Job Vacancies at Astron Energy (Pty) Ltd.

The General Accountant is responsible for intercompany accounting, execution of the monthly Real Estate runs in SAP (lease-in and lease-outs) and various tasks in general accounting including processing of month-end journals in areas such as general accruals, audit fee accruals and prepayments. The General Accountant is also responsible for processing general ledger and cost centre reallocations, as well as processing monthly business unit segmentation entries.

Financial Perspective

Perform Month-End and Year-End Related Tasks:

• Prepare and process month-end journals for all general ledger (GL) accounts under reconciliation as well as intercompany customer and vendor accounts
• Liaise with intercompany partners to ensure month-end alignment of balances

Prepare and process ad-hoc month end journals including

• GL reallocations
• Cost Centre reallocations
• Business Unit segmentation entries
• Ensure all GL-accounts are reconciled monthly under the in terms of account reconciliation standards
• Ensure year-end deliverables for the annual external audit are prepared for accounts under reconciliation

Execute monthly Real Estate runs (Lease-ins and Lease outs)

For Lease-ins

• Liaise with Real Estate team to obtain listing of rental contracts to be processed for payment
• Check  previous and current month to identify all changes to contracts
• Ensure commentary received from Real Estate team as to why payment values have changed
• If new/additional contracts has been added for payment obtain supporting evidence
• Save all correspondence for audit purposes.
• Real Estate team will send Lease-in files for posting with simulations performed for these postings.
• Perform simulation in SAP and ensure SAP posting is in line with expected outcome as receipted from Real Estate team.
• Run Lease –in files in SAP (post transaction)
• Check SAP posting to simulation file as validation performed after execution to ensure SAP results are in line with expectation

Lease-Outs

• For Lease-outs Liaise with Real Estate team to obtain listings of contracts to be posted for collection of payments
• Real estate team will provide a listing of the contracts that must be excluded from posting
• Post Lease-out (rental collection) in SAP
• Provide Posting Log and Error log from SAP to Real estate team for validation and sign-off
• Create invoices in SAP
• Send(email) invoices to customers

Valuations

• Receive instruction from Real Estate team to post IFRS 16 valuations for the month
• Real estate team will provide simulations of expected outcomes
• General accountant will simulate to validate expected posting to file receipted from Real Estate Team
• Post Valuation (RECEEP)
• Provide Real Estate team with posting log and error log of posting with confirmation of posting being in line with expected outcome

Maintenance billings

• Real estate team will request posting of maintenance billing (to retail customers) for maintenance performed at Retail service stations
• Real Estate will provide listing of contracts & retailers that must be billed.
• General accountant to post in SAP and provide posting logs with confirmation that postings occurred without errors.
• General accountant will ensure that Billing dates are changed/aligned in SAP as per instruction from Real Estate team and provide confirmation to Real Estate team once executed

Preparation and submission of GO-1627 payment requests for intercompany and other ad-hoc Finance BU cost invoices (e.g. audit fees, insurance)

• Complete GO-1627 forms
• Ensure forms are timeously submitted to Treasury in order to adhere to payment due dates

Customer Perspective

Year-End External Audit Support

• Produce data for GL accounts under reconciliation as per External Audit Deliverable list
• Attend to External Audit queries within reasonable timeframe
• Work with external auditors to resolve contentious audit matters

Ad-Hoc Internal Audit Support

• Provide data as requested
• Discuss and resolve contentious audit matters

Prepare customer invoices for lease-ins

• As part of month-end procedures
• Ad-hoc for historical billings as and when requested

Internal Processes

Monthly General Ledger reconciliations

• Prepare monthly general ledger reconciliations for assigned GL accounts
• Follow up on long outstanding/overdue items in line with account reconciliation trace and escalation procedures
• Ensure South Africa/Botswana intercompany account payments and customer/vendor account clearing is kept up to date. Long overdue UCR(Export) reference numbers to be traced and escalated.
• Send out monthly requests to Business Units to confirm status of general accruals. Retain e-mail correspondence as audit evidence of trace and escalation.
• Submit account reconciliations for review in line with pre-agreed timelines

Ad-hoc system implementation or improvement

• Log SAP Support tickets for any systems deficiencies identified during the course of daily/month-end task execution
•  Take responsibility for tickets raised and trace and escalate if not resolved timeously

Professional Qualification and Certifications:

• B.Com Accounting Degree or equivalent Accounting qualification (required)

Knowledge and skills:

• 1 – 2 years of post-qualification work experience
• MS Office (Required),
• SAP (Preferred),
• Oil industry knowledge/Experience (Preferred)

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• Perform executive, business management and administrative support to the General Manager Strategy, Sustainability & Operational Excellence & broader team. Supports within the department liaises with external stakeholders.

