Accounting Officer - Modderfontein

SUMMARY:
o take charge and ownership of the Finance and Accounts department. To comply, enforce and uphold all company policies, processes, procedures, standards, rules and regulations, and code of conduct. To oversee the day-to-day operations in the department. To ensure accuracy, timeliness, and compliance of financial records, while providing insights that drive profitability and assist in strategic decision-making. To work closely with the senior management, the company’s financial officers and auditors, operations, procurement, and other department heads, to align cost strategies with the overall goals of the business, and to ensure informative financial decision-making across all departments. To ensure complete cost overview and financial transparency in the organization for strategic decision making of the business.

POSITION INFO:
Operations & Governance:
- Manage, supervise, and oversee the overall day-to-day operations in the Finance and Accounts department.
- Ensure compliance and adherence with all legislative accounting principles and practices, SARS rules and regulations, maintaining accurate accounting records and financial data.
- Ensure compliance and enforcement of all company policies, processes, procedures, standards, regulations, and code of conduct.
- Prepare and submit monthly VAT201 returns to SARS, Vat payments, and Vat audits.
- Manage the payroll cycle, including the submission of monthly EMP201s (PAYE, UIF, SDL), and EMP501 reconciliations.
- Ensure that employee timecards, employee benefits, salaries and wages are managed and executed in a confidential and orderly manner.
- Maintain the fixed asset register, calculation, and allocation of monthly depreciation.
- Ensure that fixed assets schedules are managed and kept up to date with all acquisitions and sales of assets.
- Ensure that amortisation and asset depreciation schedules of assets are maintained and kept up to date.
- Manage Share registers, Share changes, Company disclosure statement, Annual returns, and Director details.
- Maintain the General Ledger and ensure all transactions are accurately categorized and recorded.
- Ensure that all journals, payments and receipts are correctly captured and allocated against the correct general ledger accounts, supplier and customer accounts.
- Perform monthly reconciliations for all bank accounts, credit cards, and petty cash.
- Ensure that the cashbook is captured correctly and accurately and is timeously kept up to date.
- Ensure that all banking activities such as COD payments, account payments, salary payments, refunds and transfers, and statutory payments are always conducted carefully and securely.
- Oversee month-end closure process, including accruals and prepayments.
Accounts Receivables and Payables:
- Manage the Accounts Receivable ledger, including active collection from clients and project entities.
- Managing the Accounts Payable cycle, ensuring vendors are paid within terms while optimizing cash outflows.
- Ensure that project invoicing, progress invoicing, partial invoicing, inter-company invoicing, and general sales invoicing are carried out timeously, with accuracy and attention to detail.
- Ensure that all necessary checks and balances are done to ensure that customer and supplier accounts are up to date.
- Ensure that customer statements and supplier remittances are compiled and issued timeously for monthly debtors’ collections and creditor’s payments.
- Ensure that regular follow ups are conducted with customers for outstanding account payments.
- Ensure that negotiated trade discounts, settlement discounts, and special payment arrangements against customer and supplier accounts are monitored and tracked.
- Ensure that customer and supplier accounts are not invoiced over the monthly allowed credit limits.
- Ensure onboarding of new customers and suppliers are conducted in accordance with the company’s validation, verification, and vetting processes.
- Ensure that customer’s and supplier’s master data files are kept up to date on the system.
Budgeting & Forecasting:
- Build and monitor budgeting and forecasting systems.
- Prepare and monitor budgets, forecast future expenses, and ensure each department stays within financial targets.
- Prepare and monitor fixed and variable cost forecasting to support revenue projections.
- Prepare and forecast the usage of materials, labour, and overhead costs.
Cost and Variance Analysis:
- Develop, maintain, and update cost accounting systems to ensure all cost data is recorded accurately for manufacturing operations.
- Maintain cost records for products across various stages of production, bills of materials (BOMs), cost centres, production cycles, and inventory systems.
- Conduct cost-focused internal audits, monitoring of physical inventory counts, and monitoring of cycle count programs to ensure that Inventory is correctly valued, Work in process (WIP) is accurately tracked, actual usage matches recorded usage, to help prevent losses, operational inefficiencies, or theft of inventory Analyse operating costs to support senior management in identifying cost inefficiencies, wasteful expenditure, and unnecessary spending.
- Analyse the cost of raw materials, inventory, and labour in production processes to determine the cost of producing finished goods.
- Analyse manufacturing cost data and prepare detailed cost comparison reports that compare actual vs budgeted manufacturing costs, explaining variances, and recommending of corrective actions.
- Conduct regular analysis to determine why actual production costs are higher or lower, whether labour or machine utilization is optimal, and to determine which production lines or products are underperforming.
- Perform regular cost‑volume‑profit (CVP) analysis and report.
- Analyse and report on costing discrepancies and process inefficiencies in the production value chains.
- Analyse trends and changes in raw material and inventory costs.
- Track and monitor direct labour efficiency and factory overheads.
- Measuring of wastage, scrap, and production losses.
- Analyse cost and expense trends to streamline control processes and improve profitability.
- Recommend cost‑saving measures and efficiency improvements.
- Reconciling of physical inventory counts to the theoretical stock levels in the ERP system.
- Analysing manufacturing variances (labour, material, overhead).
Reporting:
- Ensure that financial statements are progressively compiled and reported periodically.
- Ensure that Management Accounts are compiled and reported monthly.
- Prepare audit and financial reports for monthly management review.
- Provide detailed financial insights, models, and reports to senior management to support strategic decisions.
- Compile and report on financial information that can assist senior management in making decisions to ensure that manufacturing operations run efficiently, profitably, and with strong financial control.
- Report on financial information that can guide senior management in making decisions on introducing or discontinuing product lines, investment in machinery and equipment, expansion of production capacities, outsourcing and subcontracting, or alteration of production methods, to be financially competitive and profitable and stay relevant in the market.
General Administration:
- Manage and maintain documents such as invoices, delivery notes, dispatch notes, collection notes, waybills, transfer notes, and other related documents, to keep proper control and records.
- Sort, organise, and maintain proper filing of documentation. Ensure that all accounts documentation is legible and filed neatly and organised.
- Timeously file documents on the Server and in the Project Files.
- Maintain general and proper housekeeping of working area.
- Carry out general admin and ad-hoc duties as required to ensure proper and efficient functionality of the Sales and Marketing department.

Requirements:

• 3-5 years working experience in the Steel industry, Engineering industry, Manufacturing industry.
• 3-5 years working experience with an ERP system such as Sage, Pastel, Syspro, Oracle, SAP, Palladium etc
• Experience with sales of valves and piping products will be an added advantage. Experience with manufacturing and fabrication processes will be an added advantage.
• Experience with any other steel manufacturing and/or engineering industry will be an added advantage.
• Strong knowledge of MS applications such as Word and Excel. 
• Strong understanding of accounting principles and practices in a Manufacturing and Project Management environment. 
• Strong knowledge of costing systems in manufacturing and fabrication processes. 
• Strong data analysis and financial modelling skills. 
• Strong knowledge of Inventory and Landed costing of imported goods. 
• Strong understanding of multi-currency and intercompany business setup.