Finance Assistant

Benefits

Additional Information

Staff - Union Job Category CUPE 2950 Job Profile CUPE 2950 Salaried - Financial Proc. Spec 4 (Gr5) Job Title Finance Assistant Department Finance | Michael Smith Laboratories | Faculty of Science Compensation Range $4,314.00 - $4,532.00 CAD Monthly Posting End Date June 21, 2026 Note: Applications will be accepted until 11:59 PM on the Posting End Date. Job End Date Ongoing 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. Job Summary 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. Provides guidance and information on various UBC and granting agency policies to faculty, staff, and researchers and ensures they are correctly applied. The Finance Assistant also requires strong interpersonal and customer service skills as it involves frequent problem resolution between researchers, vendors, University departments and/or other entities. The duties will vary from day to day and will involve a wide variety of tasks in the service to the department. When necessary, assists with general office duties as required in the department. Organizational Status The Michael Smith Laboratories is an interdisciplinary research unit that supports 25+ faculty members with joint-appointments spanning five UBC Faculties in 16 academic departments. Influential research is carried out in the areas of human health and disease, bioengineering, plant biology and genomics, computational biology, and science education. Faculty have research activities and grants in many different units, making it essential for constant liaison between Faculties and Departments. The Michael Smith Laboratories currently supports 350 students, research personnel, faculty and support staff. This position reports to the Finance Manager of the Michael Smith Laboratories. The incumbent will interact and communicate regularly with faculty, department staff, research personnel as well as other UBC departments and external vendors or supplies. Work Performed Prepares and processes complex financial documents related to accounts payable or revenue accounting. Requires verification of account worktag and spend category coding, signing authorities, appropriateness of expenditures, and adherence to University policies and generally accepted accounting principles. Processes include but not limited to: accounting journals, expense reports, Internal Service Delivery (ISD) transactions, PO requisitions and receipts, PO and non-PO invoices, spend authorizations, reimbursements, domestic and international travel claims, invoice preparation and cash receipts. Submit Workday requests as a delegate on behalf of department members for credit card reconciliations and card profile updates, expense reimbursements, professional development and faculty relocation recoveries, and other finance tasks. Investigates and resolves errors and discrepancies in financial data for department faculty and staff. Refers complex problems to the Finance Manager. Interprets and maintains updated knowledge of UBC and grant agencies policies, communicates them accurately and ensures they are correctly applied to all completed financial transactions. Attends training sessions on new and updated UBC and external granting agencies' policies and procedures. Reconciles, monitors, investigates and resolves errors and discrepancies on Department's operating worktags (programs, grants, gifts and projects) and UBC VISA Program; taking appropriate corrective actions and following up on outstanding items. Assesses the accuracy of GST, PST and/or HST on invoices and self-assesses taxes. Responds to vendor and customer queries and follows-up on cheque payments and wire transfers. Reviews funding availability on research grants and prepares internal summary spreadsheet with grant balances for faculty. Acts as a finance subject matter expert in Workday, trains staff, faculty and students on the various workflows. Creates and updates Supplier profiles, and worktags as necessary. Supports University year-end financial statement preparation by performing duties such as year-end accruals. Provides input for department finance policies and procedures, drafts routine correspondence or basic training material and provides input on the development of training material. Assists with file management and archiving o

Your Match

How well this role fits your profile.

Company Intel

What employees say

Worked at ubc? Share your experience