Summary

• The Finance Associate is a new position that will provide essential support for the growing finance team at Namati Kenya. We’re looking for someone who shows initiative and can be resourceful in collaborating with both finance and program team members to find answers to day-to-day finance and operational questions.
• Exceptionally organized, motivated, and attentive to detail, the Finance Associate will work closely with the Kenya Finance/Operations team to support the smooth functioning of Namati Kenya’s financial systems, as well as optimize the broader office environment to ensure our entire staff can do their work with as little extra stress and complexity as possible.

Responsibilities

The Finance Associate will report to the Finance Manager and be responsible for the following:

Finance

• Support the payment process by printing payment documents and submitting them for review and approval, as well as initiating bank and check payments.
• Download bank confirmations and attach them to expense forms through the merging of soft-copy files.
• Manage both electronic and hard-copy filing systems, ensuring that every expense has accurate and documented approval, proof of payment (i.e., receipt or bank confirmation), and a unique expense form number.
• Serve as petty cash custodian, including maintaining the petty cash register & preparing expense forms for payments.
• Support program teams on finance-related needs by attending monthly program/finance check-in meetings and handling follow-ups as assigned.

 Office Administration

• Ensure the office is productive, safe, maintained, and well-supplied for the Kenya team.
• Assist in the supervision of office maintenance and renovations including hygiene, lighting, and liaising with vendors for upgrades and repairs, as requested.
• Maintain office supplies, including purchasing, issuing, and monitoring stock.
• Support team members in booking meeting rooms within the office.
• Ensure monthly utility bills are paid.
• Manage the Namati Kenya email inbox, responding to emails timely and in accordance with Namati’s public communication standards.
• Collect and distribute postal mail delivered to the office.

Here’s what you might have tackled last week-

• Transferred the previous week’s facility payment files from Namati’s electronic document management system into Google Drive, including merging with bank confirmations and updating file names for easy search.
• Liaised with CLEJ program team members on travel documentation, ensuring that needed purchases were made and that boarding passes were filed in our documentation systems.
• Collected participant lists from a recent event from the Citizenship program and verified that the list was fully signed and matched with invoices.
• Worked with other Namati administrative colleagues to revamp our office-wide system for reserving the large conference room, streamlining the process for the team.
• Reviewed documentation for all petty cash expenses in the month, and prepared a petty cash replenishment request.
• Met with two potential vendors to discuss a needed kitchen repair, ensuring that each vendor had the information they needed to prepare accurate quotations for service.

About You

This role is a junior-level role, ideal for someone with some experience in finance and administration who is looking to expand their skills with a globally impactful nonprofit. Given the nature of the work, we’re looking for someone who knows how to handle and protect the sensitive information held in this role.

Must Haves

• Track record in finance: You hold a bachelor’s degree in accounting, finance, business administration, or any other business-related program, with demonstrable experience (at least one year) in this work.
• Exceptionally organized, self-driven, and attentive to detail: You’re hyper-organized and you obsess about the details (in a healthy way). You take pleasure in being self-driven, letting no ball drop as you deftly juggle multiple projects and tasks in a fast-paced environment.
• Commitment to excellence: It’s in your nature to work tirelessly on a problem and find a great solution. You genuinely enjoy finance and administration: you see clearly how the administrative work of this role ties to the legal empowerment work our on-the-ground staff do every day and are happy to take on any task without complaint to make their lives easier and serve your community better.
• Nimble, creative, problem-solving: Although careful planning and execution define your work, you are positive and graceful when unexpected challenges arise. You quickly reorient and identify the best new course of action.
• Growth-oriented: You’re always seeking to better yourself and your work, and you will push yourself to the peak of performance to help fulfill our mission. In service of that growth, you welcome and delight in feedback from supervisors, peers, and anyone else.

Nice-to-haves

• Knowledge/ experience of the NGO (non-governmental organization, or nonprofit) context and work environment
• Competent in the use of technology like databases and Google Drive, and with accounting software.
• Any professional certification, e.g., CPA, CFA, CIFA.