Financial Accountant - Johannesburg at Absa Group Limited (Absa)

Job Summary

• The role is available in Group Finance: CFM and is responsible for running month end strategic investment change projects, providing change finance management support for strategic investment and ensuring adequate governance, risk, compliance and control as well as maintaining business stakeholder relationships and assisting the CFM team with adhoc duties as assigned

Job Description

Accountability: Month end of Strategic Investment Change Projects

• Ownership of a Cluster and Strategic Investment and related P&L entries
• Ownership of Goodwill & Intangibles for respective cluster- responsibilities include (capitalization; amortization; wear and tear and Intangible asset register processing)
• Month end responsibilities (journal processing/ IS & BS review, reconciliations)
• Accurately capture manual journals onto SAP including processing any journals for corrections/accruals in terms of journal policies
• Compiling of all supporting documentation for payments, accruals and generating proof of payments when required
• Run SAP and Analyst reports and analyze each income and balance sheet items for variance against Budget, and ensure early feedback of trends not aligned to financial plans / objectives is provided for corrective action
• At month end, investigating of abnormal transactions/analysis of transactions/ detailed listings
• Prepare reconciliations for all accounts on the General Ledger Control Framework
• Agree reconciliations to the GL, investigate un-reconciled balances and discuss un-reconciled amounts
• Attend various GLRS, Governance Forums and monthly work day meetings
• Quarterly HFM schedules for Goodwill & Intangibles
• Reconciliation of balance sheets accounts for account attestations (Consigno)
• Maintain a filing system for journals and payments done for audit purposes and according to Documentation Retention policy.

Accountability: Change Finance Management Support for Strategic Investment

• Ensure that all requests/queries received from both internal and external clients are attended to in a timely manner, and referring clients to the correct department if they cannot be assisted by Finance Change Accounting team
• Deliver service to external and internal customer on SAP queries and provide SAP reports to Project Managers
• Responsible for efficient and effective workflow in own portfolio, proactively seeking to maximise productivity and continually acting upon opportunities for process and system improvements.

Accountability: General Administration and Planning

• Opening Project BI/IN codes and loading Project Budget
• Annual Roll forward funding process
• Reviewing Manpower reports and processing internal manpower credits and capitalization entries
• Assist in annual document filing for the team.
• Make sure the processing manual is always updated, if any procedure or process is changed. Save a copy of the updated manual on the shared folder

Accountability: Governance, Risk, Compliance and Control

• Ensure adherence to control frameworks, policies, mandates and procedures as well as with Group Standards e.g. RCA, Operational Risk, Information Security (InfoSec), Business Continuity Management (BCM) etc
• Display a zero tolerance approach to non-compliance across the function. (e.g. unauthorized backdates, payments not signed by authorised cheque signatures, incomplete journals)
• Validate and perform quality check on BI/IN codes to be opened as instructed by the Change Council Minutes. Follow through on all requests and report accordingly

Accountability: Business Relationships

• Develop meaningful working relationships with all internal and external clients
• Interact with the Absa group internal audit team and provide necessary information as and when required.
• Ensure that the business complies with governance reporting requirements by always keeping abreast with new governance and policy developments.
• Work closely with the other members of the team to deliver outstanding performance. Attend team meetings and contribute fully, including suggestions for ways of improving customer service and turnaround times.
•  Contribute to an environment of mutual support by sharing knowledge and best practices with other team members.
• Management of queries relating to invoices/contracts and PO with various work streams

Education and Experience Required

• BCOM accounting degree
• Month-end experience (1-2yrs)
• Institutional knowledge (in specific: change)
• Grade 12 certificate or equivalent with 5 credits (including maths and English)
• 5 years’ experience in management with ability to influence across teams, functions and processes.
• Experience working in a Change Accounting team which provides accounting and project support to the Strategic Investment Project Business in a Cluster.
• Able to work in a pressured environment with tight deadlines especially during month end.
• Have good financial modelling and Excel skills
• Have project management skills to be in a position to manage Adhoc projects
• Experience working with senior business individuals and be able to present solutions and enforce accounting principles and necessary governance.
• Quick learner and hit the ground running.  
• Preferable to have SAP experience in the Project environment.
• The individual should be comfortable with detailed routine tasks as well as being prepared to understand the overall Business requirements.

Knowledge & Skills:

• Exceptional academic track record
• Understanding of financial reporting processes and related controls
• Ability to identify control gaps and weaknesses
• Ability to analyse and interpret financial data
• Ability to write concise effective reports
• SAP 4 Hana experience
• Driven and motivated
• Computer literacy
• Information Security
• Ability to work in a dynamic environment
• Ability to work under pressure
• Planning and organising
• Account administration
• SAP/Analyst and Invoicing knowledge preferred

Competencies:

• Deciding and initiating action
• Applying expertise and technology
• Coping with pressure and setbacks
• Entrepreneurial and commercial thinking
• Adapting and responding to change
• Persuading and influencing
• Creative and innovative

Education

• Bachelor`s Degrees and Advanced Diplomas: Financial Sciences (Required)