Customer finance

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The customer finance team delivers a comprehensive range of high-quality financial services.

Our team specialises in delivering a scalable finance operating model, placing emphasis on providing efficient and resilient transactional services at a large scale. However, with a comprehensive range of services including statutory accounts, management accounts and a variety of consultancy services including ledger implementation and re-configuration, plus providing temporary support as required, we strive to meet all your financial needs.

As an award-winning team, we are proud to hold ISO accreditation and have achieved FSD Level 3 in 2021. Our dedicated innovation and automation team ensures that our services not only maintain a high quality but are also cost-effective, keeping up with the evolving industry standards.

Our customers are located in Lancashire, Staffordshire, Shropshire, and Leicestershire. We also extend our services to a hospital trust in Staffordshire, multiple Primary Care sites, and several regions of NHS England.

What we do

The customer finance team’s key responsibilities are divided into the following key areas:

Purchase to pay (P2P)

  • Manage and undertake the invoice query process
  • Accurately record ICB performance against the Better Payment Practice Code (BPPC)
  • Review and submission of ICB VAT Returns
  • Submission of customer payment runs and manual payment requests
  • Undertake the quarterly Agreement of Balances exercise for Creditors, Expenditure and Creditors Accruals
  • Manage and maintain comprehensive records for service audit reporting
  • Develop internal KPIs to monitor P2P finance function and process performance
  • Generation of the outstanding invoice list
  • Actively contribute to a highly responsive Stakeholder and customer relationship management function
  • Ensuring effective internal control is maintained
  • Generation and maintenance of standard operating procedures and ensuring their adherence
  • Statement reconciliations
  • Ensure effective use of financial resources and people
  • Maintain the ‘no PO, no pay’ policy adopted by the CSU
  • ISFE user setup and amendments
  • Ensure effective internal controls are maintained
  • Liaise with HMRC for VAT inspections along with dealing with any issues promptly
  • The monitoring and action of various reports from the ledgers to ensure a smooth transition of invoices around the system and compliance with the Better Payment Practice Code (BPPC)
  • System access reports
  • ISFE user setup and amendments.

Order to Cash (O2C)

  • Receipt of daily cash books from SBS and production of cash tracking data.
  • Monthly review and reconciliation of ICB Control Accounts
  • Accounts receivable activities including cash allocation and receipting.
  • Credit control
  • Participate in the quarterly agreement of balances exercise for ICB customers
  • Upload of monthly pay feeds into the ledger and arrangement of statutory pay-overs
  • Manage and maintain comprehensive records for service audit reporting
  • Develop KPIs to monitor finance function and process performance
  • Ensuring effective internal control is maintained
  • Generation and maintenance of standard operating procedures and ensuring their adherence
  • Ensure effective use of financial resources and people
  • ISFE user setup and amendments.

Provider finance

  • Accounts receivable activities including cash allocation and receipting.
  • Apply agreed credit control actions
  • Manage and undertake the invoice payment and query process, recording performance against the Better Payment Practice Code (BPPC)
  • Review and submission of client VAT returns
  • Cash management including daily update of cash books, production of cash tracking data and processing payments via Bankline.
  • Monthly review and reconciliation of control accounts
  • Capital accounting
  • Agreement of balances exercise
  • Payroll reconciliations, including upload of monthly pay feeds into the ledger and arrangement of statutory pay-overs.

Funded care & CHC

  • Invoice processing function dealing with all continuing healthcare/individual patient activity invoices.
  • Use clinical systems to match invoices ensuring that they are paid in line with the patient package of care and within the Better Practice Payments Code (BPPC) target.
  • Ensure all information governance breaches on supplier invoices are logged and remedial action taken as necessary.
  • Work with suppliers and clinical teams to ensure that any arising queries are dealt with as quickly as possible, using ISFE system to keep accurate query notes.
  • Work with embedded accountants to ensure invoices are coded to the client’s requests.
  • Bi-monthly report on the outstanding invoices by value and volume.
  • Monthly reconciliation between the clinical system and the ledger.
  • Process and load monthly mandates to the client’s specific timetables.
  • Processing pupoc claims
  • Supplier reconciliation where necessary
  • Adhoc reporting
  • Link to ICB accountants on cash requirements
  • Work within a controlled environment for finance and comply with information governance rules.
  • Ensure invoices are processed in a timely manner to clients’ scheme of delegation
  • Provide monthly progress updates or ad hoc reporting
  • To ensure clients’ bills are within the timescales and to the client
  • Provide a named contact for each client and their suppliers
  • Provide progress reports on invoices in query
  • GP practice rent reviews for NHS England
  • Validation of medical examination fees from doctors
  • HC5 patient refunds.

Our finance teams can provide full financial accounting services including statutory accounts.

  • Purchase to pay (P2P) and order to cash (O2C) responsibilities as above
  • Agreements of balances (AoB) reconciliations, completion of the AoB toolkit
  • Support the client in managing their cash position
  • Annual accounts at month 9 and month 12
  • Produce reporting packs for clients on debtors, creditors, balance sheet reconciliations, and I&E report by working day 10 & 20.

Financial services

Safe, efficient, and high-quality financial services that are up-to-the-minute and comprehensive. Benefit from at-scale support from our Centres of Excellence.

Our team offers a full complement of financial accounting services. Find out more here:

Better Business Cases training

Our APMG-accredited Better Business Cases trainers are also available to review your business cases, advise on content and write your business cases for you. For more information, please visit the Better Business Cases training page.

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