Financial Accountant

Who we are:

Mama Money is a growth-stage fintech on a mission to improve the financial lives of migrants and underserved communities across Africa and beyond. What started in 2015 as a cross-border payments service has grown into a multi-product financial platform. We give people the tools to send, save, and manage money - on their own terms, at a socially fair price.

Mama HQ is in beautiful Cape Town, South Africa. We're 157 people strong (and counting), representing 19 countries across Africa, Asia, the UK, and Europe. From remittances to a growing range of financial products, everything we build is in service of people who deserve better. Our culture reflects that same commitment. We look after our team the way we want them to look after our customers. "Just be lekker!" means we trust our talented, diverse people to do what's right and make it happen - simply and with heart.

We've earned a few accolades, built lasting partnerships, and grown our reach in ways we're proud of. We've had good times and tough times, but our focus has never shifted. People over profit, always.

As our Financial Accountant, you'll play a hands-on part in keeping our financial operations running smoothly and increasingly automated; from month-end close and reconciliations to tax submissions and audit support. You'll bring a data-driven mindset to everything you touch: building smarter reconciliation workflows, spotting anomalies through analysis rather than manual review alone, and helping the finance function scale through automation rather than headcount.

You'll work closely with our Treasury team, our Tech Ops team, and our FX Trader, so strong communication and a collaborative, cross-functional mindset are just as important as technical ability. If you're detail-oriented, naturally curious, analytically minded, and enjoy getting to the bottom of things, including building the tools that get you there faster.

As our Financial Accountant you will:

• Automation, Data & AI. Design and build automated reconciliation workflows that reduce manual review and turnaround time - using tools like SQL, or AI assistants (e.g. Claude) to do the heavy lifting.
• Use AI tools to build automated assessments and alerting systems that flag anomalies, discrepancies, and irregularities in payment, loan, or reconciliation data before they become issues.
• Identify recurring, manual finance processes (journals, schedules, reconciliations, opex review) and actively replace them with automated, repeatable solutions.
• Build and maintain dashboards or structured reporting views, ideally automated or templated that gives stakeholders real-time visibility into cost and performance trends.
• Partner with the various teams e.g. Tech Ops to improve the accuracy, speed, and automation of payment and reconciliation data flows between systems.
• Champion the use of automation and AI across the finance team - making sure new automated workflows and tools are properly implemented and consistently followed.
• Month-End & Financial Reporting: Play an active role in the month-end close process, processing journal entries, reviewing account balances, and ensuring everything is accurate and accounted for before the books close.
• Collaborate closely with the Treasury team and our FX Trader to make sure operational needs, currency exposure, and financial planning are well-aligned across corridors.
• Reconcile bank accounts and aggregator statements across multiple corridors and currencies daily - using data analysis and automated tools to flag discrepancies and trends early.
• Expense Management & Business Unit Reporting: Take ownership of expense allocations across Business Units and Products, ensuring costs are correctly attributed and the business has a clear, data-backed view of spend.
• Payments & Loan Management: Assist with payment run approvals and manage the reconciliation of company loans, including capturing inter-company transactions accurately and timeously.
• Compliance & Ad-Hoc Data Projects: Support audit requirements and assist with the preparation of tax returns and supporting schedules, covering VAT, PAYE, Income Tax, STATS SA, and SARB submissions.
• Get pulled into various finance-related projects and initiatives; including data analysis, process automation, and reporting improvements, giving you exposure across the business.
• Demonstrable, hands-on experience using AI tools (e.g. Claude, ChatGPT, or similar) to build automated assessments, workflows, or alerting systems in a finance or data context.
• Practical experience with data analysis, dashboarding, or process automation tools.
• A track record of actually replacing manual processes with automated ones, not just "exposure to," but ownership of building something that worked.

Qualifications & Experience:

• Completed Bachelor's degree in Accounting or a related field (BCom Accounting or BCom Financial Accounting).
• 4+ years of relevant accounting experience, with exposure to month-end processes, reconciliations, and financial reporting.
• Solid understanding of South African tax compliance - VAT, PAYE, and Income Tax.
• Proficiency in Xero; experience with additional ERP systems is a bonus.
• Strong Excel skills: comfortable with large data sets, schedules, financial analysis, and building automated or templated reporting.
• Exposure to data analysis, dashboarding, or process automation tools (e.g. Power Query, Power BI, SQL, or similar) is a strong advantage.
• Exposure to a multi-entity or multi-currency environment, ideally in fintech or financial services.
• High attention to detail with the ability to manage competing deadlines in a fast-paced environment.

In your first 90 days at Mama Money you will:

• Be responsible for assisting in the accuracy of month-end preparation.
• Be responsible for the first-level opex review, using data analysis to identify any anomalies and take initiative to correct them.
• Assist to ensure that all tax submissions (monthly/quarterly/bi-annual and annual) are done on time and assist the broader team, including Treasury, Tech Ops, and our FX Trader, with ad hoc requirements as they arise.