Customer finance team

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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.
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