reconciliations, debit orders for the month, cash reconciliations, creditors age analysis feedback, completion of resolution of queries per the prior reporting period, etc.)Process month-end journals as and when instructed and approved by the Head of Department.

On-going processes
- Maintain financial systems and controls to ensure the efficiency, integrity and transparency in accordance with IR guidelines and accepted accounting standards.
- Engage with various IRSA stakeholders in the e