Financial Controller

JOB DESCRIPTION

FINANCIAL & COMMERCIAL CONTROLLER

DESIGNATION : Financial & Commercial Controller

DEPARTMENT : Finance

REPORTING TO : Chief Executive Officer or Alternate to Director

ROLE : Full Time

DIRECT REPORTS : 

• Chief Accountant (Where applicable)
• Senior Accountant (Where Applicable)
• Accountant Receivables
• Accountant Payables
• Logistics Manager or Imports & Exports Manager 
• Stores Manager
• Payroll Accountant
• Procurement Manager
• Rider/Bank Agent (Where applicable)

ROLE PURPOSE:

The role holder has overall responsibility to the Chief Executive Officer in overseeing and managing the financial and commercial systems and operations of the company. This includes responsibility for financial operations, financial policies and processes, risk management, treasury management, Financial regulatory and reporting, company commercials, financial internal controls & monitoring, budgeting and forecasting of the business in accordance with the business strategy.

KEY RESPONSIBILITIES (Key Result Areas)

Internal Controls:

• Reviews and develops business procedures that ensure integrity of reporting.

• Lead the process in creating, developing and or proposing and implementing inventory management systems and controls.

• Facilitates sub ledger balancing processes and controls to ensure the integrity of recording at sub ledger level.

• Oversees and reviews monthly bank reconciliations of all balance sheet accounts.

• Actively participates and coordinates the activities in the department during audits and ensures timely resolution of all raised audit queries.

Cashflow Management & short-term funding requirements:

• Prepares and shares with the CEO and Directors 12 month rolling cash forecasts to manage liquidity of the company.
• Monitors cashflow to determine any anticipated cashflow constraints so as to inform the CEO and Vertical Chief Financial Officer or designee.
• Coordinates networking capital management initiatives to ensure cash flow targets are met for all business lines in the company including inventory.

Profitability & Margin Management:

• § Prepares regular monthly detailed analysis of company and or business unit profitability, highlighting to the CEO and Directors areas that require focus and attention.
• § Leads development of and drives implementation of initiatives and action plans to improve gross margin and business performance.
• § Leads in preparation and presentation of detailed cost analysis including plant performance and productivity measures:
• Factory costs
• Discount Structures
• Warehousing and distribution
• Overheads
• Factory OEE’s and or other plant performance tracking measures.
• § Reviews and analyses warehousing and logistics costs with a view to proposing areas of cost improvement.
• § Analyse, review and prepare reports on product category and customer profitability for presentation to the CEO and Directors.

Product Costing:

• § Collecting and analyzing data about the company’s operational costs with a view to ensuring accuracy of product costing.

Capital Expenditure Planning & Review:

• § Review and coordinate with the CEO the capital expenditure budget for the company and or business unit.
• § Prepare business cases analysis on investments to enable Management make appropriate and informed decisions.

Inventory Management:

• § Propose, develop and implement procedures and controls to manage inventory and inventory movements.
• § In Liaison with the Stores Manager and Production Manager review and determine the appropriate and ideal inventory level and range.
• § In liaison with the Stores Manager and Materials procurement team, determine the optimal order quantity and re-order levels.
• § Propose or develop and implement an inventory ageing analysis system and report for presentation to Management as and when required.
• § Make provisions and recommend writing off of slow moving and obsolete stocks (Stock impairments) to the CEO and Directors.

Debtors Management:

• § In liaison with the Group Credit Control team coordinate debt collections and follow-ups to ensure collections is within agreed timeframes and credit terms.
• § Review, monitor and report on bad and doubtful debts to the CEO and Directors. Make recommendations and proposal on follow up plans or closure of the debts.

Costing Management:

• § In liaison with the vendors and suppliers ensure that raw material prices are updated on a monthly basis.
• § Review the market and analyse to check on the validity of product costings.
• § Review and or check product and/or material costings to ensure net off. This should where applicable be for the company or the different sites if a company has several sites.

Month End reporting and Closure:

• § Put in place month-end procedures to meet the reporting requirements based on the agreed standards and timelines.
• § Ensure a full and regular reconciliation of all balance sheet accounts.
• § Review the teams work and approve the month end entries and provisions.
• § Ensure management accounts are completed accurately and presented as per the agreed and set timelines.

Business Unit/Company Cash Management:

• § Prepare cash forecasting reports to enable management make decisions about activities such as funding, capital expenditure and investments.
• § Manage and oversee short term liquidity requirements.

TAX/VAT & other Statutory requirements:

• § Liaise with HO to track and ensure all statutory requirements are delivered accurately and on time.

