Finance and Administrative Officer

**Context**:
International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance (IDEA) is an intergovernmental organization with 35 member states hailing from different continents around the world. International IDEA aims to support sustainable democracy worldwide, doing so, inter alia, by working with both new and long-established democracies to strengthen the institutions and culture of democracy. Located at the interface of research and practice, International IDEA serves as a forum for dialogue and uses comparative experience and analysis to identify good practices for democracy-building. It also produces knowledge tools and practical guides for democracy support. The Institute maintains a global network of experts, provides training materials, and offers strategic advice to democracy actors at the international, regional, and national levels. The Institute is headquartered in Stockholm with field offices in Africa and West Asia, Asia and the Pacific, and Latin America and the Caribbean.

International Idea’s Asia and the Pacific Regional Team implements CORE and donor funded democracy projects throughout the region, including Nepal, Myanmar, Bhutan, Philippines, Indonesia, Fiji and Samoa. Projects are implemented either directly by the regional team based in Canberra, or by the country office teams within the region with the support and oversight of the regional team.

The Finance and Administrative Officer will support the implementation of projects in the region in close collaboration with the various Programme Managers. On the local level, the Finance and Administrative Officer is primarily responsible to assist with procurements and maintain the accounts for all Unrestricted (UNR) and Restricted (RES) projects of the Regional Asia and the Pacific team, ensuring payment processing and ERP encoding is updated daily, and monthly closure deadlines are met. On the regional level, the Finance and Administrative Officer provides high level accounting support and monitoring to country office finance counterparts and 1st level ERP support, troubleshooting and training to all ERP users in the AP region.

**Duties and Responsibilities**:
Accounting
- Checks and processes invoices, petty cash, bank payments, project advance requests, travel claims, project transaction and settlements pertaining to the regional office (RAP) and ensures compliant filing of supporting documentation;
- Prepares monthly payroll of the regional office, including employee superannuation & income tax obligations;
- Encodes all procurement and financial transactions into the ERP system for regional office accounts/ projects daily;
- Performs month-end closing procedures for regional office accounts/ projects including accounts reconciliation;
- Monitors Canberra/ regional office cash flow and prepares monthly cash transfer requests with forecasts;
- Prepares tax and other Australian government regulatory lodgments;
Grant Financial Management
- Assists with budget reviews in relation to annual planning, budget revisions and submission of funding proposals;
- Supports RAP project expenditure control, advising Project Managers on spending status, budget utilization and possible cost saving measures;
- Conducts initial review of partner financial reports and supporting documents and reports findings to the Head of Finance and Operations;
- Assists in the preparation of project audits by collating and reviewing sample expenditure documents;
Regional Support
- Acts as regional ERP support focal point: providing ERP training, advice and troubleshooting to finance team counterparts throughout the region. Escalates ERP issues to line-manager/ Headquarters as necessary.
- Monitors progress of each country office towards month-end closing deadline and provides support where necessary.

Other
- Supports the administration of contracts for service providers and/or partner organizations and ensures that procurement rules are being followed in the regional office.

**General Profile**:

- Clarifies financial information and requirements with diplomacy and clarity to team members and partners;
- Adds considerable value to team-based activities in his/her unit, and likely to act as an informal resource for colleagues; collaborates with other entities of the Institute as required;
- Follows internal procedures to ensure high standards of performance and compliance with Institutional guidelines;
- Acts in accordance with International IDEA’s Core Values: Respect, Integrity and Professionalism;
- Integrates a gender and diversity perspective in all activities.

**Reporting line**:

- Head of Finance and Operations

**Education and Experience**:

- University degree in accounting, financial management, business management or equivalent;
- A minimum of three (3) years of professional experience working in a bookkeeping, accounting, audit or financial management capacity, ideally for a development organization, NGO, or accounting/ financial services firm; Fu