Job Vacancies at Bowmans (Law Firm)

Purpose:

• Responsible for providing financial management support and advice to stakeholders in the Bowmans Group offices based outside of South Africa in order to enable them to make sound business decisions. Ensures financial practices and information are in line with company policy and all statutory legislation & regulations (International Financial Reporting Standards - IFRS). Oversees the work of Financial Accountants responsible for the respective offices.

Experience and Qualifications:

• 8-10 years post article experience, with at least 2-3 years management experience and 3 years financial accounting cross boarder experience across Africa
• Must be able to communicate at executive level
• Intermediate/advance MS Office knowledge
• BCom Hons with articles or equivalent essential
• CIMA, CA (SA) preferable

Key Accountabilities and Activities:

Preparation of Monthly Management Accounts & Financial Reporting:

• Preparation of the monthly management accounts pack in order to fully assess the performance of the respective offices
• Reviewing of the income statement, balance sheet and cash flow as prepared by the Financial Accountants
• Prepare a monthly cash flow forecast, including a liquidity and solvency analysis , to assess if adhere to all internal and external covenants
• Preparation and presentation of each countries financial performance at a monthly Africa update meeting
• Ensuring that IFRS are applied consistently across respective offices and in line with Group practices

Cost Analysis & Control:

• Analysis and identification of incurred costs versus budget and prior year, in order to fully understand cost drivers for key stakeholders to make informed decisions
• Identify cost saving opportunities in order to improve the financial wellbeing of the Firm.
• Review reconciled expenditure reports to test the validity of costs

Tax and Inter-Company Transactions:

• Maintain the Group Transfer pricing methodology and documentation and ensure ongoing review to meet tax authority requirements
• Ensure cross border billing efficiency, monitoring and accurate reporting on pricing arrangements and tax compliance.
• Leverage off the Firm pricing model to customise and implement in other African countries
• Support the automation of the inter-office billing process and settlements
• Drive consistent financial discipline and accurate reporting of inter-office expenses and recoveries
• Conduct and review provisional and year-end tax computations for the respective offices.
• Facilitate the resolution of all relevant country Revenue Authorities queries timeously
• Review tax computations VAT , PAYE, SDL , WHT , deferred tax

Banking/ Treasury and Credit Management:

• Ensure appropriate relationships are formed with our bankers.
• Support the Group Financial Manager & Group CFO in arranging new sources of finance and renewal of facilities
• Provide financial information to the Group Risk Manager, used in seeking South Africa Reserve Bank approvals for Related Party transactions, and Bank Guarantees
• Collaborate with the Group Treasury Accountant in reviewing if best banking practices are followed from a control’s perspective.
• Collaborate with the Collections Manager in the Management of the debtor’s book, ensuring optimal collection, boosting cash flow and minimising bad debt.
• Support in approval of payment in line with the delegation of authority.

Internal Control Systems Development:

• Liaise with the Group Financial Manager and the Innovations Team to ensure full functioning of systems.
• Ensure consistency of system set up, processes and procedures impacting Finance operations.
• Ensuring that Firm internal controls for the different accounting cycles and processes are customized and applied in all applicable offices in order to ensure consistency across the group, where practical and allowed by local legislation.
• Collaborate with Practice Group Finance Manager in the setup of team reports and Dashboards for Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, Mauritius, Malawi and Zambia

Budgeting & Budgetary Control:

• Lead and co-ordinate the budgeting process for offices outside of South Africa in order to set performance targets for performance monitoring and control throughout the financial year.
• Effectively manage and communicate the budget process and principles to stakeholders
• Review the budgeted fees and expenses for large variances and resolve prior to submission to the Group Financial Manager for review
• Engage with the managing partners, in-country finance teams and business services stakeholders for completion of their various annual budgets.
• Preparation of the budgeted income statement, balance sheet and cash flow, statements including determining funding needs for the year ahead
• Compilation of the information required by the Remuneration committee, including historical fee and profit information per team and per fee earner.
• Provide input to the annual budget presentation for approval by the board as directed by Group Financial Manager
• Review reconciled expenditure reports to test the validity of costs

