Financial & Inventory Controller

About the role

An established distribution company based in Cape Town is looking for an experienced Financial Controller to take ownership of the financial integrity of its inventory and stock processes. The role works across warehouse, procurement, operations and finance to ensure physical inventory matches system records, with variances resolved down to transaction and SKU level. It is an in-office position with flexibility on daily working times and a 1-day hybrid option.

Key responsibilities

• Reconcile physical inventory to system records, investigating variances down to SKU and transaction level and implementing corrective actions.
• Develop, manage and oversee cycle counting, random stock counts and periodic full stocktakes.
• Review stock movements across supplier receipts, customer dispatches, third-party fulfilment, warehouse transfers, returns, damaged stock and write-offs.
• Reconcile goods received against purchase orders and verify landed cost allocations, import costs and weighted average costs.
• Manage inventory valuation and cost-of-sales reconciliations, investigating abnormal gross margins by SKU, customer, channel or product category.
• Reconcile e-commerce, marketplace, third-party fulfilment and stock-in-transit records against internal inventory data.
• Maintain controls for returned, damaged, defective, obsolete and quarantined stock, including authorised write-offs.
• Support month-end reporting, balance-sheet reconciliations, inventory control accounts, accruals, provisions and annual audit support.
• Work within the warehouse to observe receiving, picking, dispatch and returns, then create SOPs, set variance thresholds and produce management reports on inventory accuracy, valuation, ageing and write-offs.

Required profile

• BCom degree or BCom Honours.
• 4 to 7 years of relevant finance or inventory-control experience.
• Demonstrable experience investigating inventory discrepancies in a business with significant physical inventory.
• Experience in retail, FMCG, e-commerce, wholesale, distribution, importing or manufacturing.
• Experience working directly with warehouse teams.

Required skills

• Strong understanding of inventory accounting, cost-of-sales and reconciling sub-ledgers to the general ledger.
• Advanced Microsoft Excel.
• ERP and accounting systems such as SAP, NetSuite, Sage, Microsoft Dynamics or Cin7.
• Import and landed-cost calculations.

What we offer

• A growing company.
• Flexibility on start times and a one-day hybrid option after the first 6 months.