Finance Assistant

Job Title:

Finance Assistant – Department:
Finance, Michael Smith Laboratories, Faculty of Science.

At UBC, we believe that attracting and sustaining a diverse workforce is key to the successful pursuit of excellence in research, innovation, and learning for all faculty, staff and students. Our commitment to employment equity helps achieve inclusion and fairness, brings rich diversity to UBC as a workplace, and creates the necessary conditions for a rewarding career.

The Finance Assistant coordinates finance related activities in the Michael Smith Laboratories. This position is responsible for providing comprehensive financial and general administrative support to the department faculty, staff, and students. They will work in a team setting and will process complex financial documents including preparing, reviewing and initiating expense reports, expenditure and receivable transactions. They provide guidance on UBC and granting agency policies and ensure accurate application.

Strong interpersonal and customer service skills are required for problem resolution between researchers, vendors, university departments and other entities.

• Prepare and process complex financial documents related to accounts payable or revenue accounting, including accounting journals, expense reports, ISD transactions, PO requisitions and receipts, PO and non‑PO invoices, spend authorisations, reimbursements, travel claims, invoice preparation and cash receipts.
• Submit Workday requests as a delegate for credit card reconciliations, card profile updates, expense reimbursements, faculty relocation recoveries, and other finance tasks.
• Investigate and resolve errors and discrepancies in financial data for department faculty and staff, and refer complex problems to the Finance Manager.
• Interpret and maintain updated knowledge of UBC and grant agency policies, communicate them accurately and ensure they are correctly applied to all completed financial transactions.
• Reconcile, monitor, investigate and resolve errors and discrepancies on department working tags (programs, grants, gifts and projects) and UBC VISA Program; take corrective actions.
• Assess the accuracy of GST, PST and/or HST on invoices and self‑assess taxes.
• Respond to vendor and customer queries; follow up on cheque payments and wire transfers.
• Review funding availability on research grants and prepare internal summary spreadsheets with grant balances for faculty.
• Act as a finance subject‑matter expert in Workday; train staff, faculty and students on workflows.
• Create and update supplier profiles and work tags as necessary.
• Support university year‑end financial statement preparation by performing duties such as year‑end accruals.
• Provide input for department finance policies and procedures, draft routine correspondence or basic training material, and assist with training materials.
• Assist with file management and archiving of all accounting documentation required for audit and reference.
• Assist with document preparation for audits.
• Provide general administrative support on various document preparations for department staff or faculty.
• Update faculty CVs (UBC, Canadian Common CV, agency‑specified CVs); maintain publication and presentation listings.
• Cover for the department Receptionist during absences and process incoming and outgoing courier shipments, room booking requests, and respond to written and oral inquiries.
• Assist the Administrative Manager on special projects and help monitor the social environment to support staff team‑building activities.

This position requires considerable tact, discretion and initiative. High levels of security and confidentiality are required for all financial transactions, and accurate, substantiated data entry into Workday is mandatory. Interactions must be respectful, timely and supportive to avoid negative impact on department and university image.

The Finance Assistant reports to the Finance Manager. No supervisory responsibilities are assigned.

• High school graduation, plus a two‑year post‑secondary diploma in accounting, plus three years…