Rent Accounting Officer - Scunthorpe, United Kingdom - Ongo Recruitment Ltd

Description

Job Title: Rent Accounting Officer

Fixed Term Contract to 31 March 2025

Working one day per week (Monday)

Salary £31057 pro rata

Overall Purpose of Job

To contribute to ensure the smooth and efficient running of the rent debit and maintaining rent accounts on QL.

Main Responsibilities

• Accurate recording and processing of the various types of rent payments, along with other receipts to the organisation
• Banking and reconciling of cash and cheque payments received at Ongo House along with other income received into the organisation
• Setting up and calculating new Direct Debits and amendments to existing Direct Debits
• Processing various types of adjustments and refunds onto rent accounts
• To undertake appropriate investigative work and take steps to rectify issues with missing payments
• Auditing of rent accounts
• Reconciling of various suspense accounts
• Ensuring the correct running of the rent debit
• To identify and add the correct property service charges
• To deal with enquires from tenants and liaise with internal staff members/teams
• Reviewing of prepaid credits on a quarterly basis
• To make effective and proper use of Ongo Homes ICT systems in accordance with the duties of the post
• To undertake a full and active role in the implementation of own personal development and participate in the training and development of colleagues
• Any other duties commensurate with the role's level of responsibility

Creativity & Innovation

• Contributing to the review and development of policies and procedures in response to changing legislation and other requirements
• Maintaining and improving Ongo Homes reporting processes
• Interpreting accounting rules and legislation to ensure the most favourable outcome for Ongo Homes
• Ability to communicate difficult decisions in a caring and constructive way

Contacts & Relationships

• Rent Accounting and Accounts Team Manager: regular contact in respect of all work issues as appropriate
• Management Accounts Team: regular contact in respect of bank reconciliations
• Accounts Payable Team: regular contact for arranging rent refunds and queries regarding payments made
• Income Collection Team: regular contact on a wide range of issues
• Other Departments at Ongo: regular contact on a wide range of issues
• Internal & external auditors: contact 2-3 times per year on payments, processes, rent debit and related issues
• Local Authorities & other Housing Associations: regular contact in relation to a wide range of issues
• External agencies, solicitors, Allpay and other external companies: regular contact in relation to a wide range of issues

Decision Making - Discretion

• Prioritise workloads to meet demand and performance targets
• Contribute to the development of processes in the team
• Ensure that decisions taken are within the service areas and reflect both corporate and service specific aims
• To contribute to the development of Ongo Homes wider processes
• Identifies information needed to make decisions
• Cash/Cheque payments received are banked into the correct Ongo Company bank account to ensure additional work and costs to correct any errors are avoided
• Selecting the correct Ongo Company bank account when giving out bank details to internal and external people
• Auditing of accounts to calculate rent refunds that are due back to tenants
• Calculating amounts required on new Direct Debits and amendments to existing Direct Debit payments, taking into account any arrears or additional charges that are due
• Decisions taken on accounts with recurring Direct Debit rejections
• Preparing and reviewing rent debit reconciliations and taking action to correct any errors found if deemed necessary
• Able to make objective impartial decisions
• Able to make decisions under pressure

Decision Making - Consequences

• Payments not processed timely or correctly will have a big impact on performance in the team and other teams – e.g. Income Collection Team. This also affects tenant accounts not being accurate
• Advise the Rent Accounting and Accounts Team Manager on actions you have taken to prevent problems arising with service provision and performance
• Ensuring payment and adjustments batches are complete as if not this will stop the weekly rent debit from running which then impacts the other teams and tenants
• Accuracy when dealing with customer bank account numbers – e.g. when setting up Direct Debits, arranging to refund credits back to a tenant or taking payments over the phone - if the wrong details are used this will result in bounced payments or payments taken from an incorrect account.
• Ensuring letters are sent to the correct address to avoid any breaches of data protection

Responsibility for Resources

• Responsible for office based and portable assets used by self, including laptops, printers, desks, etc.
• Responsible for the safekeeping of cheques
• Responsible for taking cash/cheques.
• Access to the Safe room and safe, which could have up to £4000 in cash at times

Work Demands

• Balancing conflicting priorities and meeting deadlines
• There are many deadlines within the Team, which could be weekly, monthly, quarterly and annual. These deadlines have to be met; otherwise this would have serious implications on the business.
• There is a need to manage and respond to conflicting demands, requiring prioritisation, sometimes between different services.
• Key deadlines that would have high impacts on tenants and the business are:
• Directs Debits – especially around annual changes
• Annual changes to Rents

Physical Demands

• Involves deskbound work, and significant ICT equipment use

Working Conditions

• The job is based at Ongo Head office but the company does embrace agile working. Flexibility around hours of work is required for the role, especially around deadlines. Visit to and working from other Ongo locations (both office and site) may be required

Work Context

• Potential risks relate to health, from the continual use of vdus and keyboards, the deskbound nature of the job (RSI, backache, eyesight problems, etc) and the potential for stress relating to conflicting deadlines and priorities

Knowledge, Skill & Experience Required

• Experience of working in the public sector, preferably in a housing related field.
• Understanding of Housing Benefit and Welfare Benefits.
• Experience and understanding of the Direct Debit rules and regulations
• Cash handling experience
• Good interpersonal and negotiation skills
• Ability to work flexibly
• Ability to communicate effectively, at all levels, both orally and in writing
• Able to act in an advocacy role and signpost tenants where necessary
• An awareness of the corporate implications of actions by individual services
• Computer literate, including experience with housing rents systems, word processing and excel spreadsheets
• To be able to solve problem accounts and make decisions
• Good team playing with the ability to use own initiative to work with minimal guidance
• Ability to prioritise own work and to work accurately under pressure to meet conflicting deadlines
• Good numerical skills

Health & Safety

• To be aware of risks to personal safety, other employees, customers, company property and company reputation and to highlight such risks to managers immediately.
• To deal with customers on the phone and face to face, which will include occasional aggressive customers
• To work within the company's H&S policies, procedures and risk assessments

Environment and Sustainability

• To ensure the environment and sustainability policies are understood by the post holder
• To promote the importance of considering the environment and sustainability in the role
• To treat the environment with respect and commit to ensuring all services/activities that are provided in this role have taken the impact on the environment into consideration/action plans

Equality & Diversity

• To promote equality and diversity amongst our stakeholders, residents, customers, clients, staff, board and committee members and all those we work with.
• To ensure all customers' needs are understood and all services that are provided meet individual needs, including in relation to the protected characteristics and customers with additional support needs.
• To treat everyone with dignity and respect at all times.

CLOSING DATE FOR APPLICATIONS - MONDAY 13 MAY 2024

INTERVIEWS TO BE HELD WEEK COMMENCING MONDAY 20 MAY 2024