Current Openings at BDO South Africa

Description

• The Financial Manager is responsible for the financial deliverables of the department i.e. financial reporting, data analysis, creditor payments etc. The Financial Manager will produce accurate Financial Reports and assist in developing strategies and plans for the long-term financial goals of BDO.  The Financial Manager will ensure that various timelines are strictly met. Adherence to all applicable tax regulations.

Main duties and responsibilities 

• Perform a weekly reconciliation of planned time per the job planning system to the actual time billed to engagement codes per the timesheet system. Investigate significant differences and obtain feedback from engagement managers and partners.
• Summarise significant deviations to prepare an early warnings report for head of business.
• Follow up weekly with engagement managers and partners on long outstanding debtors and action any points arising.
• Summarise collections on invoices on a weekly basis and compare to long outstanding debtors.
• Share weekly partner performance dashboards obtained from Power BI. Attend to queries arising from partner review of dashboards.
• Share weekly partner remco dashboards obtained from Power BI. Attend to queries arising from partner review of dashboards.
• Ensure provisions are captured across all engagement codes on a monthly basis. Engage job managers to assess their stage of completion and overall job progress to budget. Review reasonability of provisions to ensure no excessive provisions have been passed, that provisions are accurate and that there are no missing provisions.
• Included under WIP reports
• Prepare a job summary report after provisions that shows monthly gross time and amounts provided for the month. Obtain reasons for significant outliers and low recovery jobs.
• Compare the monthly revenue results to the budgeted revenue per partner and per client. Obtain reasons for variances.
• Summarise disbursements by nature, category and client on a monthly basis. Obtain reasons for disbursement spend that is outside of budget and understand impact on overall job recovery.
• Summarise interservice / inter-divisional income by source and by engagement on a monthly basis. Understand reasons behind large variances in monthly income.
• Summarise interservice / inter-divisional expenses by source and by engagement on a monthly basis. Understand reasons behind large variances in monthly expense
• Monitor the gross margin of the business on a monthly basis and understand key drivers behind significant fluctuations.
• Perform a month return on revenue calculation and understand key drivers behind the calculation.
• Monitor the monthly Power BI heatmap dashboard. Identify key metrics that are driving heatmap indicators outside of the acceptable range. Take action to remediate the factors affecting the heatmap until such indicators fall within the acceptable range.
• Assist head of business in conducting a quarterly business review through re-forecasting revenue and expenditure to year end, understanding reasons for variances in revenue and expenditure against budget and reforecasting the net profit result of the business for the financial year.
• Maintain a monthly low recovery job tracker that lists all engagement below the business’ set target recovery. Obtain feedback from engagement managers and partners as to the reasons behind the low recoveries and action plan to remediate.
• Run the annual divisional budgeting process by obtaining all relevant revenue input sheets and cost input sheets from each division within the company. Review overall budget for reasonableness and participate in budget reviews with head of business and CFO.

Requirements
Requirements 

Qualifications/Recognition of Prior Learning equivalent:

• BCom Accounting Sciences degree
• BCom Hons CTA (would be advantageous)

Work Experience:

• 1 – 2 years’ experience within a management role
• Professional Services experience advantageous
• Proficient in Power BI
• Fundamental understanding of business operation 

Competencies

Technical Competencies:

• Accurate and detail orientated
• Proficient using Microsoft Excel
• Experience with Maconomy (advantageous)
• Behavioural Competencies
• Good analytical and problem-solving skills
• Ability to work as a team member
• Good oral and written communication skills 

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Description

• Discover your potential at the fastest-growing global professional services firm! Join BDO’s YES Internship Programme to gain invaluable experience and insights into your career field.

What You'll Gain:

• A structured, output-based environment
• Opportunities to grow your knowledge and experience, transitioning from student to employee
• Access to a dynamic and fast-growing team
• Interactions and relationship-building with BDO SA managers and partners
• Personal and professional growth

Requirements:

• Completed qualification in payroll compliance 
• Excellent command of English, both written and spoken
• Exceptional communication skills
• Ability to work independently
• Attention to quality and detail
• Strong teamwork skills

Eligibility:

• This is a 12-month fixed-term contract

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Description
BDO has a vacancy for a National Risk Officer-Legal. The successful incumbent will:

• Draft and negotiate contracts.
• Review existing contracts.
• Contract management.
• Ad hoc support.

