Cost Accountant - Agriculture

Job Description:
Exciting Cost Accountant opportunity exists within the organisation,
the purpose of the role is to provide management accounting, commercial support and insight regarding regional agricultural operations.

Minimum Requirements
Minimum of a National Diploma in Accounting/Management Accounting.
Preferably a B.Com or equivalent.
3 to 5 years management accounting experience, people management and some exposure to processing or manufacturing environments.
Duties & Responsibilities

Key Responsibilities include:
* Product Costing and Margin Improvement
-Maintain a close working relationship with the national/regional Management Accounting team
-Continuously analyse and audit the standard costs of products to ensure that they are accurately maintained and that they reflect the cost of the production processes.
-Analyse variance reports of actual cost vs. standard cost on a monthly basis and highlight variances to management in order to initiate actions which would correct potential inefficiencies.
-Track operational activity and provide standard monthly reports and highlighting variances from targets to the management team.

*Management Reporting
-Report key performance indicators on daily/weekly/monthly basis.
-Report financial performance of the mill on a monthly basis in the agreed format that will include commentary on key performance areas.

*Budgeting and Forecasting
-Coordinate the annual budgeting and quarterly forecasting processes in accordance with the national time scheduling and guidelines.
-Manage the expense budgeting for the service functions in line with national guidelines and economic indicators.
-Calculate returns on investment for proposed budgeted capital projects in order to assist management with the prioritisation of capex, and ensuring that capital budgets are aligned with Group allocations of funds.
-Report the budgets and forecasts according to the formats supplied by National Office.

*Cost Control
Analyse costs against budget/forecast and investigate variances on a monthly basis.
Continuously consider cost saving opportunities or areas where waste/inefficiencies can be eliminated and influence corrective action by line management.

*Capex Management
Identify capex opportunities to unlock profit of the operations within the context of Group capex requirements and strategy.
-Prepare and follow up on capex motivations.
-Prepare post capex reviews.
-Review capex applications and ensure ROI requirements are met.
-Comply with capex application procedures.

*Stock Control
Investigate Maintenance stock variances and take corrective action.

*Information and Data Management
-Ensure team members accurately and regularly capture data into the information system to enable access to reliable data and reporting for trend analysis and decision making.
-Share relevant data with management teams to enable reliable business decision making.

*Functional Strategy into Action Contribution
-Provide input to the annual functional Strategy into Action plan and participate in the compilation of the commercial and Agric teams’ contribution to the plan.

*KPI’s
Accuracy of forecasting
Accuracy and timeliness of budget reporting
Budget management
Cost control
Achievement of SIA targets