Trainee accountant jobs in st albans, hertfordshire

Role: Finance & CRM Administrator

Reporting to: Financial Controller, with a dotted line to the Directors/Fundraising team

Purpose of job: To work with the Finance and Fundraising teams to provide excellent finance, CRM & other systems administration. This will support income generation, research, data capture and information security throughout the Museum. Responsibilities include maintaining financial records, managing and maintaining a CRM database of contacts, supporting other digital systems, and some general administrative duties including IT support.

Working pattern: 35 hours per week, usually worked from 10 – 6pm. Flexible/hybrid working offered for up 40% of hours to be worked from home.

Contract: Permanent

Salary: £28,000-£30,000pa depending on experience

Who we are looking for

Are you fascinated by data with an excellent grasp on finance, IT and digital systems? Are you interested in the role financial, CRM & other digital systems play in how arts organisations and cultural projects are managed? Are you looking to take the next step in your arts finance, administration or fundraising career?

The Foundling Museum is transforming how digital systems underpin the foundations of this small but mighty Museum and charity. The position of Finance & CRM Administrator sits at the heart of this continued transition, following the successful implementation and migration to Shopify, Xero & Beacon CRM which began in 2023.

This new role is essential to the success of the Finance & Fundraising teams, in providing effective finance and CRM administration support. The Finance and CRM Administrator will support income generation activities including fundraising and venue hire, as well as playing a vital role in keeping the Museum’s accounting systems working effectively.

This includes processing all types of financial transactions on Xero and maintaining records on Beacon. You will work as a key part of both teams supporting the Museum’s strategy through the provision of high quality financial & other data, and the maintenance of the underlying systems.

This is an exciting opportunity for a highly organised individual with strong financial skills, an attention to detail, and a flair for collaborative working and information management. You will be looking to expand your skillset and make a tangible impact on our work,

through the effective use & development of the main systems underpining our financial strategy & income generation.

Key objectives

· Supporting the Finance team with accurate & timely processing & reconciling of all types of Museum transactions & ledgers including sales, purchases, banking & cash.

· Continue ongoing migration of supporter and customer data to Beacon CRM, working with all teams

· Support all staff with SharePoint migration project ensuring effective record management

· Continue seeking opportunities to improve the use of our digital systems to increase organisational efficiencies & income generation

Key responsibilities

Finance

· Raise sales invoices

· Process credit card transactions

· Credit control & reconciliation of the sales ledger

· Financial management of shop takings

· Process bank & cash transactions

· Bank reconciliations

· Produce financial reports & other ad hoc duties as required by the Financial Controller

· Gift Aid Claims support

· Training in and promoting use of XERO to staff

CRM Administration

· Maintain and update Beacon with all fundraising transactions including applications, prospects, & funding receipts

· Process donations, pledges and ticket payments from individuals, organisations, trusts and foundations

· Day-to-day administration of the Museum’s Friends & other membership schemes

· Maintain up-to-date and accurate records of contacts ensuring that strict confidentiality and GDPR legislation and guidance is adhered to

· Monitor data quality by regularly creating and executing processes to cleanse and standardise data in the CRM

· Lead on development of improving existing CRM systems within Beacon CRM

· Assist in data capture and gathering to support fundraising compliance & applications

· Training in and promoting use of CRM to staff including building reports.

Admin support

· Basic IT support working with outsourced IT contractors and the Operations team

· Manage the ordering of office items

· Facilitate the use, internal awareness and confidence with digital systems, creating and managing logins

· Supporting the Director’s Office Project Manager with governance & meetings

Other

· To perform any other tasks as reasonably requested by the Directors, Financial

Controller and Fundraising team

Person specification

Essential

· Excellent financial, administration & analytical skills

· Experience of financial systems such as Xero, Sage or QuickBooks

· Good understanding and experience of Excel

· Excellent interpersonal skills and the ability to communicate effectively in writing, over the phone, and face-to-face with the Museum’s different stakeholders

· Solid experience working with not-for-profit databases, such as Beacon CRM

· The ability to also work independently and take initiative within a small team

· Proven, excellent organisational skills, with close attention to detail, the ability to multi-task and prioritise responsibilities

· Excellent IT skills including in depth knowledge of financial systems, CRM, Microsoft 365, SharePoint, and other cloud based digital systems

· An enjoyment of and willingness to engage with a wide variety of people and organisations

· Able to act with discretion and maintain professional confidentiality at all times

· Appreciation of and support for the aims, values and ethos of The Foundling Museum

Desirable

· An interest in and engagement with the work and ethos of the Museum

· An interest in and engagement with the arts, heritage and/or music

· Experience of working in a finance or fundraising environment

Benefits

· 25 days annual leave per year (pro rata) + bank holidays (pro rata)+ Birthday leave + Volunteering leave

· You will be eligible to join a group contributory pension scheme (3 months after your start date)

· Discount from the Foundling Museum Shop and local partner businesses

· Access to season ticket , rental deposit and cycle to work scheme loans (3 months from your start date)

· Free and discounted access to partner museums and galleries

· Free access to our fully funded Employee Assistance Programme for wellbeing – WISDOM

· Training support from our on line learning platform

Interview timetable :

Closing date: 5pm 17 Aug 2025

First interview date: Week commencing 25 August 2025 (NB interview will include a job related task)

Second interview date for shortlisted candidates: Week commencing 8 September 2025

How to apply:

To apply please use the link to our application portal where you will be asked to upload our standard application form.

The form will ask you for: details of relevant achievements in recent posts, as well as any relevant education and professional qualifications that are appropriate to the post; Details of your notice period and names of 2 referees, together with the capacity in which they have known you, and an indication of when in the process they can be contacted (please note we will not contact your referees without your express permission); Telephone numbers, which will be used with discretion.

Please also tell us what makes you a good fit for the role, for example,giving evidence of your ability to match the criteria outlined in the Person Specification.

PLEASE NOTE: the application portal will request a CV. This is not necessary and can be ignored. Where it requests a CV please only upload the completed Application form, and the optional Equal Opportunities form.

Please get in touch with us if you have any access requirements, for example if you would prefer to send your application via video.

About the Foundling Museum

‘A seaman, a composer and a painter, and the moving story of the charity they started 270 years ago. It is a recipe of art and care, which still looks after kids today. Coram, Handel, Hogarth, what’s not to love?’ - Grayson Perry CBE, Foundling Museum Trustee

The Foundling Museum tells the compelling story of Thomas Coram’s Hospital for foundlings, the UK’s first ever children’s charity, now named Coram, and its first public art gallery, now the Foundling Museum.

Inspired by three great 18th-century activists - Thomas Coram, William Hogarth and George Frideric Handel - our mission is to inspire change and transform lives through the power of the arts. We believe in creative action that brings past and present together, to stimulate imaginations and enrich lives.

Examples of our work include:

· Art projects which explore how our historic story of care still resonates today by addressing stigma and supporting mental health. We do this by working in a connected way, establishing collaborations with local health and community partners.

· ‘Tracing Our Tales’, our flagship training programme for care-experienced young people which was named Learning Programme of the Year at the 2022 Museums and Heritage Awards. Supported by our Learning Team, trainees learn art or creative writing skills in weekly sessions led by dynamic artists and poets, to build a creative portfolio.

· Exhibitions, collections and displays, ranging from tiny, touching identifying tokens left by mothers with their babies, to composer George Frideric Handel’s will. Around the Museum, you’ll find works of art by contemporary artists like Yinka Shonibare CBE RA, Tracey Emin and Michael Craig-Martin, as well as 18th-century artists William Hogarth, Thomas Gainsborough and Joshua Reynolds.