The job
Do you enjoy turning numbers into decisions that shape humanitarian impact?
Are you someone who sees beyond spreadsheets using financial insight to help organisations make smarter, faster decisions?
The Finance & Budgeting Specialist is responsible for ACAPS' budgeting, forecasting, and financial performance analysis, ensuring high-quality financial planning, accurate budget management in the ERP (Deltek Maconomy), and providing strong financial support to programmes and management. You will contribute to proposal budgeting, donor and management reporting, and help strengthen financial governance in line with ACAPS and donor requirements.
Working closely with Finance unit, Grants, and Programme teams, you'll combine technical expertise with business partnering to strengthen decision-making across the organisation.
What you will do:
Ensure adherence with ACAPS policies, tools, handbooks and guidelines and donors’ regulations
•Maintain day-to-day budget control and monitoring over attributed budgets and grants, as well as contributing program to maintain control and ensure financial quality control of the ACAPS Master Budget
•Prepare and develop status reports as required by management
•Ensure proper filing of documents
•Promote and share ideas for improvement of the support function
Specific Responsibilities:
1.Budgeting, Forecasting & Financial Analysis•Initiate the project budgeting process in Maconomy by coordinating budget meetings with Project Managers, drafting budgets, and ensuring accuracy, completeness, and alignment with strategic priorities, prior to review and approval by the Finance Manager.
•Upload, manage, and revise budgets in Maconomy in coordination with program and finance stakeholders.
•Prepare and maintain solid budget vs. actual (BvA) analyses, identifying variances and providing clear explanations and recommendations.
•Coordinate and prepare forecasting and reforecasting processes, ensuring timely updates based on operational and financial developments.
•Provide analytical financial inputs to support decision-making by ACAPS management.
•Support the Budget Holder in financial discussions with donors, including negotiations on grant financial requirements, and other modifications.
2.Proposal Budgeting & Project Setup
•Provide technical input and review for proposal budgets, ensuring compliance with ACAPS and donor rules.
•Support project and cost structure setup in financial systems, ensuring correct coding and alignment with approved budgets.
•Advise program teams on cost eligibility, budget structure, and financial assumptions during proposal development.
3.Reporting
•Contribute to donor financial reporting by drafting the reports, reviewing figures, consistency, and compliance with approved budgets.
•Support management financial reporting through analysis, dashboards, and explanatory notes as required.
4.Financial Strategy, Governance & Compliance
•Stay informed of ACAPS financial strategies, policies, and governance frameworks.
•Contribute inputs, when requested, on donor compliance interpretation and internal control discussions.
•Support audit processes by providing information and clarification as needed.
•Support in the preparation for financial donor audits, ensuring compliance with ACAPS, donor rules and regulations, and auditor requirements throughout the project lifetime.
5.Accounting & Month-End Processes
•Review and reconcile balance sheet accounts on a monthly basis, including advances, accruals, prepayments, payables, receivables, and other control accounts.
•Check that expenses are booked accurately, completely, and in a timely manner to the correct project, donor, budget line, and account code.
•Review supporting documentation to ensure transactions are properly justified, approved, and compliant with internal procedures and donor requirements.
•Reconcile project expenditures against budgets and accounting records to ensure consistency between financial reports, transaction lists, and system data.
•Support the review of staff allocations, shared costs, and other recurring monthly charges to ensure proper allocation across projects.
•Prepare and post correcting journal entries, including reallocations, reclassifications, accruals, reversals, and other adjustment entries as required.
•Maintain proper documentation and audit trails for journal entries, reconciliations, corrections, and month-end adjustments.
•Contribute to improving month-end processes by identifying recurring errors and proposing practical solutions to strengthen accuracy and efficiency.
•Provide backup support for Finance Officers during absences, ensuring continuity of key accounting tasks such as transaction reviews, payment processing support, journal entries, reconciliations, and month-end closing activities.
Your profile
Professional Competencies
- Demonstrated experience in budgeting, forecasting, and financial analysis, preferably within a humanitarian or international NGO environment.
- Strong understanding of donor regulations and proposal budgeting principles.
- Advanced proficiency in ERP systems and Microsoft Excel, including pivot tables.
- Excellent analytical skills, with the ability to translate financial data into clear, actionable insights for management.
- High attention to detail, with the ability to manage competing priorities and meet tight deadlines.
- Knowledge of donor regulations and compliance requirements, including ECHO, FCDO, GAC, SDC, UNICEF, and UNFPA.
Education & Experience
- University degree in Finance, Accounting, Economics, or a related field.
- Minimum of 5 years' relevant experience in finance and budgeting, preferably within an NGO or international organisation.
Languages
- Fluency in written and spoken English is required. Additional languages are an asset.
Why us?
You will be part of an organisation with a strong global outlook, where finance plays a strategic role in driving sustainable impact. We offer a competitive rewards package, including comprehensive medical cover, Group Life Assurance, pension, 10% cost of living adjustment, 25% Leave allowance paid in December, and a communication allowance. With flexible working arrangements and a culture built on trust and professionalism, we create an environment where high performance and personal wellbeing go hand in hand.
How to apply
Interested candidates should submit their application via the appropriate channel. Applications will be reviewed on a rolling basis, early applications are strongly encouraged.
About us
ACAPS believes that evidence must be at the heart of humanitarian action and together with our partners we turn data into decisions that truly matter. We cut through the noise and make sense out of chaos. We analyse complex data and provide clear insights so that decision-makers can take the best possible course of action.
We do this by:
- Providing independent analysis that helps humanitarians make informed choices.
- Deploying experts to support assessments and analysis in crisis.
- Driving innovation to collect better, faster, and more reliable data.
We have embarked on a new exciting chapter building up our independent organisation. That’s why we’re looking for builders, problem-solvers, and innovators, people who thrive on challenges, love creating structures out of complexity, and are excited to be part of something new and impactful.
If that sounds like you, we’d love to have you on this journey!
