Accountant - Newly Qualified CA

Introduction

A well established transport organisation who operates across South African and 10 African countries, has created a new role within the finance team. This position will be based in the Gqeberha offices, but will be relocating to Sandton, Gauteng within the next 5 years. This is a career-track appointment for a junior Chartered Accountant (CA(SA)) who will be mentored and developed directly by the Finance Manager and CFO, with the explicit intention of progressing into the Finance Manager role over time as the role expands in seniority and scope. The successful incumbent will also be exposed to special projects arising from the business's growth and will progressively take on management, reporting, compliance and leadership responsibilities in preparation for that step-up.

Duties & Responsibilities

Accounting

• Processing journal entries

• Preparing necessary reports and reconciliations

• Maintaining and reconciling the general ledger for entities in scope

• Debtors and creditors management, including processing, reconciliations, age analysis and follow-up on outstanding balances

• Bank reconciliations and day-to-day cash management for entities in scope

• Fixed asset register maintenance, including additions, disposals and depreciation calculations

• Intercompany reconciliations and loan account management across group entities

• Monthly balance sheet reconciliations, with full substantiation of general ledger accounts

• Supporting month-end and year-end close processes to ensure deadlines are consistently met

Preparation of management accounts

• Monthly preparation of reporting information across various entities ▪ Deadlines are tight and have to be met

• Review and analysis of expenses to realise cost savings

• Measurement and analysis of actual performance against budget

• Preparing necessary reports in preparation of budgets

• Compiling monthly management accounts covering income statement, balance sheet and cash flow, with supporting commentary for management

• Variance analysis against budget and prior periods, with clear commentary on drivers and trends

• Assisting with the preparation of monthly board packs and other senior management reporting packs/dashboard

• Ad hoc financial analysis and modelling to support management decision-making

Tax and Compliance

• Preparation and first-level review of VAT201 submissions across entities in scope, with a junior accountant preparing and this role reviewing

• Preparation and review support for income tax returns and computations, together with employment tax (PAYE, UIF, SDL) and customs/excise duty compliance

• Support for current and deferred tax computations for IFRS reporting purposes

• Data-gathering support for external auditors and SARS queries and audits;

• Basic exposure to transfer pricing and cross-border withholding tax/double tax treaty matters, working on a dotted line with Group Tax on technical matters

• Day-to-day liaison with external tax/financial advisors on routine matters

• Support for, but not ownership of, other statutory filings such as CIPC annual returns and B-BBEE, which sit with company secretarial/legal

Special Projects

• Involvement in ad hoc and strategic projects arising from the growth and scale of the group, including acquisitions, business integrations, corporate restructuring and improvement of business reporting, process and improvement

• Exposure to cross-border and multi-entity finance initiatives as the group expands across Africa

• Support for finance systems, ERP and process transformation projects

Continuous Improvement

• Driving continuous improvement initiatives across finance processes, systems and procedures

• Documenting, implementing and maintaining finance policies and procedures, ensuring they are practical and actually followed

• Tracking and reporting on the progress and impact of process improvement initiatives, with clear before-and-after metrics

• Identifying inefficiencies in day-to-day finance operations and proposing practical, measurable solutions

• Owning specific improvement projects end-to-end, from proposal through to embedded practice

Desired Experience & Qualification

• Newly qualified CA(SA) -or in the final stages of CA(SA) designation (busy completing 3rd year articles or writing SAICA board II in 2026)

• Willing to relocate to Gauteng within 5 years