Provide support to the Strategy, Sustainability & Operational Excellence leadership and department as a whole

• For GM, this includes daily coordination
• For department, this includes travel arrangements, event management, procurement, screening calls and re-routing as required,
• Understands the operations within the department to direct calls appropriately, minimizing the impact on management
• Manage day to day communication
• Provide direct support to other EXCO Leadership team as and when required, aligning with GM Strategy, Sustainability & Operational Excellence

Fiscal Administrative Support

• Prepare Systems, Applications, and Products (SAP) purchase orders.
• Prepare Expenditure Requests and data for purchase of equipment that forms part of Capital.
• Control all office expenditure and implement cost control processes relating to telephone, photocopy, fax, courier services and stationary costs.
•  Process and reconcile all GM travelling expenditure.

Transactional Administration

• Book outside training/events for management on request.
• Prepare and submit monthly reports.
• Maintain confidentiality of sensitive information.
• Work with management to prepare training plan for all employee, track and monitor training plan.

Operational Excellence and Other Support

• Perform other occasional support functions as and when required.
• LPS Stewardship - Utilize Loss Prevention System to enhance Operational Excellence understanding & improve. Perform, monitor and report regularly on Loss Prevention Observation’s and use Near Loss Incident’s/ Loss Investigation’s

Execution Compliance:

• Actively assist the Strategy, Sustainability & Operational Excellence team in organizing meetings, participate, take minutes, circulate and follow up on specific action items and follow up on all matters on a timely basis. 
• Budget tracking/forecasting with respect to payment of vendors and assist in the payment of vendors and arrange monthly Strategy, Sustainability & Operational Excellence meetings. 
• In respect of compliance, collect and consolidate all the required monthly data/information as per agreed schedules/calendar. 
• Responsible for making travel and hotel arrangements for team above (include flight bookings, hotel reservations, visa application).  Co-ordinate and arrange conferences, meetings and training programs and ensure all arrangements are in order prior to the event.
• Assist in preparing presentations / reports as and when required. 

Professional Qualification and Certifications:

• Business Administration/Management, or other tertiary qualification.

Work Experience:

• 5 years experience in a corporate environment
• In a business administration and or project management role

Knowledge and skills:

• Proficiency in MS Office (Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Visio, Electronic Mail and Calendar, and Projects)
• Knowledge of SAP R/3
• Ability to work under pressure (essential)
• Strong initiative and ability to think and work independently (essential)
• Strong Planning and organizing skills (critical)
• Strong Customer relationships and interactions skills (critical)

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The Customer Data Analytics and Insights Specialist is a critical role that supports the business through data gathering, interpretation, analyses and the use of insights and results together with statistical techniques to better understand customers.

• The Specialist will conduct research and collect data regarding sales/marketing trends and consumer satisfaction.
• To analyze the data the specialist must develop and implement data analysis, data collection systems and other strategies that optimize statistical efficiency and quality data for Astron Energy.
• Establish and deliver Retail elements of the Astron Energy Data Analytics and insights change programme, seeking innovative opportunities to accelerate value and increase the bottom-line profit, by enabling and providing answers to complex business questions.
• At steady state and as part of a vibrant data and analytics community across the Retail business, the Specialist will harness a modern data and analytics capability at the heart of decision making in the Retail leadership Team.

Key focus areas will include:

• Collate data from Convenience Retail, Automation, Loyalty, Digital etc. for analysis and insight generation.
• Conduct Research tidentify customer preferences, needs and attitudes about Astron Energy products and services
• Monitor industry trends tidentify future opportunities
• Identify target customer segments and create marketing strategies treach those segments
• Implement an effective data and analytics solutions.

