Investment Client Accountant/SAIPA

The Client Accountant involves maintaining the accounting records of and producing timely and accurate financial statements for offshore trusts and companies, therefore requiring close and regular interaction and collaboration with team members in both Johannesburg and Cape Town, all members of the client liaison team, clients, the international accounting team and various external business contacts (including banks, SARS, 3rd party and in-house custodians and in particular accounting and tax compliance service providers).

PRINCIPAL ELEMENTS & ACCOUNTABILITIES

• Accounts maintenance of relevant information to trial balance level as well as the preparation of offshore financial statements
• Maintaining entity ledgers on a weekly basis ensuring they are up-to-date
• Providing assistance to the Investment Accounting team to ensure that all entity ledgers are up to date by reconciling investment and bank accounts, in the preparation of investment reporting and other financial analysis within strict reporting deadlines
• Providing external service providers with relevant information to allow them to prepare financial reports, tax and other statutory returns for our clients within strict deadlines
• Provision of relevant reports for client reporting purposes including client meeting preparation
• Provision of reporting for local and international tax purposes

QUALIFICATIONS AND EXPERIENCE

• B,Com Accounting graduate having completed either SAIPA or SAICA articles and 1+ year post articles experience
• Practical experience within the financial services (wealth management or investment management) environment in a similar role, with exposure to both local and international trust structures being beneficial
• Experience in communicating with high net worth individuals
• Experience in a deadline-driven environment
• This position requires a good understanding of the following:

o Accounting knowledge and competence including IFRS for SMEs, STEP accounting, basic understanding of trusts and investments, understanding and the interpretation of financial statements

o Technical experience in Caseware and MS Excel

o Experience in NAVOne beneficial

COMPETENCIES AND BEHAVIOURS

• Energetic: Self-motivated and self-manages with a good work ethic (attitude), schedules and manages workload effectively, thinks ahead, sets plans to achieve goals
• Results orientated: Delivers work of a high standard, output is accurate and error free; owns delegated tasks and pays attention to detail, takes prompt action and sees tasks through to completion
• Resourceful problem solver: Considers the wider consequences of each decision, gathers and analyses information to find creative solutions
• Team player: Supports and works towards team goals, shares information, is helpful and cooperative, works effectively with people outside the immediate team
• Efficient and effective communicator: Communicates clearly and concisely with clients and colleagues of all levels, listens effectively, has well-presented written communication and the ability to deal with sophisticated clients
• Client focused: Understands and satisfies client needs at all times, takes full responsibility and accountability for all client matters including delegated tasks

This job description is a guide to the principal current duties of the job. It does not form part of the contract of employment.