Grade VI – HBS General Accounting
Job Specification & Terms and Conditions
Job Title and Grade
Grace VI – Health Business Services (HBS) General Accounting
(Grade Code 0574)
Campaign Reference
Closing Date
NRS02874
Monday 21st September 2015 @ 12 noon
Proposed Interview
Date (s)
Taking up
Appointment
Organisational Area
October 2015
Location of Post
Health Business Services Finance
Block D
Parkgate Business Park
Parkgate Street
Dublin 8
A start date will be indicated at job offer stage.
Health Business Services (HBS)
Contact for informal enquiries:
6352890, barry.white@hse.ie
Barry White, Financial Accountant, HBS Finance, 01
A panel may be created from which current and future permanent and specified purpose
vacancies of full time or part time duration may be filled.
Details of Service
The HBS Division carries full operational accountability and responsibility for the delivery of
a large range of support functions to the health system with the core objective of delivering
these services efficiently and of a high standard thus allowing frontline services to focus on
patient care delivery.
The aim of HBS Finance is to deliver a customer-focused finance shared service to
support frontline health service delivery in line with the HBS Strategy 2014-2016. The six
main functions within HBS Finance are Income Reporting, Financial Reporting, General
Accounting, Payment Services, Payroll Operations and Business Support Unit.
The following key objectives of HBS finance are to deliver:
 The optimum in cost effective, high quality services
 Demonstrate improvement in quality and timeliness of financial information with a
customer focus
 Drive centralised, standardised and consistent processes which are cost efficient and
compliant with policies/legislation/National Financial Regulations.
 Delivering economies of scale
 Freeing capacity to support front-line clinical activities
HBS - General Accounting
Scope of Services
General Accounting is responsible for the provision of financial support for the following
key services listed below on behalf of our Health Service Executive (HSE) Customers
including subsumed Agencies and from 1st January 2014 General Accounting are
processing transactions on behalf of Children & Family Agency (CFA).
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Capital and Asset Accounting
All Capital related processes are transacted through HBS in Dublin and Limerick on behalf
of Corporate Capital Section. HBS is responsible for:
 Preparation of weekly Form A’s and submits same on the Capital Management
System to facilitate the drawdown of capital cash from the Paymaster General.
 Creation of all Internal Orders which are used for a variety of purposes including
holding the project budget, payment to vendors and tracking of Expenditure and
Income.
 Asset Accounting - reconciling capital and asset expenditure
 Preparation of all relevant notes to support the Annual Financial Statements.
Bank Control
This section is responsible for the preparation of bank reconciliations and bank query
resolutions for Payroll, Board Lodgements and Accounts Payable Bank Accounts on behalf
of Corporate Finance Customers. Bank files are uploaded on a fortnightly basis to SAP.
Receipting
On behalf of Corporate Services this Section ensures that all receipt information from
receipting locations reflected in individual summary sheets in the Eastern Region is
recorded correctly and reconciled to bank lodgements reflected in the individual cash
control reconciliations on SAP.
Financial Accounting and Accounts Receivable
On behalf of Corporate Services this section is responsible for:
 Processing of all journals
 Reconciliation of Income control accounts in respect of patient income
 Reconciliation of patient debtors between PAS and SAP
 Preparation of debtor notes for the Annual Financial Statements and the
calculation of the patient bad debt provision.
 Accounts Receivable section within Financial Accounting is responsible for the
raising, receipting and debt collection of secondment income and other accounts
receivable requests for all the former Eastern Region.
Systems Accounting
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Provides SAP technical support to approx 1500 SAP Users
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Loading of CRS BW I/E, VOTE, ICT/Capital & Fair Deal cubes for HSE Board
reporting
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Authorisations, profile maintenance SAP Financials
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FI/ CO workflow maintenance, advanced level support for the FI/CO module, roll
out of additional FI/ CO functionality to operational areas
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SAP Configuration
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Master data maintenance
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Development and support for year-end financial statements reporting. This
sections plays a leading role in the production of the financial statements and
relevant notes to the Accounts for 7 Company Codes
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Report design and maintenance internal and external reports (monthly and yearend reports)
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SAP support for other ad-hoc SAP developments
Reporting
Relationship
Purpose of the Post
Reports directly to the Grade VII HBS General Accounting.
Principal Duties and
Responsibilities
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To support the delivery of all of our services to HBS customers and also assist in
development of additional services and expansion of customer base.
Production of reports to support management information
Recording and maintenance of asset information on Asset system
Support to Financial Accounting team in respect of Annual Financial Statements
preparation.
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Reconciliation of SAP General Ledger to customer bank accounts
Recording and maintenance of debtor Ledger
Ad hoc queries and reports (Line Item reports, Plan Actual reports, etc.) as required.
Support the HBS Customer Relationship Model (CRM) and ongoing development.
Identification and forwarding of any ICT related issue to Systems Accounting and
liaison if necessary with outside support providers.
Ensure all Financial Regulations and procedures are complied with in the course of
duties performed.
Ensure line management is kept informed of issues.
Perform other duties as assigned and assist as required when other staff members
are on annual leave and supervision and training of staff as required.
Planning work to ensure deadlines are met.
Ongoing knowledge update.
The Job Specification is not intended to be a comprehensive list of all duties
involved and consequently the post holder may be required to perform other duties
as appropriate to the post which may be assigned to him/her from time to time and
to contribute to the development of the post while in office.
Eligibility Criteria
Only existing staff of the HSE, TUSLA and other statutory health agencies and
bodies which provide services on behalf of the HSE under Section 38 of the Health
Act 2004 are eligible to apply.
