Assistant Financial Manager

Essential

• BCom (Accounting) or BCompt degree.
• A minimum of 3 to 5 years' experience in a financial accounting role, including running month-end closes and balance sheet reconciliations.
• Working experience of at least one ERP or accounting system, and advanced Microsoft Excel.
• Sound knowledge of IFRS or IFRS for SMEs, VAT and payroll tax.

Advantageous

• Completed articles (SAICA, SAIPA, CIMA or ACCA), or a professional designation such as Professional Accountant (SA) through SAIPA, or CA(SA).
• Experience of Odoo, particularly of an implementation or migration.
• Experience of inventory accounting and costing in a manufacturing environment, ideally pharmaceutical, food or FMCG.
• Experience of multi-entity group accounting and intercompany reconciliations.
• Experience preparing lender or funder reporting packs.

• Run the month-end close to a fixed timetable: accruals, prepayments, journals and the balance sheet reconciliations behind every account.
• Prepare monthly management accounts and the management pack for the financial manager, with commentary on variances against budget and prior period.
• Own the accounting module of Odoo through implementation and go-live: chart of accounts, tax set-up, journals, bank feeds and period close.
• Test and sign off the finance side of the system before go-live, and work with the systems administrator on any configuration change that affects the books.
• Work with the stock controller to reconcile the stock count to the general ledger every month and investigate every difference.
• Maintain standard and batch costing for finished goods, raw materials and packaging. Support product pricing reviews with accurate cost data.
• Reconcile intercompany balances and related-party loan accounts across the group every month, with signed-off schedules that agree on both sides.
• Maintain the supporting schedules for loans, interest and security arrangements, ready for audit.
• Prepare VAT returns and support the financial manager on income tax, provisional tax and SARS correspondence.
• Review payroll before it is paid and reconcile PAYE, UIF and SDL submissions (EMP201 and EMP501).
• Oversee debtors and creditors: age analyses, customer account statements, credit control follow-up, and the matching of supplier invoices to orders and goods received.
• Prepare the weekly cash flow forecast and the payment run for approval. The assistant financial manager prepares payments but never releases them: release always requires two authorised signatories.