Cost Accountant

Job Specification

Position: Cost Accountant

Head Office: Chloorkop, Kempton Park
Employment Type: Full-Time
Working Hours: Monday – Friday | 07:00 – 16:00

1. Purpose of the Role

The company requires a hands-on Cost Accountant to work closely with engineering, procurement, stores, production and finance. The role is responsible for establishing accurate visibility of manufacturing costs, controlling the purchasing-to-payment cycle, supporting inventory and work-in-progress controls, and ensuring supplier month-end is complete and accurate.

The key outcome is to assist management in determining what each machine or engineering job was expected to cost, what it actually cost, where variances occurred, and the resulting gross margin.

2. Key Responsibilities

Manufacturing & Job Costing

Maintain and review costing for individual machines, production jobs and projects.

Track actual material, labour, subcontracting and other direct costs against each job.

Compare budgeted/standard cost to actual cost and investigate material variances.

Prepare job-cost and gross-margin reports by machine, model, project or job number.

Assist management with product costing and pricing information.

Maintain and improve cost-allocation methodologies for manufacturing overheads.

BOM, Inventory & Work in Progress

Maintain and validate Bills of Materials (BOMs) and associated component costs in the ERP.

Work with engineering, supply chain and production to ensure material issues and returns are allocated correctly.

Assist with inventory valuation, stock counts, stock adjustments and investigation of variances.

Calculate and reconcile work in progress (WIP) at month end.

Assist with the accurate transfer of completed production into finished goods.

Monitor slow moving, obsolete and abnormal inventory items and escalate exceptions.

Procurement & Purchase Orders

Raise and/or control purchase orders in accordance with approved procurement processes.

Ensure purchases are allocated to the correct job, cost centre, stock item or expense account.

Verify pricing, quantities, approvals and supporting documentation before orders are processed.

Monitor outstanding purchase orders and follow up on overdue deliveries or unresolved commitments.

Work closely with procurement and engineering to improve purchasing discipline and cost visibility.

Suppliers & Month-End

Perform or oversee the PO to GRV to supplier invoice matching process.

Prepare supplier reconciliations and investigate discrepancies, missing invoices and credit notes.

Maintain accurate creditor records and support supplier query resolution.

Manage supplier month-end cut-off, outstanding GRVs, accruals and invoices not yet received.

Prepare supplier payment schedules for review and approval; the role does not provide final bank payment authorisation.

Ensure all supplier costs are captured in the correct accounting period.

ERP, Controls & Reporting

Support the implementation and ongoing improvement of Palladium or the applicable ERP environment.

Ensure costing, inventory, purchasing and supplier transactions are accurately captured at source.

Perform relevant balance-sheet and general-ledger reconciliations.

Develop practical controls that improve the accuracy of manufacturing and procurement information.

Provide monthly manufacturing cost, variance, inventory, WIP and supplier reports to management.

Work with the Group Accountant to ensure cost-accounting information integrates correctly into month-end management accounts.

3. Typical Monthly Deliverables

Actual manufacturing cost and gross margin by completed machine/job.

Standard/budget versus actual cost variance analysis.

WIP schedule and reconciliation.

Inventory valuation and material variance review.

Open purchase order and outstanding GRV report.

Supplier reconciliations and month-end creditor close.

Accruals for goods/services received but not yet invoiced.

Costing exceptions, control weaknesses and recommended corrective actions.

4. Minimum Requirements

Relevant diploma or degree in Cost & Management Accounting, Accounting, Finance or a related discipline. Min NQF7.

Approximately 3-5 years relevant accounting experience in engineering, manufacturing, fabrication or a production environment.

Practical experience with job costing and/or manufacturing costing.

Experience with inventory, supplier accounts, purchase orders and month-end processes.

Strong Excel capability and practical experience with an ERP/accounting system.

Good understanding of general ledger accounting and balance sheet reconciliations.

Strong attention to detail, analytical ability and commercial awareness.

Ability to work independently while engaging confidently with engineering, stores, procurement and production personnel.

5. Highly Advantageous Experience

Bill of Materials (BOM) costing and maintenance.

Work-in-progress accounting.

Standard costing and actual-versus-standard variance analysis.

Manufacturing overhead allocation.

Engineering job/project costing.

ERP implementation or process improvement.

Exposure to Palladium, SAP, Sage or similar manufacturing/ERP systems.

6. Personal Attributes

Hands-on and willing to investigate issues on the factory floor rather than relying only on system reports.

Methodical, accurate and comfortable working with detailed transactional data.

Commercially minded - understands that costing information must support pricing, margins and management decisions.

Confident enough to question unusual costs, incorrect allocations and process failures.

Calm under month-end pressure and able to meet deadlines.

Professional, dependable and able to handle confidential financial information.

7. Application Process

Qualifying applicants may email their CV with references to:

HR@rokiwaste.co.za

Pay: R20 000,00 - R30 000,00 per month

Work Location: In person