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

This team delivers a scalable finance operating model (hub and spoke model) that is focused on delivering transactional services at scale – supported by local delivery teams to meet individual customer needs.

Our team delivers across three key areas:

• Embedded roles – these staff act as business partners and are responsible for all finance matters for their relevant clients. The service is flexible to clients’ needs.
• At-scale services – specialised centres of excellence in purchase to pay (P2P), Order to Cash (O2C), and Invoice processing for individual patient activity/continuing healthcare (IPA/CHC) and non-contract activity (NCA) items
• A hybrid of the above

Our customers are based in Lancashire, Staffordshire, Shropshire, Telford, Herefordshire, Leicestershire, Devon & Worcestershire. We also provide services to NHS England.

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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 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.

Leicester finance team who operate a hybrid operating model

• 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.

Embedded finance key responsibilities

• Monthly and quarterly reporting to NHS England
• Agreements of balances with other NHS Organisations
• Manage the clients’ ICB cash position
• Month 9 accounts at the end of December and the annual report and accounts as at March each year
• Programme budgeting
• Financial contract monitoring
• Financial management of some areas of spend including acute and non-acute contracts, prescribing, GPIT and other corporate cost centres.