Ensure compliance with various laws:

• Review various company practices and processes to ensure that the company's compliance, particularly pertaining to the company's specific business.
• Make recommendations on improving efficiencies.
• Work with various different committees to improve company structure, governance and compliance

Professional service delivery:

• Negotiate, draft, review and vet contracts to meet the company’s requirements and ensure that these are aligned with corporate governance precepts - disclosure, transparency, risk management, regulatory requirements etc.
• Provide strategic legal advice, negotiate legal agreements, and draft the relevant legal documents.
• Identify the impact of changes in legislation, regulations and codes of practice on internal legal processes and policies.
• Proactively review applicable legislation and case law and remain up to date with legal trends.
• Analyse company policies and, where applicable, provide solutions that will ensure compliance with legislation and business imperatives.

Stakeholder relationship management:

• Interact with Group business units, other Group functions and external stakeholders on legal matters and disputes.
• Interact with the company's customers and suppliers and their Legal Advisors and Attorney

Requirements

• LLB Degree. 
• Admitted Attorney. 
• 3 to 5 years post qualification work experience as a Legal Advisor and Legal Risk Management. 
• MS Office Suite at Advanced Level. 
• Previous experience in audit, advisory and tax firm is beneficial.

Competencies

• Well versed in Commercial Law
• Review and create contracts, agreements and other legal documents.
• Negotiate in-house and outside contracts.
• Analyse policies and practices for adherence to laws and regulations. 
• Organization, project management skills and attention to detail
• High level of commitment to quality work product and organizational ethics, integrity, and compliance
• Ability to work effectively in a fast-paced, team environment
• Strong interpersonal skills and the ability to effectively communicate, both written and verbally
• Demonstrated decision making and problem-solving skills
• Detail-oriented with the ability to multi-task and meet deadlines with minimal supervision
   

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Description

• The Financial Services division is looking for a Finance and Operations Supervisor to provide financial administration and operational support to the team. The Finance and Operations Supervisor will be responsible for using and managing administrative resources, systems, procedures, and policies to execute, manage, monitor and complete office-specific initiatives.

Main duties and responsibilities:

• Maintain a monthly billing schedule for the business itemised by client, engagement manager and partner.
• Ensure monthly billing targets are met by issuing client invoices for all required engagements for the month on the billing system, monitoring Microsoft Power BI dashboards for tracking of total billings and engaging with client engagement managers to understand variances and track these variances to finality.
• Follow up with invoice approvers to ensure the invoices are approved in a timely manner.
• Action WIP transfers of engagement entries between multiple engagement codes on the engagement management system.
• Ensure WIP transfer requests from engagement managers and partners are actioned in a timely manner.
• Clear all completed engagement codes on a month-to-month basis of all WIP and close engagement codes, ensuring all mandatory checks have been completed.
• Monitor old engagement codes and engage with client managers to manage the codes to closure.
• Update staff charge out rates on the system for annual changes in rates, new staff members and for any other changes to charge out rates.
• Maintain a charge out rate calculation for all levels of staff based on salary levels, productivity requirements and firm profitability requirements.
• Create purchase orders for business expenditure in a timely manner. Follow up on purchase order approvers and ensure purchase orders do not get backlogged.
• Capture purchase orders to the correct expenditure classification accounts.
• Independently liaise with BDO’s central finance division to answer and queries raised on the divisional management accounts.
• Create engagement codes based on engagement manager requests ensuring BDO’s risk acceptance requirements are met.
• Monitor daily, weekly and monthly timesheet reports for outstanding staff timesheets and follow-up with staff to submit timesheets.
• Monitor repeat non-compliance of staff with timesheet policies and report staff to BDO’s People & Culture division for appropriate action.
• Review the monthly payroll report to ensure joiners and leavers have been accounted for and once-off items have been appropriately accounted for such as leave pay-outs, overtime pay-outs, incentive payments, etc.
• Reconcile overtime entries in timesheets to approvals received from engagement managers. Ensure discrepancies are resolved. For significant overtime amount, ensure partner approval is obtained.
• Obtain leave approvals from engagement managers and approve leave submissions on the payroll system.
• Reconcile leave submissions between the payroll and timesheet systems.
• Monitor trainee training attendance per the training calendar and report trainees to counselling managers and P&C where there is non-attendance.
• Maintain a schedule of users for all IT licenses across the division. Ensure licenses are removed for terminated users and approved for new users. Conduct regular license reviews on a monthly basis to ensure user lists are accurate.
• Understand how cost allocations are performed within BDO. Perform monthly reviews of cost allocations to ensure fairness and accuracy of cos allocations.
• For new external suppliers, ensure the supplier onboarding procurement process is followed with all necessary forms, approvals and information obtained to complete the onboarding.
• Perform monthly reviews of travel reports, identify and investigate anomalies. Prepare summaries of the report for head of business.
• Monitoring adherence to BDO Policies. This includes being familiar with and enforcing adherence to all BDO operational policies, eg leave, overtime, travel claims, working from home, dress code, staff conduct etc.
• This specifically extends to monitoring of adherence to the sick leave policy and work attendance policy.

