Financial Accounting Officer at Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR)

About the job:

• The ACLS Division has One (1) vacancy for a Financial Accounting Officer in the Future Production Chemicals Cluster, who will ensure accurate accounting in terms of applicable accounting classification, project plans, performance obligations, budget, reporting requirements and contract ammendements.
• The incumbents will also work closely with stakeholders to support contract and project delivery through monitoring and reporting on contract progress and reporting to external and internal stakeholders. This position is based in Pretoria
• This position reports to the Management Accountant.

Key responsibilities:

Contract and project management

• Ensure valid, accurate, timely and complete contract and project accounting for customer and supplier contracts and service level agreements;
• Review and ensure completeness of financial supporting documentation;
• Review and capture contract details and projects in terms of applicable accounting classification, project plans, performance obligations, cost centre allocations, budgets, including project budget¿s integrated across units with multiple contract lines to enable costs and revenue to be allocated to applicable cost centres and aligned to stakeholder reporting requirements;
• Update revenue recognition and process invoices or credit notes with alignment with legislation;
• Process contract amendments, ensuring correct accounting classification as well as contract value and contract line detail for revenue and billing is aligned to signed agreements;
• Prepare contract reconciliations and reports to monitor contract status and details and provide feedback including analysis of performance to date, progress against budget, areas of concern and recommended corrective action to the contract manager and management accountant to support contract delivery;
• Prepare contract or project specific reports based on client specification and contractual requirements for management accountant review and sign off;
• Review and follow up on contract expectation reports and assist with timely follow up and resolution of contract project queries in a customer-oriented manner;
• Record keeping of all contract and project supporting documentation as per SARS and CSIR policies, allowing for easy reference for audit purposes and queries;
• Provide training and support to operational teams on the business process requirements, financial impact of transactions and applications of financial systems to provide them with a good understanding of the financial impact associated with their roles in contract management and project administration;
• Follow up on status orders and advise procurement on orders to be closed to ensure accurate and up to date information for financial reporting and year end accruals;
• Review debtors age-analysis, follow up on outstanding invoices and request payments from customers, update records with comments and report to management where corrective action is required;
• Provide allocation details of deposits received ensuring payments are allocated against correct invoice and customer;
• Prepare supporting documentation for bad debts to be handed to legal.

General financial support 

• Process ad-hoc invoices for services rendered or goods supplied in accordance with accepted quotations to account for revenue earned to date in compliance with CSIR policies, procedures and financial legislation;
• Prepare and process manual and upload journal (including correction of errors, clearing invalid projects, provisions and accruals, bad debt, manual adjustment, zero rate vat, forecast, interest capitalisation and monthly overhead cost recovery) to accurately reflect financial information and cost distribution for accurate financial month-end results;
• Perform monthly general ledger reconciliations;
• Reconcile advances, claims and cash with the petty cash float to ensure discrepancies are detected for immediate action;
• Review local and overseas employee reimbursement claims to ensure valid supporting documentation is attached and that the correct cost centres are indicated, the correctness of the approval by the direct managers are validated before it is submitted to Management Accountant for approval;
• Timely follow up and resolution of financial support/ system queries in a customer-oriented manner, escalate any unresolved queries to the management accountant for resolution;
• Assist management accountant with accurate and timely budgeting and forecasting processes in terms of CSIR policies and procedures;
• Assist management accountant in the provision of project-specific audit information and internal audit requests or reports and annual or specific external audits to comply with stated objectives of audit and financial requirements;
• Record keeping of all financial transactions and supporting documentation as per SARS and CSIR policies, allowing for easy references for audit purposes and queries;
• Assist management accountant or financial manager with preparation of weekly or monthly financial reports.

Governance and Compliance: Compliance to financial framework and relevant legislation and financial control

• Communicate requirements and ensure adherence to relevant CSIR policy and process in all areas of responsibility.

Support finance teams

• Assist with training and coaching of finance trainees and interns;
• Identify opportunities to improve business processes and to perform duties more efficiently and effectively and communicate these to the management account or finance manager;
• Uphold a culture of excellence, customer service and continuous improvement.

Qualifications, skills and experience:

• A bachelors degree in accounting or finance or management accounting
• Studying towards CIMA will be an advantage
• At least 3 years experience in finance, including sound understanding in
• Financial accounting
• Financial reconciliations and reporting
• The ERP system
• How contract and project related transactions impact on organisational financial results
• Accounting principles
• Project management qualification or experience will be an added advantage
• Microsoft office suite, especially MS Excel;
• Numerical and analytical skills;
• Attention to detail and accuracy;
• Record keeping and organisation skills;
• Good verbal, written and listening communication;
• Ability to continuously deliver accurate, timely and high- quality work whilst working under pressure.

Whats in it for you? 

The CSIR offers:

• Learning and development opportunities.
• Competitive and market-related remuneration packages.
• Total guaranteed salary packages which encompass contributions to the pension fund, risk insurance and medical scheme.
• We openly acknowledge and reward our employees' contributions and accomplishments through our esteemed CSIR Excellence Awards. 

Closing date: 17 April 2026