Overview
The Finance Associate provides timely and relevant expert advice on financial matters, harmonizing and leveraging best practice solutions. The role supports daily accounting and financial transactions and decision-making through the provision of timely information on the management of financial resources.
Key Responsibilities
- Review and process E-payable transactions, payroll inputs, staff loans, travel and rental advances, and vendor payments.
- Conduct payment runs and respond to Chennai queries on transaction compliance.
- Prepare monthly expense forecasts, budget reports with variance analysis, and bank reconciliations.
- Monitor and replenish country office bank accounts and submit VAT refund claims.
- Resolve outstanding items on VAT, inter-currency, transit, and suspense accounts.
- Monitor purchase orders, STC transactions, and vendor open items through the admin portal.
- Oversee rental contracts in PeopleSoft.
- Maintain effective financial controls through oversight of corporate cards, asset inventory, signatory management, contract monitoring, record retention, account reconciliations.
- Resolve audit, scorecard, and compliance-related matters.
- Provide guidance to the Country Manager and business area staff on WBG financial, administrative, and benefits policies.
- Onboard new staff on finance systems, travel, and related procedures.
- Respond to Scorecard and audit queries.
- Ensure orderly filing of transaction documentation.
- Support process harmonization, automation, and continuous improvement initiatives.
Required Experience
- 1 year of relevant experience in a comparable accounting or finance-oriented role.
- Experience with major systems for financial/budget management is preferred.
- Experience with requirements gathering and business analysis.
- Experience with data management/modeling; process analysis, design and automation.
- Track record of supporting business decision making through the provision of relevant analytics.
- Track record of handling transactional-level financial/accounting work.
- Demonstrated working experience in accounting, bank reconciliations, procurement process, facilities, vendor management, and internal controls.
- Working experience with finance systems and reports, particularly SAP, BW/AO, and/or comparable experience with financial/budget management systems.
Qualifications
Minimum Education consisting of a bachelor’s degree in accounting, business, finance, or other relevant discipline required to fulfill position specific requirements (e.g. Economics, Public Administration, Information Systems, etc.) OR non-finance bachelor’s degree plus one of the following: (1) CIMA Advanced Diploma in Management Accounting; or (2) ACCA Advanced Diploma in Accounting and Business; or (3) equivalent country-level accounting certificate.
