Systems and Finance Administrator - 97689 - Conferences and Events - Band 500

Description

Position Details

Conferences and Events - Campus Services

Location: University of Birmingham, Edgbaston, Birmingham UK

Full time starting salary is normally in the range £23,699 to £25,458, with potential progression once in post to £29,471

Band - 500

Full Time - Permanent

Closing date - 7th July 2021

Our offer to you

People are at the heart of what we are and do.

The University of Birmingham is proud to have been a part of the City of Birmingham and the wider region for over 100 years, and we are equally proud to be recognised as a leading global university. We want to attract talented people from across the city and beyond, support them to succeed, and celebrate their success.

We are committed to helping the people who work here to develop through our sector-leading Birmingham Professional programme which provides all professional services staff with development opportunities and the encouragement to reach their full potential. With almost 5,000 professional services jobs in a wide-range of functions in Edgbaston and in our campus in Dubai, there are plenty of opportunities for you to be able to develop your career at the University.

We believe there is no such thing as a typical member of staff and that diversity is a source of strength that underpins the exchange of ideas, innovation, and debate. We warmly welcome people from all backgrounds and are committed to fostering an inclusive environment where diversity is at the heart of who and what we are, and how we work.

Supporting our people to achieve a healthy work/life balance is important both to our employees and to the success of the University and, depending on the role, we offer a variety of flexible working arrangements. We therefore welcome discussions on all forms of flexible working. In addition, you will receive a generous package of benefits including 40 days paid holiday a year, one paid day a year for volunteering, occupational sick pay, and a pension scheme. We also have three high quality subsidised day nurseries.

The University is situated in leafy Edgbaston and there are excellent transport links to our beautiful campus, including main bus routes and a train station on site. On-campus we have a state-of-the-art sports centre with pool, shops, places to eat and drink, our own art gallery, museum and botanical gardens.

Find out more about the benefits of working for the University of Birmingham

Job context

Campus Services is responsible for a very large range of services within the University including student accommodation, catering, Sport and Fitness, cleaning and waste management, conferences and events, delivering the University's post, day nurseries, security and emergency response, Winterbourne House & Garden.

The Systems Administrator post sits within the Conferences & events (C&e) team that resides within Venues and Events, Campus Services. C&e sells and delivers a vast number of conferences and events to underpin academic work, support the student experience and drive additional income. As with any commercial revenue generating department within a university, C&e seeks to strike a balance between enhancing the student and staff experience and ensuring a financial return to the University.

Job summary

The Systems and Finance Administrator post serves as the connection between our systems and the team members who use it. You will need to quickly assimilate systems knowledge, as well as an understanding of how our sales, marketing, and other business processes work.

The postholder will oversee and be responsible for the smooth running of our systems which support our business including our key system Kinetic. You will be responsible for implementing and managing our database of customer contacts and communications, transferring data, making sure data is 'clean' and up to date, and training other members of staff to use the system. You will be responsible for data quality and the maintenance of an accurate database and will act as the systems champion across the department.

You will also be asked to support the Finance and Office Support Manager with a broad range of finance and administrative duties, some of which may be complex. This will include managing, processing, and troubleshooting various accounts and transactions. You will support with the budgets for individual conferences and events, prepare and finalise invoices, and oversee all the financial aspects of the customer management system Kinetic such as identify, correct and report any anomalies, raise requisitions and identify and deal with outstanding purchase orders.

Main duties

You will be responsible for a range of duties relating to the systems we use to support our business, including:

• Providing day-to-day advice and support to all users throughout the business, managing all queries to resolution
• Ensuring ongoing administration requirements are met and are kept up to date
• Performing regular housekeeping to ensure the data is accurate, up to date and clean
• Checking all bookings loaded for any anomalies and following up as appropriate
• Proactively engaging with teams throughout the business to optimise data integrity by identifying poor quality data and introducing preventative measures
• Creating and removing users and ensuring user list is up to date at all times
• Updating prices, menus, meeting rooms and account codes
• Update the system to support changes to processes
• Investigating and analysing reported defects
• Undertaking regular audits, cleansing data and ensuring system is working optimally
• Ensuring enquires and quotes are responded to and updated within the agreed KPIs
• Monitoring catering bookings and ensuring service providers are aware of new orders and updates to orders
• Logging service desk tickets
• Proactively liaise with IT Services regarding system updates etc. ensuring these are carried out with minimal disruption to users
• Proactively suggest system or data management improvements
• Identifying issues such as incorrect use of the system and escalating as appropriate

