Johannesburg: Management and Cost Accountant posted by Palesa Mbali Group

About the Role

The Management & Cost Accountant plays a crucial role in producing accurate financial reports, analysing costs and margins, and supporting budgeting and forecasting processes. The ideal candidate will provide meaningful financial insights to senior management to support decision-making and drive cost optimisation initiatives.

Key Responsibilities

• Prepare monthly management accounts, management reports and KPI dashboards, including detailed variance analysis.
• Perform detailed variance analysis, interpreting financial and operational drivers and providing clear commentary to senior management.
• Process month-end journals, accruals and provisions to ensure accurate and complete financial records.
• Prepare and review monthly reconciliations for the general ledger, bank and cashbook, suppliers, customers, inventory and fixed assets.
• Support group reporting requirements, including alignment to IFRS and Italian GAAP where applicable.
• Lead and support month-end and year-end close processes, including stock takes and inventory valuations.
• Prepare monthly expense reports, annual OPEX budgets, rolling forecasts and long-term financial plans.
• Monitor operational, production and cost centre expenditure against budget; analyse variances and recommend corrective actions.
• Perform detailed cost and margin analysis, including standard costing, BOM accuracy, labour costs, production variances and cost optimisation initiatives.
• Analyse machinery utilisation, cycle times, throughput and downtime, translating operational performance into financial insight.
• Partner with production and engineering teams to understand manufacturing processes, identify inefficiencies and recommend cost optimisation initiatives.
• Support and lead stock takes, inventory valuation and work-in-progress (WIP) analysis within a complex production environment.
• Coordinate annual budgeting, forecasting and five-year planning processes in line with strategic objectives.
• Prepare, review and process payment runs and review supplier reconciliations prior to payment approval.
• Maintain and manage the Fixed Asset Register, including acquisitions, capitalisation, depreciation, disposals and CAPEX tracking.
• Prepare and submit VAT returns, manage SARS queries, and support PAYE, UIF, SDL and provisional tax processes where required.
• Support foreign exchange and multi-currency transactions, including exchange rate variance analysis and assessment of FX impact on pricing, margins and forecasts.
• Review and update pricing structures across business units to reflect cost, margin, market and exchange rate movements.
• Prepare business cases, tender submissions and funding proposals to support short- and long-term financing decisions.
• Liaise with internal and external auditors, prepare audit files and support statutory, compliance and governance requirements.
• Ensure adherence to internal controls, accounting policies, procedures and risk management frameworks.
• Review, develop and improve finance processes and systems to enhance efficiency, accuracy and compliance.
• Partner with operational, production and sales teams to provide financial insight and decision support.
• Perform ad hoc finance-related duties as required by the Financial Manager.

Requirements

• Bachelor of Commerce or Diploma in Financial Management, Management Accounting or Cost Management.
• Completed CIMA articles (advantageous).

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in a relevant field.