About the Role
- We are looking for a dependable and experienced Financial Accountant to take responsibility for its complete day-to-day accounting function through to trial balance.
- This is a hands-on position combining financial accounting, bookkeeping, payroll administration, statutory returns, financial controls and management reporting.
- The successful candidate must be comfortable working independently and taking full ownership of the accuracy, completeness and timeliness of the Company's financial records.
Key responsibilities
General accounting
- Manage the complete accounting function through to a fully reconciled monthly trial balance.
- Maintain the general ledger and process all necessary journals.
- Manage the cashbook and perform monthly bank reconciliations.
- Reconcile all balance-sheet and control accounts monthly.
- Prepare and maintain accruals, provisions, prepayments and recurring journals.
- Investigate and correct accounting discrepancies promptly.
- Maintain complete supporting documentation and audit trails for all transactions.
Debtors and revenue management
- Process customer invoices, credit notes and account adjustments accurately.
- Maintain the debtors ledger and reconcile customer accounts.
- Monitor outstanding accounts and actively follow up on overdue payments.
- Allocate customer receipts correctly and promptly.
- Prepare debtors age analyses and collection reports.
- Resolve customer account and invoicing queries.
- Assist management with credit-control decisions and identify potentially doubtful debts.
Creditors and payments
- Create purchase orders. Match purchase orders to invoices
- Process supplier invoices and credit notes.
- Reconcile supplier statements to the creditors ledger.
- Maintain accurate supplier information and independently verify changes to supplier banking details.
- Prepare weekly and monthly supplier payment schedules.
- Ensure that payments are supported by approved invoices and appropriate documentation.
- Manage local and foreign supplier accounts, including exchange-rate differences where applicable.
- Monitor creditor ageing and planned payment commitments.
Outsourced payroll coordination and control
- Reconcile payroll reports to the general ledger and payroll bank payment.
- Review EMP201, EMP501, IRP5 and related statutory information prepared by the payroll provider.
- Liaise with the payroll provider regarding discrepancies and employee queries.
- Maintain secure and confidential payroll records.
- Ensure that payroll submissions, payments and statutory deadlines are completed accurately and on time.
VAT and statutory compliance
- Prepare, reconcile and submit VAT201 returns.
- Ensure the correct VAT treatment of local purchases, imported goods, imported services and customer transactions.
- Maintain the necessary supporting documents for VAT and payroll submissions.
- Assist with SARS queries, verifications and audits.
- Monitor statutory submission and payment deadlines.
- Work with the Company's external tax practitioner or auditor on income-tax and other statutory matters.
Inventory, cost of sales and fixed assets
- Reconcile laboratory consumables, trading stock and other inventory records to the general ledger.
- Assist with stock counts and investigate stock variances.
- Monitor inventory valuation and cost-of-sales allocations.
- Maintain the fixed-asset register.
- Record asset purchases, disposals, transfers and depreciation accurately.
- Reconcile the fixed-asset register to the general ledger.
Management reporting and budgeting
- Prepare accurate monthly management accounts.
- Produce profit-and-loss, balance-sheet and cash-flow reports.
- Prepare budget-versus-actual reports and explain material variances.
- Assist with the annual budgeting process.
- Prepare short- and medium-term cash-flow forecasts.
- Provide management with relevant financial information for operational and strategic decision-making.
- Assist with departmental, project and service-line profitability reporting.
- Identify unusual transactions, financial risks, control weaknesses and opportunities for cost savings.
Year-end and audit preparation
- Prepare a fully reconciled year-end trial balance.
- Compile complete supporting schedules and documentation for the external accountants and auditors.
- Respond to audit queries and provide requested supporting information.
- Assist with annual financial statement preparation.
- Implement agreed audit recommendations and strengthen internal financial controls.
Financial controls and governance
- Ensure that the Company’s financial policies and approval procedures are consistently followed.
- Protect the confidentiality of employee, customer, supplier and company information.
- Comply with POPIA and all applicable financial record-retention requirements.
- Immediately disclose errors, suspected irregularities, duplicate payments, control failures or potential fraud.
- Maintain the highest standards of honesty, accuracy, accountability and professional conduct.
- Ensure that no payment is released without the required independent authorisation.
Minimum requirements
- A BCom Accounting degree, accounting diploma or equivalent recognised qualification.
- At least five years’ relevant experience in a full accounting function.
- Demonstrated experience preparing a fully reconciled trial balance independently.
- Sound knowledge of VAT, PAYE, UIF, payroll and statutory submissions.
- Experience managing debtors, creditors, cashbooks, general-ledger reconciliations and fixed assets.
- Experience preparing monthly management accounts and cash-flow forecasts.
- Strong Microsoft Excel skills.
- Proficiency in recognised accounting and payroll software.
- Excellent attention to detail and the ability to work accurately under deadline pressure.
- Clear written and verbal communication skills.
- Contactable references.
Advantageous experience
- Completed SAIPA articles or registration as a Professional Accountant (SA).
- Experience in a commercial laboratory, manufacturing, agricultural, technical or similar operational environment.
- Experience with inventory, cost of sales and stock reconciliations.
- Experience with imports, foreign suppliers and foreign-currency transactions.
- Experience preparing audit files and liaising directly with external auditors.
- Experience working in an owner-managed small or medium-sized business.
Personal attributes
The successful candidate must be:
- Honest, ethical and dependable.
- Willing to take full ownership of the accounting function.
- Highly organised and methodical.
- Accurate and attentive to detail.
- Able to identify and report errors instead of concealing or carrying them forward.
- Comfortable working independently while remaining accountable to management.
- Proactive in following up outstanding information and unresolved matters.
- Able to manage confidential information with discretion.
- Firm but professional when managing debtors, creditors and internal financial controls.
Performance expectations
The successful candidate will be expected to:
- Produce a complete and reconciled trial balance by the agreed monthly deadline.
- Submit VAT, payroll and statutory returns accurately and on time.
- Maintain current bank, debtor, creditor, payroll, inventory and balance-sheet reconciliations.
- Provide reliable monthly management accounts and cash-flow forecasts.
- Maintain a complete and audit-ready financial file.
- Escalate errors, irregularities and financial risks promptly.
- Reduce long-outstanding debtor, creditor and reconciliation items.
- Ensure that financial information supplied to management is accurate, complete and supported by appropriate documentation.
Recruitment process
Shortlisted candidates may be required to complete a practical accounting assessment covering:
- Bank and control-account reconciliations
- VAT calculations
- Payroll journals
- Accruals and prepayments
- Inventory adjustments
- Trial-balance review
- Identification and correction of accounting errors
- Interpretation of management accounts
Closing Date 21 September 2026
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