Review and analyze data tidentify patterns in customer behavior or preferences that can help improve customer performance metrics such as:

• Customer engagement
• Customer retention
• Customer attraction
• Define metrics timprove
• customer solutions and experience
• ROMI
• business processes etc.•

Financial Perspective

• Drive the Astron Energy plan to innovate with customer data and analytics to deliver actionable insights for superior business performance.
• Embed data and analytics to accelerate business growth and create value for Astron Energy, customers, employees and shareholders.
• Ensure marketing spend delivers and contributes to the Retail and Marketing business performance / bottom line (ROMI).
• Data ownership: Encapsulation of all the Bata points across the business to tell a story and narrative on the business performance.
• Use of intelligent data to corroborate data points to guide the business decisions and back up any hypothesis with data.
• Drives the critical and commercial thinking around where analytics can have the most value in the business, concentrating on maximizing return on investment.

Customer Perspective

• Review historical data to identify trends in customer behaviour or preferences over time Evangelist and flag-carrier for Data and Analytics, leads data and analytics transformation across the retail business, especially monetization of data. Able to challenge the business constructively and supports the GM and Retail leadership team with strategic choices through a mix of business acumen and quantitative analysis. Guardian of Astron Energy retail wide data and analytics methods & tools, works with the Central finance Data and Analytics function to drive implementation of the customer data analytics and insights initiative. Identifies and recommends new ways to drive efficiency by streamlining business processes. Advises the retail leadership team for the design and delivery of reports and insights that analyse businesses, functions, operations and performance metrics. Ensures accuracy of data and analytics deliverables in compliance with data policies and processes developed centrally Lead for data governance within the retail business, to support compliance with quality standards and regulatory requirements.

Business Excellence

• Compile reports based on findings from research and data analysis to provide recommendations for decision making Develops and tracks business KPls to measure performance and success of customer and business initiatives within retail & marketing. Communicates and champions results and business impacts of insights initiatives to stakeholders. Drive one version of the truth across the value chain issuing data and analytics and guide business narrative to drive performance in the right areas. Champion innovation in payment systems, real time processing of data across the customer value chain. Customer behaviour analytics that are digitally led with a meaningful dashboard Acquire data from primary or secondary data sources and maintaining data base

People Management

• Leads the Retail Customer Data Analytics and insights team; recruits, trains, develops and manages data analyst(s) when required Provides guidance to the team in the development, testing and presentation of hypotheses-driven analysis. Provides data analytics support to the Retail and Marketing team Manage the different stakeholders within Retail and Marketing as well as cross functional stakeholders

Professional Qualification and Certifications:

• Bachelor's Degree in fields such as business administration, marketing, statistics, analytics, mathematics etc. Postgraduate qualification is an advantage, but not compulsory.

Work Experience:

• 7-8 years' professional experience, including I-year minimum in a position of monitoring, managing, manipulating, and drawing insights from data At least 3 years' experience leading a team at management level. Demonstrable experience in formulating and solving business problems using mathematical/statistical constructs to derive insights. Experience in a customer insights analyst and research role will be an advantage

Knowledge and skills:

• Data analysis skills Data quality, data governance, data protection, data architecture, data mapping, data engineering, data science, data exploitation and data visualization. Working knowledge of analytics disciplines: descriptive, diagnostic, predictive and prescriptive analytics. Familiarity with analytics techniques, e.g., Regression Analysis, Timeseries, Monte Carlo modelling, Clustering etc. Working knowledge of SAP S4/Hana Working knowledge of data visualization tools: e.g., Tableau, Alteryx Fuel Industry knowledge Critical thinking and problem-solving skills Strong customer focus and business skills, self-starter and results driven with the drive and persistency to perform, even at times of great change Very good communication and presentation skills.
• Good team player with excellent influencing skills

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Reporting to Lead, Process Engineering, provide Process Designs expertise for projects. Technical SME supporting North operations, planning, reliability services and Safety, Health, Environment & Quality (SHEQ).

Reponsbilities may include but are not limited to:

• Provide process design input through all the phases of a project - conceptual, feasibility, front-end engineering, detailed engineering and construction as well as commissioning and post audits.
• Perform technical / feasibility studies to evaluate margin and process improvement opportunities.
• Update existing and develop new process design job standards, i.e., Job Loss Analyses, guides, procedures and checklists.
• Perform lookbacks at the end of key project phases and integrate lessons learnt into job standards, processes and systems.
• Participate in a Community of Practice (CoP) for process design.
• Provide technical support to operations, planning, reliability services and Safety, Health, Environment & Quality (SHEQ).

Required Qualifications & Experience:

• B.Sc / B. Eng in Chemical Engineering.
• Minimum 6 yrs' working experience. Petro Chemical / Refining strongly preferred.
• Experienced in providing process design inputs to field and capital projects.
• A solid grounding in project management principles and processes.
• Able to drive for results while ensuring good quality outputs.

