Financial Business Partner (P7) (Finance: Financial Support Services: Business Support Services) (X2 POSTS) at University of Johannesburg

Job description
Responsibilities: 

• Contribute to the completion and integration of financial aspects of the faculties and division’s Strategic Plans.
• Contribute to strategic discussions and the development of operating financial plans within faculties and divisions.
• Always the first point of client contact for all domain- specific financial matters to the management of a particular environment/s.
• Pro-actively identifying financial trends that may affect a client environment and communicating such trends to the environment’s management at the first opportunity, along with advice as to how to possibly deal with the implication/s of the trend/s.
• Pro-actively / pre-emptively identifying and responding to client needs for financial information.
• Accountable for client training in all financial matters financial.
• Accountable for all financial reporting to clients, as in communicating the contents of financial reports, for all cost centres , budget and non-budget.
• Accountable for attending and actively participating in all client meetings where financial matters are discussed.
• Accountable for the communication of the financial elements of strategic initiatives.
• Accountable for communicating the full details of the budget process to clients.
• Accountable for reporting on all domain specific financial activities including core business/accounting, financial management, purchasing, / procurement, teaching, research, fundraising, collaborative partnerships, and new business generation.
• Accountable for the costing of minor projects within the permittable delegation of authority.
• Accountable for the initiation of budget line transfers for implementation by Management Accountants and share responsibility with the latter for implementation of budget line transfers.
• Accountable for ensuring accurate and timely processing of all operational and correctional journals.
• Accountable for end-to-end query resolution in respect of all financial matters in the serviced environment/s.
• Accountable for reconciliations may be required.
• Accountable for presenting management accounts to clients and provide relevant domain specific commentary/input required by the management accountants for their institutional reporting (these accounts are created by Management Accountants).
• Asset Management – planning for acquisition by client/s and contributing to disposal in liaison with SCM.
• Ensure attainment of desired results in a cost effective and timely manner to agreed quality standards.
• Ensure that university policies and procedures are interpreted and implemented across the faculties and divisions.
• Accountable for the full administration and management of internal and external research grants/projects in the area of responsibility.
• Accountable for all general financial advisory and risk management outputs in respect of the client environments.
• Ensure that university policies and procedures are interpreted and implemented across the faculties and divisions serviced.
• Implement internal control points or recommendations raised by external and internal auditors.
• Check validity of expenditure against UJ policies and procedures and engage with domain management on deviations.
• Coordinate all domain specific and institution wide (Agreed Upon Procedures) AUPs.
• Assist Management Accounting and other Centres of Excellence (CoE) to respond internal and external audit requests for information, as far as these relate to own area of responsibility.
• Uphold the University ethics.
• Contribute to the improvement of other finance processes and services.
• Participate in various finance projects and assist the project team/s as and when required.
• Evaluate service provision, recommend, and implement innovative solutions to improve service quality, business efficiency and continuity, and introduce long term, sustainable improvements.
• Assist in the implementation of process changes, to ensure efficient operation of the processes by which the faculties and divisions’ support services are delivered.

Minimum requirements

• BCom degree in Finance or Accounting (or equivalent).
• At least three years’ working experience in a financial environment up to compiling financial statements and reports.
• Financial Management experience.
• Management of Financial Projects.
• Business principles and processes.

Competencies and Behavioural Attributes:

• Critical to the success of a Financial Business Partner is the ability to communicate their message, to understand their client and their client’s “business” and to deliver information in a clear and user-friendly manner. This mix of analytical, “business” and communication skills are at the heart of successful finance business partnering.
• Business principles and processes.
• Ethical.
• Budget compilation and control process.
• Electronic Financial Processing System (Oracle, ITS, GL, Wand, I-Procurement).
• Accounting Principles in practice.
• A good understanding of policies and procedures.
• Reconciliation between different modules and systems.
• Written and verbal communication conflict resolution.
• Ability to make quick and effective decisions.
• React proactively to issues.
• Manage own time and for others.
• Identify and resolve problems.
• Plan effectively for both short and long term.
• Ability to multitask.
• Ability to influence the client relationship positively.
• Relationship Management.
• Operational awareness

Recommendations:

• Honours degree in Accounting/ Financial Management.
• Knowledge of financial packages for example Oracle, GL Wand and IDU.
• Experience of a tertiary educational environment.

Deadline:8th August,2025