SAICA / CIMA Trainee Accountant

Empowering Africa’s tomorrow, together…one story at a time.

With over 100 years of rich history and strongly positioned as a local bank with regional and international expertise, a career with our family offers the opportunity to be part of this exciting growth journey, to reset our future and shape our destiny as a proudly African group.

Job Summary

Job Description

Key Accountabilities:

Accountability: Accounting and External Reporting

• Decide on the appropriate accounting framework based on the entity’s financial reporting needs and the stakeholders identified.
• Select and evaluate accounting policies within the appropriate accounting framework that most fairly present the financial situation.
• Develop and evaluate accounting policies in accordance with the accounting framework.
• Analyze and calculate or evaluate the accounting for routine transactions, for example sales, cost of sales, operating expenses, etc.
• Analyze and calculate or evaluate the accounting for non-routine transactions, for example mergers and acquisitions, divestitures, provisions etc.
• Perform and evaluate reconciliations of financial information (e.g. bank reconciliations, accounts payable reconciliation, general ledger control account reconciliations, reconciliations between management accounts and the general ledger, etc.)
• Prepare and evaluate financial statements in accordance with the identified accounting framework.
• Prepare and evaluate notes to the financial statements in accordance with the identified accounting frameworks.
• Prepare or evaluate the non-financial information in the annual financial statements, e.g. Directors’ Report, Corporate Governance Report, Sustainability Report.
• Calculate profitability, efficiency (activity), solvency and liquidity ratios from the financial statements.
• Based on the ratios calculated, analyze and explain the financial performance of the business, and provides.
• recommendations from analysis to business unit manager.

Accountability: Financial Management

• Evaluate and document the entity's/business unit's financial position (for example, using financial analysis, ratio analysis, trend analysis and/or cash flow analysis).
• Document, for review and input by colleagues recommendations for improving the performance of the entity/business unit, based on the analysis performed.
• Prepare and evaluate a cash flow forecast for an entity/business unit.
• Identify possible action plans where there may be a cash shortfall or excess funds and documents, for review and input by others.
• Analyze and document the entity's/business unit’s current working capital position or components of it (for example, inventory, accounts receivable or payable management) and documents recommendations for improvement.
• Recommend, for review and input by others, improvements to working capital management.
• Analyze and document an entity’s/business unit’s funding needs
• Identify and evaluate for input and review by others, sources of funding to meet the entity’s/business unit’s funding needs.
• Identify the need for and evaluate on a preliminary basis, the use of derivatives in managing an entity’s/business unit’s funding needs.
• Analyze and comment on a business plan or financial proposal.
• Document the opportunities, risks and financial implications associated with the replacement or acquisition of a capital asset.
• Document the financial implications of the investment decision using the appropriate capital budgeting techniques.
• Document or present recommendations on the replacement or acquisition of a capital asset to business unit manager.
• Calculate a reasonable range of values for a business, using a combination of valuation techniques.
• Identify the critical assumptions and facts that underlie the valuation estimate including factors affecting the accuracy of the valuation.
• Perform a sensitivity analysis on the assumptions used in the valuation model in order to obtain a reasonable range of possible values.

Accountability: Management Decision Making

• Identify and document financial and non-financial performance indicators that are key to the entity/business unit, including any industry-specific benchmarks
• Critically evaluate and document the applicability of the performance measurement system to measure the key performance indicators.
• Critically evaluate and document the key components of the management accounting system of an entity/business unit, including the financial and non-financial reports produced.
• Prepare a budget for an entity/business unit, with clearly documented assumptions.
• Perform sensitivity analysis on prepared budgets, varying key assumptions to document a range of possible outcomes.
• Analyze the actual performance against budget, and documents the findings.
• Investigate and documents reasons for variances between performance and budget.
• Develop, for input and review by others, a plan to address variances.
• Critically analyze the methods used for allocation of costs in the entity/business unit.
• Make recommendations for improved cost control and cost efficiency to business unit manager.
• Evaluate and document cost allocation options within or across divisions within the entity/business unit, for example the appropriate application of transfer pricing.
• Identify, document and make practical use of financial information that is relevant to pricing decisions, capacity utilization and the implications of the existence of constraints.

Accountability: Taxation

• Calculates or evaluates the income tax payable for an individual, considering:
• Inclusion and classification of income from different sources, for example, employment including fringe benefits and lump sum benefits, property, business, capital gain/loss, other income, etc.
• Exclusion of exempt income.
• Deductibility of expenses, for example, contributions to pension or retirement funds or medical expenses, income protection policies, assets used for trade purposes, legal fees and study at home, etc.
• Prepares the income tax returns.
• Calculates or evaluates the income tax payable for a legal entity, considering type of legal entity, for example, private, public, small business corporation, foreign, trusts, etc.
• Inclusion and classification of income, for example, active business income, income from property, capital gains, exemptions, etc.
• Deductibility of expenses, for example, capital allowances, assessed losses and special allowances, etc.
• Tax deductions and credits, for example, small business deduction, general tax reduction, etc.
• Prepares or evaluates income tax returns.
• Calculates or evaluates withholding tax , for example interest or dividend withholding tax, etc.
• Identifies when indirect taxes, for example VAT or customs duty, are applicable and calculates or evaluates the indirect tax payable.
• Prepares or evaluates indirect tax returns.
• Prepares or evaluates employees tax (PAYE, SDL and UIF) returns.

Accountability: Internal Audit, Risk Management and Governance

• Identify and document strategic, operational, financial and informational risks, based on an understanding of the environment in which the entity/audit engagement operates, its strategies and management processes.
• Document the entity's key business processes and key controls (including IT controls) including the control environment, information system, business processes and control activities (general and application controls).
• Evaluate internal control in the context of the criteria / recognized framework and suggests improvements where deficiencies are identified.
• Assess whether existing internal controls are functioning properly or if additional controls are needed and communicates ideas to supervisor.
• Test and document the functioning of IT controls through the use of audit software or makes appropriate use of IT specialists to test the functioning of the IT rel