Qualifications and/ or
experience
Applicants must demonstrate significant experience of
a) working collaboratively with multiple senior internal and external stakeholders,
as relevant to this role
b) regular monthly processing and reporting
c) the achievement of monthly and yearly deadlines with multiple stakeholders
d) data analysis and preparation of reconciliations and reports within strict and
tight timelines
e) SAP Financial systems
Health
A candidate for and any person holding the office must be fully competent and capable of
undertaking the duties attached to the office and be in a state of health such as would
indicate a reasonable prospect of ability to render regular and efficient service.
Character
Each candidate for and any person holding the office must be of good character.
Age
Age restrictions shall only apply to a candidate where he/she is not classified as a new
entrant (within the meaning of the Public Service Superannuation Act, 2004). A candidate
who is not classified as a new entrant must be under 65 years of age on the first day of the
month in which the latest date for receiving completed application forms for the office
occurs.
Post Specific
Requirements
Skills, competencies
and/or knowledge
Candidates must demonstrate:
Professional Knowledge
 a clear understanding of general accounting activities and core concepts of
accounting entries, general ledger functionality , bank reconciliation, variances,
budgets, periods, cost centres, company codes etc
 strong expertise in Microsoft Office suite, particularly in Excel
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eEvidence of high level of skill in analytical review and analysis
knowledge of the Irish Health system and structures
an understanding of HBS strategy
good Information Technology skills, Word, Excel, e-mail
Communications and Interpersonal Skills
 excellent interpersonal skills
 excellent verbal and written communication skills
 an ability to interact in a professional manner with other staff
Team working
 a commitment to deliver a high quality, customer centred service to prescribed
deadlines as part of a small team
 the ability to work independently as well as within a small team in a complex and
changing environment
 flexibility, adaptability and the ability to support, supervise and develop team
members
Organisational/Planning Skills
 an ability to plan and execute workload from multiple customers and problem
solving skills
 experience in meeting and managing challenging deadlines and effectively
handling multiple tasks.
Competition Specific
Selection Process
Ranking/Shortlisting /
Interview
A ranking and or shortlisting exercise may be carried out on the basis of information
supplied in your application form. The criteria for ranking and or shortlisting are based on
the requirements of the post as outlined in the eligibility criteria and skills, competencies
and/or knowledge section of this job specification. Therefore it is very important that you
think about your experience in light of those requirements.
Failure to include information regarding these requirements may result in you not being
called forward to the next stage of the selection process.
Those successful at the ranking stage of this process (where applied) will be placed on an
order of merit and will be called to interview in ‘bands’ depending on the service needs of
the organisation.
Code of Practice
The Health Service Executive will run this campaign in compliance with the Code of
Practice prepared by the Commission for Public Service Appointments (CPSA). The Code
of Practice sets out how the core principles of probity, merit, equity and fairness might be
applied on a principle basis. The Code also specifies the responsibilities placed on
candidates, facilities for feedback to applicants on matters relating to their application
when requested, and outlines procedures in relation to requests for a review of the
recruitment and selection process and review in relation to allegations of a breach of the
Code of Practice. Additional information on the HSE’s review process is available in the
document posted with each vacancy entitled “Code of Practice, Information for
Candidates”.
Codes of practice are published by the CPSA and are available on
www.hse.ie/eng/staff/jobs in the document posted with each vacancy entitled “Code of
Practice, Information for Candidates” or on www.cpsa.ie.
The reform programme outlined for the Health Services may impact on this role and as structures change the job
description may be reviewed.
This job description is a guide to the general range of duties assigned to the post holder. It is intended to be neither
definitive nor restrictive and is subject to periodic review with the employee concerned.
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Tenure
Grade VI - General Accounting
Terms and Conditions of Employment
The current vacancies available are permanent and whole time.
The post is pensionable. A panel may be created from which permanent and specified
purpose vacancies of full or part time duration may be filled. The tenure of these posts
will be indicated at “expression of interest” stage.
Appointment as an employee of the Health Service Executive is governed by the
Health Act 2004 and the Public Service Management (Recruitment and Appointment)
Act 2004.
Remuneration
The salary scale for the post (as at 01/01/2010) is :44,849 - 45,954 - 47,291 - 49,795 - 51,295 - 53,157 - 55,032 LSIs
Working Week
The standard working week applying to the post is 37 hours per week
HSE Circular 003-2009 “Matching Working Patterns to Service Needs (Extended
Working Day / Week Arrangements); Framework for Implementation of Clause 30.4
of Towards 2016” applies. Under the terms of this circular, all new entrants and staff
appointed to promotional posts from Dec 16th 2008 will be required to work agreed
roster / on call arrangements as advised by their line manager. Contracted hours of
work are liable to change between the hours of 8am-8pm over seven days to meet
the requirements for extended day services in accordance with the terms of the
Framework Agreement (Implementation of Clause 30.4 of Towards 2016).
Annual Leave
The annual leave associated with the post is to be confirmed at Job Offer stage.
Superannuation
This is a pensionable position with the HSE. The successful candidate will upon
appointment become a member of the appropriate pension scheme. Pension
scheme membership will be notified within the contract of employment. Members of
pre-existing pension schemes who transferred to the HSE on the 01 st January 2005
pursuant to Section 60 of the Health Act 2004 are entitled to superannuation benefit
terms under the HSE Scheme which are no less favourable to those which they
were entitled to at 31st December 2004.
Probation
Every appointment of a person who is not already a permanent officer of the Health
Service Executive or of a Local Authority shall be subject to a probationary period of 12
months as stipulated in the Department of Health Circular No.10/71.
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