External Audit & Preparation of Annual Financial Statements (AFS):

• Participate in the annual external audit through assisting the in-country finance teams with an audit plan and execution
• Provide assistance to the in-country finance teams to resolve auditor queries and ensure the audit is completed in an appropriate time frame
• Prepare Annual Financial Statements to ensure they are prepared in accordance with IFRS.
• Present findings to the Group Financial Manager and Group CFO for board approval

Leadership and Management:

• Manage three accountants in the Sandton office and oversee the in-country finance managers
• Manages own teams performance to ensure delivery of the approved finance strategy across designated departments
• Gives regular, comprehensive and constructive feedback to team and conducts their performance appraisals
• Proactively seeks feedback from team members and deals constructively with any critism
• Adjusts management style to get the best from the individuals within the team
• Delegates work to team members taking into account their capacity, level of skill and exposure to different types of work and complexity; provides clear instructions and direction, with reasonable deadlines

Relationship Building:

• Develop relationships with Partners and senior managers as a trusted financial advisor
• Develop relationships with all individuals below management level as a trusted financial advisor
• Maintain strong working relationships with and have open and transparent communication between all members of the team
• Develop and maintain relationships with external parties e.g. Vendors to ensure service delivery of high quality; Regulators, Revenue authorities and auditors.

Ad-Hoc Requests:

• Support the business as and when ad-hoc financial request come in and provide information that is accurate, of a high standard and delivered within required timeframes

Competencies:

• Attention to Detail
• Interactive Communication 
• Relationship Building
• Financial and Management Accounting
• Financial Budgeting, Planning and Reporting
• Financial Policy Development, Interpretation and Application
• Legislation, Policies, Procedures and Standards

Bowmans is committed to achieving the objectives set in its transformation charter, and the targets in its employment equity plan. All recruitment decisions will be taken with due consideration being given to these objectives.

Closing date for applications is Tuesday 15 December 2020.

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Purpose

• Provide timely and efficient support to the employees of the Firm on hardware, software, audio/visual events and special IT related requests. 

Experience and Qualifications

• Senior Certificate essential
• COMPTIA A+ N+ essential 
• 3-4 years’ with good understanding of computer hardware and software (windows based operating systems and Microsoft office applications).
• Good written and verbal communication skills
• Effective client service orientation
• Ability to communicate technical information to non-technical people

Key Accountabilities & Activities

User Support:

• Monitor all incoming help desk calls
• Encourage all calls to be logged
• Attend to all calls timeously and professionally
• Escalate queries where necessary
• For escalated queries, keep user updated on progress

Prepare for audio visual events:

• Obtain details for the event
• Liaise with user to determine any special requirement
• Set up boardroom before event
• Ensure equipment is fully functional
• Decommission room and collect equipment when event is over

Repair and Maintain:

• Conduct repairs timeously on both hardware and software
• Log a call with supplier if repairs cannot be done in house.
• Supply loan equipment to user where appropriate.
• Ensure audio visual facilities are in working order on a daily basis
• Maintain all IT equipment on a regular basis e.g. printers, fax machines, copiers

Data Centre:

• Ensure tape backups are done daily
• Ensure no warning alerts
• Ensure server room environment is optimal

IT Projects:

• Contribute to IT projects as required

Inventory:

• Maintain adequate levels of IT stock. This includes both consumables and hardware
• Report hardware levels to Help Desk Team Leader/IT Manager

User Moves:

• Re-connect desktop/laptop, phone and printer
• Update systems where relevant

Install software for users:

• Receive request for software from user
• Install software for user
• Train user on how to use software

Relationship Building:

• Develop and maintain relationships with levels of staff as a trusted IT resource.
• Maintain strong working relationships with and have open and transparent communication between all members of the IT team

Competencies:

• Analytical Thinking
• Client Focus
• Initiative
• Interactive communication
• Problem solving
• Resilience
• Teamwork  

“Bowman Gilfillan is committed to achieving the objectives set in its transformation charter, and the targets in its employment equity plan. All recruitment decisions will be taken with due consideration being given to these objectives.” Closing date for Applications is Tuesday 15 December 2020.