Project Accountant, Programme Management Unit

ROLE DESCRIPTION:

Reporting to the Project Finance Lead in the Programme and Operations Management Unit (POM), the Project Accountant’s responsibility is to maintain the accurate financial management of the projects and to provide a solution-focused approach to ensure day-to-day support to the practices. The key responsibilities include developing and managing project budgets aligned with client requirements, monitoring expenses, preparing financial statements, and ensuring compliance with funding regulations. The Project Accountant also manages the funds disbursement to subgrantees, establishes internal controls, reviews subgrantees’ financial reports, coordinates audits, and provides financial insights for informed decision-making.

KEY ROLE RESPONSIBILITIES:

Project Finance Management Support

• Monitor financial administration of projects to ensure consistency with commercial and grant financial requirements and Genesis’ commercial strategy.
• Provide practices with monthly financial reports as required in terms of LOE, actual project costs, burn rates, etc, ensuring that the financial reporting can be carried out appropriately.
• Monitor the disbursement of funds to subgrantees according to approved budgets.
• Support the project manager in the review of financial reports submitted by subgrantees and assess budget compliance.
• Assist in the development of new financial procedures to better support the delivery of projects, including managing budget trackers, burn rates reporting and other tracking tools.
• Set up and maintain budget tracking on all projects - monitoring, reporting, and analysing budget variances.
• Manage cashflow projections and reports.
• Assist with client project audits and end of year audits.
• Prepare advances, sales invoices, work-in-progress, assist with credit control, and process purchase invoices.
• Ability to interpret tax invoices and compliance to tax requirements in South Africa and other countries.
• Liaise with the Finance department on any issues and necessary changes in processes.
• Consolidate financial information of all projects in the closing phase, ensuring no discrepancies or violations of commercial agreements have occurred.
• Keep project finance records and provide assistance in financial reporting as requested.
• Ensure that all invoicing is completed with the agreed upon timelines.
• Assist with new project proposals and budgeting where necessary.

Finance Support

• Support the Corporate Finance team as needed on queries on the projects.
• Participate in relevant Finance meetings.

Other Responsibilities

• Educate and promote the staff’s understanding of financial processes and policies.
• Assist with induction of new joiners.
• Other tasks as agreed.

Requirements EDUCATION, KNOWLEDGE, SKILLS, EXPERIENCE AND PERSONAL COMPETENCIES:

• Bachelor's degree in finance, accounting, or a related field
• At least 2 years of experience in grant management, financial management and accounting, preferably in the context of donor funded projects
• Ability to work effectively in cross-functional teams
• Ability to prioritize and handle multiple tasks under tight deadlines
• Collaborative and strong communication skills
• Proven ability to work well in a fast-paced environment with a solutions-driven attitude.
• Excellent organizational skills and attention to detail
• Proficient in Microsoft Office Suite and accounting software
• Fluent in English, both written and verbal

COMPANY DESCRIPTION:

Genesis Analytics is a global impact firm that has worked in more than 100 countries across the world. Our roots are firmly in Africa, having worked in 42 of the 54 countries on the continent, making us a truly global African firm. Established in 1998, Genesis is headquartered in Johannesburg and has offices in Abidjan, Nairobi, Lagos, Goa, and London.

Our purpose as a firm is to unlock and realise value in the young world - the arc of countries with young populations stretching across Africa, the Middle East, South Asia and parts of Southeast Asia - through jointly creating solutions with our clients. The foundation of our distinctive delivery lies in our technical skills and deep sector knowledge developed through our work within both the private and public sectors.

We have expertise in human development, youth employment, public health and financing, behavioural economics, competition economics and regulation, the digital economy, financial services strategy, monitoring and evaluation, and shared value and corporate impact. Some of our best work has been leveraging our complementary areas of expertise to find bespoke solutions.

Our clients include all levels of government, development agencies, foundations, regulators, banks, development finance institutions, non-government organisations, social businesses, and private companies.

Location: Johannesburg

Contract: fixed term contract, hybrid model