Finance Assistant

Job Overview

Heart of Bucks are looking for an enthusiastic and self-motivated Finance Assistant to support the day-to-day functions of our charity. Reporting to the Head of Finance, this role's purpose is to provide accurate, timely and confidential financial administration and bookkeeping support, helping ensure financial processes, records and reporting are well-managed.

This post is 15 hours per week over 2-3 days, on a FTE salary of £26,227. You'll be based at our offices in central Aylesbury, with some hybrid working available.

Heart of Bucks is the Community Foundation for Buckinghamshire. Heart of Bucks is a registered charity working with some amazing donors to provide a broad range of funding to other charities and not for profit organisations across Bucks. Our programmes range from those helping to address health inequalities or community safety, through poverty and inclusion projects, sports and leisure, to education, arts and culture programmes, and everything in-between.

There is much more information about our work on the website here: www.heartofbucks.org

Full Responsibilities:

Finance

· Maintain accurate and up-to-date finance records in Sage and associated systems.

· Carry out regular bank, supplier and debtor reconciliations.

· Prepare and process payment runs in line with authorisation procedures.

· Support month-end and year-end finance processes, including preparation of information for management accounts and audit.

· Ensure financial records are retained, filed and disposed of in line with organisational policy and legal requirements.

· Handle confidential financial, payroll and donor information in line with GDPR and internal policies.

· Escalate finance queries, discrepancies or concerns promptly to the Head of Finance.

· Dealing with supplier queries regarding payments and some chasing of debtors

· Administration and reconciliation of payments/ repayments of Social Investment Loans.

· Processing receipts from JustGiving and other third party sites.

· Processing Gift Aid applications.

· Supporting compliance with finance policies and procedures

· Maintaining audit trails

Supporting the Head of Finance with:

· preparation for and minuting of meetings

· Monthly HMRC payments

· Collation of records for Audits

· Data retention/ disposal

Grants and Loans

· Helping to carry out checks on grant applicants as part of due diligence

· Assisting with the Salesforce administration of fund and payments

General Operations

· Follow agreed financial controls, authorisation procedures and segregation of duties, escalating any concerns promptly.

· Handle personal, financial and organisational information in line with GDPR, confidentiality requirements and internal policies.

· Customer relations: Managing incoming and outgoing routine telephone calls, emails and general enquiries

· Supporting the professional and efficient delivery of HoB events

· Opening post and ensuring relevant documents are scanned and emailed to staff or saved on Salesforce

· Record keeping and reporting – keeping our multi-purpose Salesforce database up to date and relevant, and ensuring historical paper records are scanned and saved in the appropriate place

Person Specification

Essential:

• Understanding of financial controls, confidentiality and data protection
• Bookkeeping - minimum 1 year
• Ability to process financial information accurately and meet deadlines
• Effective communication skills - able to express opinions and convey messages clearly. This includes both verbal and written communication
• Good organisational and administrative skills: Able to manage multiple priorities
• Experience of using Excel for basic financial tasks
• Enthusiastic, willing to learn and responds positively to opportunities
• Confident, approachable and personable
• Attentive to detail and completion of projects
• Punctual, professional and dependable
• Collaborative team worker - able to share responsibilities with others and work together to complete projects
• Ability to occasionally work out of hours (time off in lieu)

Desirable:

• 4 GCSEs at grades 9 to 4 (A* to C), level 2 NVQs or equivalent
• Sage 50 cloud Accounts Certification or equivalent industry standard
• IAB Bookkeeper qualification level 2 or above
• Familiarity with charity finance, restricted funds or Gift Aid
• Experience of Sage charity module
• Working in the charitable/third sector
• Experience of Gift Aid processing
• Experience using Salesforce or another CRM/Database
• Self-motivated and self-organising
• Access to independent travel

Experience of Sage 50 and Salesforce would be really helpful in this role, but please don't be put off applying if you don't have all the skills we need, so long as you are willing and able to learn as you go.

Please email your CV and a covering letter (maximum 1 side A4) outlining why you think you are suited to the position to [email protected]

We expect to hold interviews in the week commencing 9th November 2026 at our office in central Aylesbury where you would be based.

Pay: £26,227.00 per year

Benefits:

• Company pension
• Employee discount
• Free parking
• Sick pay

Work Location: In person