Financial Controller at Smith & Nephew

Description

The Financial Controller manages the day to day activities of the transactional and commercial finance teams for the Africa Region, providing reliable financial services and quality information to top management.

Key Performance Areas

• Control over the budget and forecasting processes for both the P+L and balance sheet.
• Integrity of the books of account, and the preparation of appropriate value adding local, Group and external reporting and analysis, with relevant recommendations when appropriate.
• Compliance with all Group, statutory and regulatory requirements.
• Overall management of finance staff, ensuring a culture of continuous improvement.
• Development of effective risk management measures to protect company assets.

Main Functions

• Preparation of the Group Strat Plan and the annual budget exercise in line with Group and local directives.
• Ensure balanced forecasting, both locally and into Group.
• Accuracy of financial transactions, ledgers, sub ledgers and payment processing.
• Group reporting submitted to the required standard and on a timeous basis.
• Provide top management with high quality monthly management accounts, KPI summaries and other relevant reporting together with suitable commentary on variances to enable sound business decision making.
• Confirm that all finance activities are in line with the relevant technical and accounting standards and the Group Finance Manual, as well as meeting all statutory and regulatory legislation requirements. Provide guidance to the management team on financial policies and the implementation/application of such policies.
• Responsible for the recruitment, management, mentoring, training, talent development and discipline of all finance staff to ensure the current and long term effectiveness of all financial functions.
• Implement and maintain suitable systems, policies and best practice internal controls.
• Cash management and treasury matters to be dealt with in terms of Group mandates. Responsible for ensuring the company receives competitive terms in the market place.
• Review of proposed capital expenditure to maximize the return on investment.
• Work with top management and provide input on pricing strategies to optimize the company positioning against competitors, prevailing economic conditions and market forces. Review past decisions for economic soundness.
• Review product launch proposals and provide comment on viability.
• Liaison with internal and external auditors.
• Continuously identify low value tasks and eliminate/delegate/automate them across the finance operation. Implement/refine new ideas/concepts to ensure higher value outputs support the business.
• Engage the other support department heads to create efficient ways of working across the company.
• Will be required to take on additional responsibility as determined by top management from time to time.
   

Minimum Entry Requirements

• Education
  B.Com, CA preferred

• Experience
  A minimum of 10 years post qualification experience, including at least 5 years in a senior managerial capacity at an international company.