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Custodian and Lead of the Retailer Selection Process.

• Partner with area Sales team, Trainers, and Contracts Management team to execute a seamless and timely retailer selection process that will ensure that the best candidates are appointed as retailers. Own, build and manage a retailer candidate pool from which to select future retailers. Partner with the Transformation Manager to develop and execute a solid Retail Transformation agenda that ensures the success of the transformation candidates.
• Develop and manage best processes and standards for recruiting retailers in the DIT network (Cape Town, Durban and Gauteng) (CORO, CLRO, RORO and ROWA). This entails managing and conducting various elements of the Retailer selection process for the area/sales district. It also includes screening and evaluation of all service station enquiries.
• Ensure due process is followed in the instances of willing buyer, willing seller as well as the retailer selection process implemented in terms of the new Franchise Agreements.
• Co-ordinate the Renewal Process from end to end. This entails categorisation of a site as either a renewal or non-renewal and liaise with relevant stakeholders to ensure the relevant processes for each scenario is achieved.
• Attend to due diligence requests, inter alia, Know Your Counterparty (KYC).
• Co-ordinate the retailer selection process for non-pumping sites as well as NTC’s and NTI’s.
• Onboarding employees and attending to refresher training of the retailer selection process and the renewal process. Attend to sessions with the Branded Investor and Branded Marketers to align them with processes and best practices.
• Ensure LOI and contractual obligations are met, and that all conditions precedents are delivered upon.
• Manage selection panel process to ensure that correct attendees are invited, with relevant experience and contribution to the process.
• Develop Dealer mentorship program

Financial Perspective

• Lead Panellist on the business plan and cash-flow presentations to ensure accuracy of assumptions and business sustainability
• Track and monitor monthly performance of newly installed retailers and advise of any risk to meeting targets. Monitor portfolio of new retailers for the first year, and work with the sales team to mitigate any risks.
• Manages operational expenses in line with approved budgets.

Customer Perspective

• Manage engagement with all potential retailers and ensure retailer pool remains healthy. Ensure appropriate and best retailer is placed at sites in line with stated policies and processes
• Responsible for all site advertising either directly or via a third party
• Contract owner for any external service provider. Manage PetroConnect and other service providers
• Manage the Retailer selection process by assessing profiles, coordinating panel scorecards, approvals etc.
• Ensure no delays to site streaming as a result of late or delayed retailer selection activities

Business Excellence

• Ensure adherence to the Retailer Selection Process, including the review of applicants’ application forms for completeness, conducting retailer Due Diligence, that the Winners Profile Assessment is conducted by the Training team
• Manage request psychometric testing and scenario based behavioural assessment to be done by an external service provider.
• Ensure the process for the pool of approved Retailers are followed through.
• Match applicants from the pool with sites for sale.
• Liaise with NBAS in respect of NTI/NTC or dry sites.
• Compilation of documentation for retailer approvals and facilitate full approval as per process.
• Issue Letter of Intents to the prospective retailer as well as response letters to unsuccessful candidates.
• Attend to KYC and provide supporting documents to Compliance.
• Work with compliance to conduct candidate business due diligence
• Compilation of documentation for the commencement of the Installation process.
• Manage the Retailer Selection Process with the relevant stakeholders.
• Work with the Contract Management team to ensure all legal documents, letters, LOIs and contracts are drafted accordingly, and in line with any conditions precedent of special obligations as a result of any negotiation or special agreement.

People Management

• Manage all stakeholders across the business to ensure seamless execution of the retailer selection process, and to ensure timelines are met
• Share all necessary legislative and/or regulatory guidelines and policies relevant to the retailer selection, as well as do’s and don’ts to ensure full understanding and alignment by all stakeholders
• Manage all external service providers in line with their deliverables, and ensure seamless interfaces and activities are undertaken to optimise the process and meet deadlines.

Professional Qualification and Certifications:

• Degree – Sales and Marketing, Business management

Work Experience:

• Experience in Retail Sales as a Territory Manager or similar
• Petroleum industry experience
• Retailer selection process experience

Knowledge and skills:

• Strong Business and financial acumen
• Strong Project Management
• Attention to detail
• Deep understanding of Retail Service Station profitability from a Retailer perspective
• Contract management knowledge
• Good stakeholder management skills
• Good verbal and written communication skills
• Good analytical skills