Senior Specialist: Lending Finance Business Partner at Vodacom

Role purpose:

• To ensure that key financial and business objectives of the Lending business within Vodacom Payment Services are met with regards to financial reporting, budgeting and forecasting, analysis, control and regulatory requirements and various ad-hoc projects, including business cases.
• Provide support to the business, manage the financial reporting, forecast process, related regulatory requirements and long range plan together with FinOps, commercial and marketing teams.  
• Deliver reporting for tracking of strategic objectives, expenditure by category and segment and key commercial initiatives.
• Full understanding of the short-term revenue and cost drivers.

This area of focus for this role will be the Lending and Wealth areas of the business.

Your responsibilities will include:
Reporting    

• MANCO and EXCO Financial Reports; 
• SAP & HFM reports; 
• Monthly Balance Sheet & Income Statement for the various verticals; 
• Liaising with Internal & External Auditors; 
• Monthly variance analysis; 
• Monthly KPI/KFIs;
• Presentations, report preparations & the implementation of relevant policies and procedures;
• Ad-hoc reporting requirements.

Month-end processing    

• Trial balance review (Revenue and cost review);
• Accounting for Payments technical provisions (ECL) reviews;
• Providing information for accruals and provision journals;
• Accounts receivable and payable – assist with commercial team queries;
• Bad debts – calculations review and analysis, ensuring recoveries are invoiced by FinOps (also liaise with 3rd parties);
• Ad-hoc resolution of queries related to month-end processing.

Business Support and Statutory requirements    

• Support business with all finance related tasks and queries;
• Tax Department support on returns and new products; 
• Support with product development and pricing; 
• IFRS compliance and other regulatory compliance assistance; 
• Risk identification and control implementation on all financial processes within the division.

Control and Governance    

• Maintain an effective operational control environment over financial items, identifying weaknesses and development and implementation of solutions.
• Ensure business decisions are implemented and executed within the approved and accepted governance framework.

Operational Support    

• Manage interface, delivery and reporting deadlines & requirements from Financial Operations for month ends, various forecasts, presentations and commentary;
• Assist with Financial Models developments

Budgets and forecasting    

• Prepare budgets with input from the commercial team
• Analyse actual variances to budget and provide commentary on variances
• Perform rolling forecasts every month, including detailed analysis of actual performance as well as forecast variances and changes to forecast
• Conduct regular reviews with the commercial team on analysis and forecasts

Other    

• Understanding of HFM, SAP and the Planning Tool and the submission of budgets and forecasts on this platform;
• Assist with business cases and ensure proper process is adhered to;
• Perform ad-hoc tasks and projects relating to Finance and/or Commercial issues.

The ideal candidate for this role will have:
Qualifications 

• Bachelor of Commerce degree – essential
• Chartered Accountant - preferred

Experience 

• Minimum 5-8 years financial experience - essential
• Financial services and Lending industry knowledge an advantage
• Previous ICT (Information and Communications Technology) industries experience an advantage.

Technical / Professional Expertise

• Finance experience gained in large, multi-national organization.
• Financial analysis & interpretation.
• Report writing.
• Understanding of systems and integration thereof into ERP.
• Business planning.
• Performance Monitoring.
• Understanding of accounting processes.
• Risk Assessment & Controls.
• Advanced skills in Excel, Word and PowerPoint.
• Presentation skills.
• Advanced ERP skills.
• Experience in financial and business analysis.
• Data extraction, transformation & manipulation skills.

Competency / Performance Drivers

• External perspective and appreciation of macro-economic environment.
• Business leadership and transformation.
• Adaptability.
• Time Management.
• Relationship Management.
• Diversity Management.
• Business & Commercial Acumen.
• Strong analytical skills.
• Problem solving. 
• Effective communication and influencing skills.
• Resilience.
• Ownership and drive for impact.
• Attention to detail & Quality conscious.
• Planning and Organising.
• Disciplined & Deadline driven.