Requirements
Essential skills and qualifications:

• Business Admin Degree/Business Administration Honours or relevant qualification
• Minimum 3 years’ experience in related field
• Computer literate (good use of Microsoft Word, Excel and Power BI)
• Excellent verbal and written communication skills
• Demonstrable experience in general administration/executive assistant in a highly pressurized environment requiring tact, judgement, and discretion in dealing with external and internal stakeholders
• Experience in diary management/researching and administration
• A proactive approach to problem solving with strong decision-making skills.

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Description

• BDO Tax is looking for Tax Trainees to join their team.

As part of your 3-year SAIT registered Traineeship you will get exposure to the following:

• Assist the tax team with preparation and submission of tax returns for individuals, partnerships, corporations, and trusts
• Preparation of first, second and third provisional returns
• Calculation of tax liabilities and finalisation of income tax
• Payroll tax
• VAT returns, registrations, and opinions
• Identifying tax risks for audits on a multi-disciplinary basis
• Support in conducting tax audits and investigations, liaising with tax authorities as necessary
• Draft response to SARS queries
• Write tax opinions and reports
• Demonstrate ethics and professional conduct in a tax environment
• Register taxpayers and finalise income tax, payroll tax and VAT returns in a private tax practice
• Draft memorandum and formulate responses to Alternative Dispute Resolutions
• Write tax opinions related to tax disputes, business models and investment and estate planning
• Draft VDP Applications Participate in research and analysis of tax legislation, regulations, and case law to ensure accurate and up-to-date tax advise
• Collaborate with senior tax professionals to identify tax planning opportunities and potential risks for clients
• Draft articles
• Participate in training sessions, workshops, and professional development opportunities to enhance technical skills and industry knowledge

Requirements

Qualifications

• Senior Certificate and relevant B.Com degree
• Applicants must have completed or still studying towards their B.com Honours degree specializing in Taxation or equivalent
• Sound Knowledge of the Tax legislation and Tax law

Competencies

• Excellent communications and listening skills
• Professionalism Strong client orientation
• Attention to detail
• Creative yet organised
• Ability to prioritize and work under pressure achieving reporting deadlines
• Task driven and delivery focused
• Socially aware and able to work as part of a diverse tea

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• The ACCA Accountant Traineeship is a 3 Year Training Contract whereby you will gain the relevant experience in order to register as a Chartered Certified Accountant.
• The Trainee Accountant vacancies are for 2024 first year trainees wanting to start their training contract within the BDO Audit division. The training contract will ensure that you achieve the competencies to register with SAICA or ACCA and equip you with generalist expertise and experience in a broad range of commercial sectors. As a BDO Audit professional, you’ll work in a fast-paced environment and help BDO to deliver exceptional client service. 

We are looking for candidates who would like:

• Exposure to a broad range of client sectors.
• Hands on experience with clients and management.
• Open door policy with managers and partners.
• To learn about a broad range of businesses from listed entities to entrepreneurial startups.
• A supportive environment that is focused on skills development and professionalism.

Requirements

• Must have successfully completed all ACCA exams or will complete by December 2023.
• Must have selected Advanced auditing as one of the modules for ACCA exams.
• ACCA Accredited degree from a residential university with auditing as one of the major subject.
• Must be a South African citizen

Competencies:

• Keen willingness to learn and bring energy and aspiration to audit team;
• Strong technical ability;
• High level of attention to detail and analytical and problem solving abilities;
• Ability to communicate effectively;
• Ability to relate to clients;
• Ability to apply sound professional judgment;
• Demonstrate a commitment to self-development and growth;
• Ability to work within diverse teams;
• Strong organisational ability.
• Please remember to submit your CV, ID, Matric Certificate and Academic Records

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• The primary purpose of the Financial Services Manager: Banking role is to assist the Partners at BDO Financial Services with identifying, leading, and managing key accounts and implementing business development within the Banking sector in South Africa, focusing on external audit and consulting services. 
• The Manager will also be given the responsibility to lead Banking project engagements in both the audit (external and internal) and consulting areas of the Financial Services division, based out of Johannesburg. This role will involve taking responsibility for the planning, execution and delivery of engagements; leading project and audit teams to achieve this; and building and maintaining client relationships while delivering on this. 

