Customer finance

Home » Our expertise » Customer finance

person at laptop

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: Financial services

View all

News and views

News

Registration open for NHS-R Community annual conference 

We are incredibly excited to announce that ticket registration for NHS-R/NHS.pycom Open-Source Conference (RPySOC) 2024 is open! The…

News

NHS ML secures place on Transforming Organisations, Partnerships and Systems Framework

NHS Midlands and Lancashire (ML) has been successful in its bid for an important national procurement framework. The Transforming…

News

New podcast: Lessons from the Clive Treacey Review

In this three-segment podcast sequence, part of our Inside MLCSU series, we discuss the lessons learnt from the…

View all

How we can help health systems

Developing health systems

Acting as an independent and trusted partner within the system to facilitate working across stakeholders and integrate elements of the provider system…

Learn more about Developing health systems
Developing health systems

Workforce resilience and transformation

Supporting systems to build a sustainable and integrated workforce, transforming systems, organisations and the workforce experience to improve resilience.

Learn more about Workforce resilience and transformation
Workforce resilience and transformation

Communications and engagement

Supporting ICSs with approaches to design and deliver effective communication, engagement and behavioural insights as a key enabler for system change and…

Learn more about Communications and engagement
Communications and engagement

Digitally enabled transformation and IT

Digitising care and partnering with systems for the transformation of digitally enabled service delivery (and other supporting processes) across vision, planning and…

Learn more about Digitally enabled transformation and IT
Digitally enabled transformation and IT

PHM analytics and decision support

Applying intelligence-led understanding of the health of the population to support the redesign of care and improve patient and financial outcomes across…

Learn more about PHM analytics and decision support
PHM analytics and decision support

Place and primary care transformation

Supporting providers to work together at a place and neighbourhood level to manage common resources, integrate community teams, improve health and reduce…

Learn more about Place and primary care transformation
Place and primary care transformation

Clinical redesign and provider collaboration

Redesigning how health and care works across England - placing people at the centre of their own health and care and utilising…

Learn more about Clinical redesign and provider collaboration
Clinical redesign and provider collaboration

Personalised healthcare commissioning services

Providing end-to-end funded care services, including patients as active partners in identifying their healthcare needs and then commissioning care to meet these.…

Learn more about Personalised healthcare commissioning services
Personalised healthcare commissioning services

Business enabling services

Delivering a wide range of support functions through transactional services, business partnering and transformation that drives efficiencies and releases value and time…

Learn more about Business enabling services
Business enabling services
mlcsu

Accessibility Tools