Financial Controller Job Pretoria area,South Africa,Finance & Banking

The Financial Controller is responsible for managing the company's financial operations, ensuring accurate financial reporting, maintaining strong internal controls, overseeing budgeting and forecasting, managing cash flow, and ensuring compliance with South African financial and tax legislation. Within a meat processing environment, the role also focuses heavily on production costing, inventory management, yield analysis, and profitability across the processing operation.
Key Duties and Responsibilities
Financial Management

Prepare monthly, quarterly, and annual financial statements.
Manage the month-end and year-end closing processes.
Ensure accurate general ledger reconciliations.
Produce management accounts and financial reports.
Analyse financial performance and provide recommendations to management.
Monitor company profitability and financial health.

Cost Accounting & Production Costing

Calculate production costs and cost of sales.
Monitor processing costs, labour costs, overhead allocations, and factory efficiencies.
Analyse carcass yields, production variances, and waste.
Develop and maintain standard costing models.
Review product margins and profitability.
Identify cost-saving opportunities throughout production.

Inventory Control

Monitor raw material, packaging, work-in-progress, and finished goods inventory.
Ensure accurate stock valuations.
Investigate stock variances and losses.
Work closely with warehouse and production teams.
Assist with regular stock counts and audits.
Ensure FIFO principles are correctly applied where appropriate.

Budgeting & Forecasting

Prepare annual budgets.
Develop financial forecasts.
Monitor departmental expenditure.
Analyse budget variances.
Provide recommendations to improve financial performance.

Cash Flow Management

Monitor daily cash flow.
Manage working capital.
Forecast cash requirements.
Assist with banking relationships.
Ensure supplier payments are managed efficiently.

Financial Reporting

Prepare monthly management reports.
Produce KPI dashboards.
Report on:

Gross Profit
Operating Profit
Factory efficiency
Production costs
Inventory levels
Labour costs
Waste percentages
Yield analysis
Sales margins

Compliance

Ensure compliance with:

IFRS (where applicable)
South African tax legislation
VAT regulations
PAYE
SARS requirements
Companies Act

Coordinate external audits.
Prepare audit schedules.
Maintain internal financial controls.

Payroll Oversight

Review payroll journals.
Ensure payroll reconciliations are accurate.
Monitor labour cost percentages.
Ensure statutory deductions are correctly processed.

Team Management

Supervise finance staff.
Train and mentor finance personnel.
Allocate workloads.
Conduct performance reviews.
Develop finance department procedures.

Business Analysis

Analyse profitability by:

Product
Customer
Department
Processing line

Prepare financial models for management decisions.
Support pricing strategies.
Evaluate capital expenditure proposals.

Internal Controls

Maintain strong financial controls.
Improve financial processes.
Reduce financial risk.
Monitor fraud prevention measures.
Ensure segregation of duties.

Minimum Qualifications

Bachelor's Degree in Accounting, Finance, or Financial Management.
Completed SAICA or SAIPA articles is advantageous.
Professional qualification such as CA(SA), CIMA, or ACCA is highly advantageous.

Experience Required

5–8 years' experience in a financial management or financial controller role.
Experience with in:

Meat processing
Food manufacturing
FMCG
Manufacturing
Agricultural processing

Strong experience in production costing and inventory management.
Experience working with ERP systems.
Experience managing finance teams.

Technical Skills

Advanced Microsoft Excel.
ERP systems (e.g. SAP, Syspro, Sage X3, Microsoft Dynamics 365, or similar).
Cost accounting.
Financial modelling.
Budgeting and forecasting.
Inventory costing.
Management reporting.
Financial analysis.
VAT and tax compliance.
Strong knowledge of IFRS and South African accounting standards.