Accounts Specialist, Statutory Reporting Unit, Finance Branch, Division for Management Services (DMS)

The Accounts Specialist supports UNFPA compliance with IPSAS, coordinates accounts closure and preparation of financial statements, supports implementation of new financial systems and tools, and contributes to building financial management capacity across UNFPA business units.

Responsibilities

• Develop new and/or update accounting policies, procedures and guidance documents to ensure ongoing compliance with IPSAS, including new or revised standards and related operational guidance; perform research and analysis to determine appropriate IPSAS-compliant financial disclosures associated with any accounting policy changes.
• Support the implementation of new or revised accounting standards and contribute to sustaining compliance with standards already implemented, including through validation, reconciliation, exception review, data-quality checks and other quality assurance exercises.
• Serve as a lead for selected specialized accounting areas including inventory, employee benefits, intangible asset accounting, leases, etc., including periodic account reconciliations, valuation and aging; data collection and validation; oversight over transactions originated by different business units and initiation of corrections, including quarterly or periodic accounting entries and reconciliations where applicable.
• Develop and implement second line of defense controls in selected areas, including management of programme supplies, leases, employee benefits, account mapping and other high-risk reporting areas under SRU purview; monitor compliance with the corporate policies; identify and enquire about potentially exceptional transactions and balances and support implementation of corrective actions.
• Coordinate accounts closure activities, including drafting closing instructions, scheduling and tracking closure activities, and developing and implementing remedial actions in case of delays or unforeseen events.
• Coordinate and participate in the preparation of UNFPA’s financial statements; ensure all statements, notes and schedules are accurate, adequately supported, internally consistent, reconciled to source data and maintained with appropriate version control.
• Provide guidance/support to and oversight over inputs of other business units to financial statements to ensure accuracy and completeness.
• Liaise with external and internal auditors and respond to their queries and recommendations; prepare responses to audit observations, organize supporting evidence and contribute to audit recommendation tracking.
• Implement quality assurance activities over information included in the financial statements, statutory reports and related reporting outputs before, during and after the closure of accounts, including periodic enquiry of high risk areas/transactions, follow-up on lessons learnt, support of business units in clean-up activities and developing measures for minimizing user errors.
• Prepare other statutory and external reports such as the statistical and financial review report for the Executive Board and financial section of the UNFPA annual report, as well as assigned governance and oversight reporting inputs such as Oversight and Advisory Committee materials.
• Develop, produce and improve financial management performance monitoring reports in select areas, highlighting main financial results and trends, and reporting on risks, potentially exceptional transactions, compliance deviations and efficiency improvement areas; formulate recommendations for management action, including through ERP, Power BI or other approved reporting tools.
• Serve as a key business process expert supporting implementation, enhancement and testing of ERP system features and related reporting tools, especially as they relate to maintaining IPSAS compliance; participate in business process design, development of detailed specifications, development of system prototypes, data conversion or migration, user acceptance testing, user training and other related activities.
• Participate in design, development, testing and implementation of system-generated statutory and financial performance monitoring reports, including validation of report outputs, mapping logic, data integrity and follow-up of defects with relevant technical teams.
• Continuously review and improve existing business processes to increase automation, build efficiencies, address risks, and integrate lessons learnt and best practices, while preserving auditability, traceability and reporting quality.
• Provide support, guidance and training to users in business units on financial management matters related to accounts closure, financial systems and processes, management of programme supplies and financial performance results.
• Perform other duties as required by the Supervisor or UNFPA leadership.

Requirements

• Advanced university degree in accounting / financial reporting or related discipline.
• A recognized professional accounting designation (CPA, CA), together with a bachelor's degree, will be deemed equivalent to a master’s level degree for this position.
• Minimum 5 years of experience in accounting / financial reporting.
• Demonstrated experience in preparation of financial statements, financial data analysis and account reconciliations.
• Sound understanding of IPSAS or IFRS.
• Experience with financial modules of ERP systems, preferably Oracle-based product/s.
• Experience in ERP system improvement, including translating business requirements into systems specifications, testing system-generated reports, supporting user acceptance testing and validating data or mapping outputs.
• Strong analytical and problem-solving skills.
• Strong engagement, presentation and writing skills.
• Experience in drafting accounting policies, guidance documents or technical accounting analyses is a significant advantage.
• Fluency in English is required; knowledge of other official UN languages, preferably French and/or Spanish, is desirable.

Skills

• Financial Reporting
• Accounting
• Financial Statement Preparation
• Account Reconciliation
• IPSAS
• IFRS
• ERP Systems
• Oracle ERP
• ERP System Improvement
• Business Requirements Analysis
• User Acceptance Testing
• Data Validation
• Financial Data Analysis
• Accounting Policies Drafting
• Technical Accounting Analysis
• Presentation Skills
• Report Writing

Languages

English, French, Spanish