Campus Finance Close, AP and MIS Practice — Specialist Adviser

The mandate

The operations finance head needs an independent specialist to challenge whether campus-level close and payment procedures are genuinely usable. The standing question is why familiar recurring exceptions survive even when staff report that procedures were followed. This advisory work focuses on practical review quality, not institution-wide capital allocation or a board adviser title.

Four days monthly cover a close sample review, payables workshop, operating review and preparation, with operating-review attendance included. A complete ad-hoc evidence query receives an initial response within two business days. Meetings are Bengaluru-based or remote, and any campus observation is scheduled within the agreed monthly allocation rather than added as unlimited availability.

The term begins on 19 October 2026 and ends on 18 April 2027. The operations finance head decides renewal after evaluating whether staff can identify and escalate exceptions using the revised practice notes. A request to rebuild systems, run the close or process invoices is a separate scope; it cannot be assumed from the retainer.

The specialist has no line authority and no executive responsibility. Advice may challenge a document rule, review sequence or reporting definition, but the operating head approves procedures and staff continue to execute them. Written comments will distinguish finance-control practice from matters requiring the institution's authorised accountant or tax specialist to reach a formal conclusion.

Non-competing professional work is allowed where the cadence can be met. A vendor-payment intermediary, a concurrent supplier dispute or an accounting provider whose work is being reviewed creates a conflict requiring disclosure. Invoice processing, tax representation and audit certification are excluded, as are commissions earned from recommending a particular software or outsourced finance service.

What you will own

• Challenge close checklists against sampled reconciliations and actual reviewer comments, identifying steps that create completion records without demonstrating a supported finance conclusion or timely escalation.
• Probe payables document requirements for ambiguous ownership, distinguishing missing information, disputed terms and requests that need director approval rather than routine processing guidance.
• Test management-reporting definitions against ledger and receipt sources, highlighting measures that change meaning across entities or cannot be maintained by ordinary operators.
• Shape exception practice notes with realistic examples, ensuring staff can recognise the escalation boundary without relying on the adviser's availability for every routine decision.
• Press operating sponsors to separate preparer, reviewer and approver duties where feasible, recording compensating reviews when staffing prevents complete segregation of finance activities.
• Review the adoption of revised practice through subsequent close samples, retaining adverse findings when a procedure looks clear but staff still cannot apply it consistently.

Candidate qualifications

• Show hands-on close, payables and MIS practice with responsibility for review quality, not only transaction entry. Provide a redacted example of a procedure that failed in use and how its practical ambiguity was resolved. Demonstrate that the revised instruction gave campus staff a reproducible evidence check and a clear route to the finance owner for unresolved professional judgement.
• Demonstrate accounting and routine Indian tax-compliance understanding adequate to distinguish operational evidence issues from professional judgements requiring authorised review. A relevant finance qualification is preferred. Candidates should explain a disputed payment or reconciliation without overstepping into legal interpretation, audit certification or a new tax position outside the agreed practice remit.
• Provide an example of maintainable reporting definitions tested against source records, including a correction and its consequence. Tool skills must be accompanied by clear field ownership, refresh rules and reviewability. The sponsor needs advice that ordinary campus finance staff can use, not a sophisticated dashboard that remains dependent on the original analyst.
• Establish at least four years of relevant practical experience, confidentiality and the ability to advise without directing staff. Disclose accounting-provider, supplier-dispute and software-linked interests, and reserve four monthly days. Demonstrate a recommendation that improved campus close or payable review through a testable control, retaining the finance owner's response and responsibility for implementation.

Application

Applications for this mandate are received in one way only: through the India Board Terminal's application process. It is automated end to end. Your Executive Passport travels to the mandate holder in its confidential form, your answers to the three questions below are read before anything else in your file, and every stage that follows is recorded on your applications page.

There is no address to write to and no intermediary to call. The mandate holder reads what the Terminal delivers and nothing else, which is what keeps the process the same for every applicant and keeps your name out of it until you release it. Applications close on 8 October 2026. Mandate reference PCT-ADV-2026-IND-25.