Cost Accountant

Cost Accountant

Full Time Professional De Pere, WI, US

3 days ago Requisition

Salary Range: $80,000.00 To $ Annually

SUMMARY:

The Cost Accountant is responsible for maintaining the integrity and accuracy of product costs, providing margin and profitability visibility across business units, and partnering with Supply Chain, Operations, and Finance to drive cost transparency and informed decision-making. This role owns the standard costing process and requires a very strong command of absorption accounting, leading monthly absorption and variance analysis and supporting inventory valuation and business-unit-level P&L reporting (Caseworks, Spaces, IMH, and Education).

The Cost Accountant is a key analytical partner to the business, translating operational activity into financial insight.

RESPONSIBILITIES:

Product Costing

• Update and maintain labor and overhead rates, ensuring they reflect current operational realities.
• Perform monthly absorption review and report on over/under absorption with supporting commentary.
• Conduct monthly standard routing reviews to validate routing steps, run times, and resource assignments.
• Execute cost roll-ups and ensure costs are accurately reflected at the item and assembly level.
• Review orders and production activity to confirm proper cost capture and identify anomalies.
• Manage inventory revaluation and reconciliation, cost adjustments, RMA (return) costing, and landed cost application.
• Own and govern product costing methodology, including the application of average vs. standard costing and the rationale for each.
• Perform variance analysis across materials, labor, overhead, and purchase price variance (PPV); investigate root causes and recommend corrective action.
• Lead cost deep dives into specific products, processes, or cost drivers as needed.
• Maintain bill of materials (BOM) accuracy and cost master data within the ERP system.
• Set and refresh annual standard costs, coordinating the cost change process across functions.
• Support new product introduction (NPI) costing and provide cost estimates for quoting and pricing decisions.

Inventory & Supply Chain

• Manage inventory valuation and costing, ensuring inventory is stated accurately on the balance sheet.
• Analyze slow-moving, excess, and obsolete (E&O) inventory and maintain appropriate reserves.
• Support cycle counts and physical inventories.

Finance & Reporting

• Provide product margin visibility and analysis to support pricing, mix, and profitability decisions.
• Prepare and analyze business-unit-level P&L for Caseworks, Spaces, IMH, and Education.
• Support month-end and quarter-end close for cost of goods sold, inventory, and related accounts, including journal entries and accruals.
• Perform balance sheet account reconciliations for inventory and cost-related accounts.
• Deliver ad hoc analysis and reporting to operations and leadership, partnering across functions to answer business questions.
• Maintain and adhere to internal controls over inventory and costing processes.
• Identify and support cost reduction and margin improvement initiatives.
• Contribute to make-vs-buy analyses and capital project / spending tracking.
• Recommend and implement improvements to costing processes, reporting, and system configuration.

OBJECTIVES:

• Develop and maintain accurate costing processes by establishing consistent methodologies and workflows within the first year of the role.
• Provide reliable financial insights by delivering regular cost, margin, and variance analysis to support business decision-making on an ongoing basis.
• Improve inventory costing and financial accuracy by implementing review and reconciliation practices that enhance data integrity within 12 months.
• Collaborate cross-functionally by building effective partnerships with Operations, Supply Chain, and Finance to support alignment on cost drivers and business performance throughout the year.

COMPETENCIES:

• Communicates Effectively:
  Communicates respectfully and effectively with customers, fellow workers, and management, including communicating proactively when encountering issues or challenges that may affect the timely completion of tasks or projects.
• Customer Focus:
  Continuously pays attention to customer (internal and/or external) needs and adapts as relationships evolve. A customer focus means being open minded, responsive, agile, and driving innovation.
• Collaborates:
  Works cooperatively with others across the organization to achieve shared objectives;
  Represents own interests while being fair to others and their areas;
  Partners with others to get work done;
  Credits others for their contributions and accomplishments;
  Gains trust and support of others.
• Job Knowledge:
  Has understanding and proficiency in job responsibilities, performs tasks efficiently, solves problems quickly, and makes informed decisions in addition to staying current with new technologies or developments within their field by seeking out training opportunities or continuing education courses.
• Safety:
  The ability to identify hazards and risks in your work…