You will carry out a full range of duties relating to financial management including:

• prepare and monitor budgets, including for individual conferences and events
• prepare and finalise invoices, ensure standards on invoicing are adhered to and that invoices are followed up to ensure income is received
• oversee the financial aspects of the customer management system Kinetic and for in-house core systems; for example, identify, correct and report any anomalies, or raise requisitions and identify and deal with outstanding purchase orders and requisitions
• assist the sales team with setting up new clients/customers on the financial system
• produce and distribute monthly sales reports, resolving any issues with data
• develop systems for reconciling all received income and transactions, balance figures monthly and investigate and resolve any discrepancies
• proactively check bookings for outstanding financial data, paperwork and providing updates on errors/issues found
• assist the Finance and Office Support Manager with processing gift/souvenirs orders for both internal and external customers.

You will gather and analyse a number of reports to identify trends and make recommendations for improvements to processes and our business, including:

• Running regular weekly reports including PACE reports and the monthly sales ledgers
• Writing and running bespoke reports to interrogate specific areas
• Providing proactive support with forecasting and reporting
• Gathering historical sales data to identify trends
• Reporting on the breakdown of income by analysis code
• Run BDM reports and 'turndown' reports (including cancelled events)
• Developing and implementing dashboards and Key Performance Indicator reporting tools

You will be responsible for the training and upgrades of our systems, including:

• Creating and delivering communication and training materials to improve users' knowledge and adoption of the system across all teams
• Training staff to ensure they are familiar with any updates to the software or operating procedures
• Ensuring training videos are up to date and accessible
• Identifying any issues with use of the system which may require a training need to be met
• Act as the point of contact for users and managers for any training required
• Act as the point of contact for any planned upgrades to system
• Reviewing, assessing and prioritising requests for improvement/change

General

You will contribute to more general management in the department by:

• supporting managers in promoting sustainability, including supporting ISO20121 (sustainable events)
• monitoring service standards and working with internal customers to ensure these are adhered to
• providing support for events and other designated activities
• taking responsibility for allocated elements of health and safety implementation.

Supports equality and values diversity, moderates own behaviour to avoid unfair discriminatory impact or bias on others.

Any other duties as may reasonably be expected by the relevant manager.

Required Knowledge, Skills, Qualifications, Experience

• Educated to A level standard, or equivalent level 3 qualification such as a level 3 NVQ, or level 3 national diploma or relevant work experience evidencing the skills and ability to undertake the role.
• Experience of managing, developing and maintaining systems and the ability to explain processes to users
• Evidence of a systematic approach to technical tasks
• Understanding of GDPR
• Minimum of grade C in Mathematics and English at GCSE or equivalent level 2 qualifications
• Methodical, process-driven approach
• Some exposure to financial processes, and to the conference and events industry would be an advantage
• Highly proficient IT skills including Microsoft packages. The post holder should also be confident and able to quickly learn new IT skills and software packages as required as in-house systems are used for procurement
• Excellent verbal and written communication skills
• Excellent attention to detail with high standards of accuracy
• Excellent interpersonal skills. You will need to inspire confidence and command authority with a range of colleagues
• A high degree of initiative, personal judgement, resourcefulness, flexibility, and a self-motivating approach
• Ability to work effectively in a large, complex organisation, and to develop a good understanding of how the University and higher education institutions work
• Ability to understand policy and procedures and how to apply these
• Understands the importance of equality and diversity in the workplace
• Ability to identify and respond to equality and diversity issues in line with relevant policies and procedures
• Understanding of data privacy standards
• Confidentiality discretion at all times is essential

Informal enquires to Sarah Dugmore, email: S.L.Dugmore@bham.ac.uk

Valuing excellence, sustaining investment

We value diversity and inclusion at the University of Birmingham and welcome applications from all sections of the community and are open to discussions around all forms of flexible working.