Budgeting and Forecasting:

• § Coordinate and compile the company’s/Business Unit budgets, including capital expenditure budgets as well as financial statements.
• § Prepare and finalize the budget financial statements and targets.
• § Compile and complete regular updated forecasts as required by the CEO and Directors and or Group.
• § Manage and oversee short term liquidity requirements.

Fixed Asset Management:

• § Maintain and oversee the fixed assets register.
• § Calculate and process all required depreciation entries.
• § Maintain appropriate records for deferred tax calculations.
• § Lead and coordinate the annual physical assets verification exercise and impairment exercise.

Commercial management:

• § Take lead on the procurement function and liaise regularly with the raw material planning and production planning teams so as to plan for procurement.
• § Keep a close track of pending purchase bookings and routine follow ups.
• § Place import orders every month for quantities required based on forecast review meetings with the CEO/GM, Production planning and or Production Manager, and sales team where required.
• § Take responsibility in liaison with the CEO/GM to approve purchase orders after reviewing all the required documentation.
• § Maintain a master role of all vendor details and items.

Logistics:

• Approve import purchase orders, IDF’s and process all required insurance applications.
• Process and approve import duty payments through online banking and or other systems.
• Process and approve transporter quotes and proving freight invoice amount for customers.
• Maintain records and keep track of shipment, LC and other foreign supplier payments.
• Check and review LC applications before they are approved and signed off by the CEO and or Director.
• Process and approve import documents that have/are being sent for clearance.
• Ensure import costings are in order and as planned.
• Authorize and or create new items and oversee changing of processes

Departmental Human Resources & Performance Evaluation:

• Supervise, coach and train other employees in the department on financial matters.

• Ensuring that employee performance objectives are clearly defined for all job roles within the team and that all staff members are evaluated against agreed performance objectives at pre-defined periods set by HR to drive improvement at individual and group level as well as improvement on overall performance.

• In liaison with HR, help develop on the job training programs and participate in routine refresher trainings to ensure continuous improvement/competency.

• Review and conduct appraisal sessions with all production sectional heads and any other direct reports as scheduled and ensure the sectional heads conduct performance appraisals of their team members as per scheduled.
• Review and assess all appraisal reports and in liaison with the HR department and CEO propose and or recommend follow up action plans based on the performance attained by each employee.

Departmental Human Resources Responsibility:

• Work with HR Department to develop skills and competencies training needs of Production staff to help better perform in their jobs.
• Identify the skills and experience required for the department and in liaison with HR develop the departments skills matrix and review the manpower planning reports on annual basis and or as when required for approval by the CEO.
• Take lead in review and determination of the best talent to be engaged for the department during the recruitment process.
• Take lead in review and determination of disciplinary matters of staff with the support and direction of the HR department.

Departmental Health, Safety & Environmental Management:

• Supervise to ensure the finance offices are clean and any firefighting equipment in the office is not blocked.
• Take lead in liaison with the HR department and the HSE Officer to develop a culture that ensures healthy, safety and work environment matters within the department is a way of life and not just compliance to statutory requirements.

Department Financial Management:

• Lead the department to analyze and Provide strategic recommendations on business operations, revenue and expenditure trends, financial commitments and future revenues and maintain solutions to business and financial problems by leading the Implementation of improvements needed to fulfil the company’s strategic objectives.

Essential Qualifications,

• Degree in Finance and or Economics and or related Accounting field and or Chartered Accountant/ ACCA/ CIMA or equivalent.

• Must have knowledge in use of a business software/ ERP system (Those with SAP will have an added advantage).

• Practical working experience knowledge in setting up and overseeing internal controls.

• Knowledge of ISO Management systems would be an added advantage

Required Experience

• Minimum 10 years’ experience leading the finance function in a large multicultural organisation with proven track record of financial strategy implementation and financial prudence.

Attributes for the Role:

• Should possess a strong financial business acumen and have c-suite and key stakeholder communication/management experience.

• Proven track record of achievements under the key responsibilities.

• Planning and organisation skills to be able run and monitor the business operations.

• Adept at formulating strategies, concepts and coping with setbacks and pressure.

• Adept at relationship creation, networking, persuasion and influencing.

• The ability to act decisively and give direction on financial related problems and the capacity to grasp complex concepts easily

• Strong negotiation skills and the ability to communicate clearly and persuasively with the team to meet deadlines.

• A results-driven approach to work and the ability to work in a logical, systematic manner.

• Should be able to articulate and inculcate the organization’s objectives in relation to the expected deliverables from finance department.

• Should demonstrate the ability to liaise and work with internal & external auditors, financial institutions and Government related agencies.

• Must have high level of integrity and ethical practice

• Should demonstrate ability to identify potential risks likely to face the organization and make recommendations to mitigate and or avoid the risk.

• Must be assertive, proactive and diligent with commitment to the highest standards of service delivery

• Eye for detail

• Presentable