In addition, the Manager will be expected to get involved with the day-to-day operations of the Financials Services business unit, which include (but are not limited to) functions such as: 

• finance (budget and WIP monitoring and management), 
• staff recruitment, 
• staff training, 
• counselling / mentoring audit trainees under the SAICA assessor program, 
• coaching / mentoring junior managers,
• audit quality,
• risk management / client onboarding, and
• assisting leadership of FS with proactively contributing to setting the FS strategy and then implementing the strategy plan in the sector of Banking, once approved. 
• Focus will be specifically on experience in the Financial Services sector, particularly in banking and lending. 

We are looking for candidates who would be:

• A go-getter looking for exciting career growth opportunities in a fast-growing business unit within a leading professional services firm. A self-starter that is able to project manage and run assignments and teams independently, with a passion for client relationships and mentoring young CA talent.
• Able to analyse and make decisions regarding complex accounting, auditing, and risk management matters, relating to the Banking and Lending industry;
• Able to develop and review high quality working papers, audit files and reports, and then be able to present the results to senior level staff members at BDO and at clients (C-level staff and Audit / Risk Committee equivalents);
• Able to identify key areas of change and subjectivity affecting the Banking and Lending industry in South Africa, research these areas and summarise internal views and consultations, with a view to providing thought leadership out to the FS market on banking and lending;
• Able to collaborate with the existing FS team as part of a flat reporting structure; and to collaborate with other FS Managers, Senior Managers, Associate Directors and Partners across BDO Financial Services.

Requirements: 

• B. Com Honours; CA (SA) qualification;
• A minimum of 2-3 years’ post-qualification/articles experience;
• Specific experience in banking and/or lending external audit engagements at a professional services firm, and/or Financial Services work experience outside practice but within the industry post articles; 
• A sound knowledge of and exposure to the IASB accounting standards, audit standards (ISA’s) currently in issue, and a wide general knowledge of legislation and regulations that could affect financial reporting in the Financial Services industry; 
• Deep knowledge and experience with the application of IFRS 7, IFRS 9, IFRS 13 and IAS 39 and all the ISA’s currently in issuance. 

Competencies:

• Building trust and relationships
• Fostering collaborative teamwork
• Accessibility, persuasiveness and influencing
• Proactive in all that we do
• Fostering active communication
• Continuously adding value
• Client focused
• Demonstrating a commercial and innovative digital mind-set
• Aligning career aspirations with the strategies, goals and objectives of the team and firm
• Innovative and willing to share ideas for new ways of working
• Ability to work with all levels within an organisation
• Demonstration of passion and energy to Financial Services and to the specific area of specialisation

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• The primary purpose of the Financial Services Manager: Banking role is to assist the Partners at BDO Financial Services with identifying, leading, and managing key accounts and implementing business development within the Banking sector in South Africa, focusing on external audit and consulting services. The Manager will also be given the responsibility to lead Banking project engagements in both the audit (external and internal) and consulting areas of the Financial Services division, based out of Johannesburg.
• This role will involve taking responsibility for the planning, execution and delivery of engagements; leading project and audit teams to achieve this; and building and maintaining client relationships while delivering on this. In addition, the Senior Manager will be expected to get involved with the day-to-day operations of the Financials Services business unit, which include (but are not limited to) functions such as:
• finance (budget and WIP monitoring and management)
• staff recruitment
• staff training
• counselling / mentoring audit trainees under the SAICA assessor program
• coaching / mentoring junior managers
• audit quality
• risk management / client onboarding, and
• assisting leadership of FS with proactively contributing to setting the FS strategy and then implementing the strategy plan in the sector of Banking, once approved.
• Focus will be specifically on experience in the Financial Services sector, particularly in banking and lending. We are looking for candidates who would be:
• A go-getter looking for exciting career growth opportunities in a fast-growing business unit within a leading professional services firm. A self-starter that is able to project manage and run assignments and teams independently, with a passion for client relationships and mentoring young CA talent.
• Able to analyse and make decisions regarding complex accounting, auditing, and risk management matters, relating to the Banking and Lending industry.
• Able to develop and review high quality working papers, audit files and reports, and then be able to present the results to senior level staff members at BDO and at clients 
• Able to identify key areas of change and subjectivity affecting the Banking and Lending industry in South Africa, research these areas and summarise internal views and
• consultations, with a view to providing thought leadership out to the FS market on banking and lending.
• Able to collaborate with the existing FS team as part of a flat reporting structure; and to collaborate with other FS Managers, Senior Managers, Associate Directors and Partners across BDO Financial Services.

