Senior Accountant – Finance & Reporting Lead

About the role

The Senior Accountant will own the month‑end and year‑end close, ensure accurate financial reporting and safeguard margin and inventory integrity for a mining operation. The role also brings income tax in‑house, leads the external audit and provides commercial insight into trading and logistics performance while developing the junior finance team.

Key responsibilities

• Manage full month‑end and year‑end close process and prepare monthly management accounts and annual IFRS/IFRS for SMEs financial statements.
• Review reconciliations and journal entries prepared by accountants and perform defined reviews.
• Oversee inventory valuation, landed‑cost accuracy and stock provisioning; analyse gross margin by entity, route and customer and report variances.
• Monitor logistics and operating costs against budget.
• Ensure VAT and provisional tax compliance; prepare in‑house income tax (ITR14) with external advisor for complex matters.
• Manage forex accounting and import‑related tax matters.
• Lead external audit, act as primary liaison with auditors and resolve audit queries.
• Support annual budgeting, re‑forecasts and cash‑flow management.
• Strengthen internal controls, drive process improvements and mentor the Accountant and Junior Accountant.

Required profile

• BCom Accounting or equivalent with completed articles (SAICA/SAIPA).
• Professional designation: SAIPA (Professional Accountant), AGA(SA) or CIMA; CA(SA) advantageous but not required.
• Minimum 5 years post‑articles experience, including supervisory responsibilities.
• Experience in trading, logistics, distribution or mining, with multi‑currency and import/export accounting.
• Experience handling in‑house income tax.

Required skills

• Strong technical knowledge of IFRS and inventory/costing.
• In‑depth understanding of South African tax legislation (VAT, income tax, ITR14).
• Advanced proficiency in Sage, Pastel, SAP or Syspro.
• Advanced Excel skills.