Accounts Payable Controller

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The purpose of the Accounts Payable Controller role is tolead and manage the APteam, ensuring the accurate, timely, and compliant processing of supplier invoices, payments, and reconciliationswhile maintaining strong financial controls and optimising cash flow. This role is accountable forteam performance against SLAs and KPIs, including payment accuracy, processing turnaround times, and vendor query resolution.

The AP Controller provides leadership and direction to foster a high-performance culture, setting clear expectations and conducting regular performance reviews to develop team capability. This role partners with HR to coordinate onboarding for new team members, implements training initiatives to address skills gaps, and ensures open communication channels to support engagement andchange management.

Operationally, the AP Controller oversees the end-to-end accounts payable function, including invoice processing, payment runs, vendor reconciliations, and month-end close activities. The Controller ensures compliance with delegated authority limits, financial controls, and service level agreements (SLAs), while acting as theprimaryescalation point for complex supplier disputes orpayment issues.

The role is also responsible for cash flow management through the strategic scheduling of payment runs, optimising payment terms with suppliers, and ensuring accurate accruals and provisions formonth-end and year-end reporting. The AP Controllerownsthe team-wideprocess documentation framework, leads structured knowledge transfer, and drives continuous improvement initiatives to enhance efficiency, automation, and control within the AP function.

• Validate and approve complex or high-value AP transactions, including invoices, credit notes, and reversals.
• Ensure compliance with Delegation of Authority (DOA) and company policies.
• Approve one-time vendor and alternate payee requests.
• Review and approve rejected invoice reprocessing.
• Monitor 2-way and 3-way matching exception reports.
• Drive root cause analysis and coordinate resolutions with Procurement and Business Finance
• Escalate systemic issues to SAP CoE or management where required.
• Review and approve vendor reconciliations.
• Monitor unreconciled items and aged creditor balances.
• Ensure timely clearing of reconciling items.
• Escalate long-outstanding disputes to management.
• Approve and schedule payment runs in alignment with cash flow forecasts
• Consult with Business Finance and GAM to ensure adequate funding for payment cycles.
• Review and authorize foreign payment instructions and bank instruction forms.
• Perform pre-approval checks on payment uploads Perform pre-approval checks on payment uploads.
• Review and validate AP accruals for accuracy and completeness
• Ensure prepayments and advances are accurately captured, monitored, and cleared
• Support finance team with month-end AP reporting and reconciliations

• Develop and maintain favourable stakeholder relationships internally with business partners, procurement, treasury, finance, and business unit headsto ensure alignment on payment priorities, approval workflows, and service delivery expectations.
• Develop and maintain strong external relationships with key suppliers and vendors, fostering trust and open communication to facilitate smooth payment processing and dispute resolution.
• Function as the primary point of contact for strategic or high-value suppliers, ensuring their queries are addressed promptly and professionally.
• Function as thepoint of escalation for supplier contactrelated to urgent payment requests, payment delays, or complex disputes where standard processing or administrator-level resolution has failed.
• Manage payment requestsoutside standard payment runs by ensuring proper justification, supporting documentation, and compliance with financial controls.
• Collaborate with internal stakeholders(procurement, receiving, treasury, , and business finance) to address systemic issues contributing to invoice processing delays, payment holds, or recurring supplier disputes.
• Identify root causes ofrepeat escalations(e.g., purchase order mismatches, goods receipt issues, approval bottlenecks, master data errors) and work with stakeholders to implement sustainable solutions.
• Manage the exception handling process for escalated supplier accounts, including invoices…