Requirements

Qualifications/ Work experience:

• B. Com Honours; CA (SA) qualification.
• A minimum of 3-5 years’ post-qualification/articles experience.
• Specific experience in banking and/or lending external audit engagements at a professional services firm, and/or Financial Services work experience outside practice but within the industry post articles;
• A sound knowledge of and exposure to the IASB accounting standards, audit standards (ISA’s) currently in issue, and a wide general knowledge of legislation and regulations that could affect financial reporting in the Financial Services industry.
• Deep knowledge and experience with the application of IFRS 7, IFRS 9, IFRS 13 and IAS 39 and all the ISA’s currently in issuance.

Competencies:

• Building trust and relationships
• Fostering collaborative teamwork
• Accessibility, persuasiveness and influencing
• Proactive in all that we do
• Fostering active communication
• Continuously adding value
• Client focused
• Demonstrating a commercial and innovative digital mind-set
• Aligning career aspirations with the strategies, goals and objectives of the team and firm
• Innovative and willing to share ideas for new ways of working Ability to work with all levels within an organisation
• Demonstration of passion and energy to Financial Services and to the specific area of specialisation

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Main Duties & Responsibilities:

Day-to-day responsibilities will include any number of activities such as, but not limited to:

• Actuarial audit support to a portfolio of clients across the insurance (general and life), retirement funding and medical scheme industries
• Reviews of technical provisions / IAS 19 liabilities / IFRS 17 liabilities including report drafting
• Involvement in IFRS 17 engagements including transition aspects, assisting clients understand impacts of various policy decisions, actuarial audits etc.
• Actuarial modelling and valuation work from a variety of perspectives including liabilities, remediation, due diligence, audit, reinsurance, capital optimisation, dashboards etc.
• Actuarial function assessments, assisting insurance and other clients to transform & enhance actuarial and risk management processes including model reviews, operating structures
• Research, data collection, analysis, production of actionable recommendations
• Professional engagement with internal and external stakeholders including clients and suppliers
• Operational activities underpinning establishment of the actuarial business unit
• Business development initiatives, proposal writing, thought leadership collateral.

Requirements:

Qualifications/Recognition of Prior Learning equivalent:

• Qualified or nearly qualified actuary

Work Experience:

• Experience in audit support environment across insurance (general and life), retirement funds, medical schemes

Knowledge:

• Relevant actuarial skills gained within audit environment or consultancy.  Knowledge of IFRS17, capital and solvency calculations, ORSA, reserving, reinsurance advantageous
• Familiarity with and practical experience in assignments under relevant audit standards, professional guidance and legislation including
• International Financial Reporting Standard 17 (IFRS 17)
• Solvency Assessment and Management (SAM) Quantitative Impact Study 3 (QIS 3)
• International Standard on Auditing 540 (ISA 540)
• International Accounting Standard 19 (IAS 19)
• International Financial Reporting Standard 13 (IFRS 13)
• Knowledge of relevant analytics platforms advantageous (Prophet, SQL, Python, SAS, Power BI, MATLAB)
• Competencies: Technical & Behavioural:

Technical:

• Business writing skills including actuarial reports, proposals, client correspondence
• Outstanding communication skills (written and oral), ability to credibly engage clients and senior colleagues
• Ability to take on projects (familiar as well as new) and structure task allocations around critical goals
• Ability to prepare client recommendations utilising industry knowledge, tools and technology
• Confident and credible taking the lead in client interactions, undertaking research and building market profile

Behavioural:

• Proactive, self-driven, entrepreneurial
• Attention to detail, organized
• Hard-working with demonstrated ability in problem solving and managing multiple complex tasks
• Intellectual curiosity and personal flexibility to undertake new and untried approaches.