Inventory and Cost Accountant at Hotpoint Appliances Ltd

 Job Responsibility and Accountability

• Prepare, consolidate, and track inventory and costs budgets, annual plans and forecasts.
• Determine and track the allocation of costs to SKUs, Categories, brands, channels, and segments.
• Compare actual inventories and costs against budgets, investigate variances, communicate findings, and make recommendations for improvement.
• Prepare commentaries to explain actual inventories and costs against budget and other comparatives.
• Analyze trends on past and current inventories and costs to provide insights that enable the management to anticipate and plan.
• Imports’ costing and verification for all inventory items including spares
• Designing and maintaining robust inventories and cost controls
• Risk assessment and management for inventories and costs
• Accounting, monitoring, and managing insurance policies and claims.
• Tracking, accounting, and reporting stock adjustments.
• Responsible for inventories at all locations including goods-in-transit.
• Responsible for end-to-end inventories management including cannibalization, Returns (GRNs), spare parts, scrap, disposals, capitalization, display, promotions, obsolete and saleable stocks.
• Conduct risk assessments and develop mitigation plans.
• Maintain a controls checklist for inventories, budgets and costs.
• Prepare reconciliations and ensure all reconciling items are closed with the agreed timelines.
• Ensure a relevant and effective chart of accounts is in place with all materials and sub-ledger mappings configured correctly.
• Responsible for finance representation for ERP and automation initiatives related to inventories and costs
• Analysing the impact on taxes and duties on costs.
• Create and maintain a database of inventories and costs.
• Assist in transfer pricing policy calculations and evaluation.
• Develop templates for analyzing different scenarios for inventories and costs.
• Identify and analyze inventory optimization and cost savings opportunities for the company.
• Drive inventory and cost optimization initiatives.
• Provide the management with analysis and advice on total cost optimization and allocation.
• Use qualitative and quantitative techniques to gauge the efficiency and effectiveness of inventory optimization and cost utilization (e.g use of ratios).
• Perform cost / benefit analysis for proposed, current and closed projects and initiatives, including new lines of business, outsourced services, leasing, pricing, discounts e.t.c
• Proactively partner with and advise non-finance team members on inventory management best practices, cost control and optimization.
• Work closely with the retail, sales, marketing, and supply chain teams to map out inventory and cost optimization opportunities.
• Participate in the cross-functional review and analysis of inventory and total cost reports.
• Assist the Financial Accountant to conduct the finance training as part of an upskilling and awareness creation program.
• Go for structured trade visits to develop a deep commercial appreciation of the business.
• Perform pre and post implementation evaluation of the effectiveness of inventory control and cost optimization initiatives.
• Monitor and evaluate the cost efficiency of each department and inventory consignment.
• Inventories, costs’ budget and tax controls / process checks & reviews
• Controls and compliance: Facilitate audits and perform self-assessments on inventories and costs/tax optimization procedures, policies and initiatives.

Qualification and Experience

• Bachelor’s degree in finance, accounting, economics from an accredited University.
• Membership of a recognized professional accountancy body (e.g. CFA, CPA or ACCA).
• Minimum 4 years’ progressive financial reporting, planning and analysis experience.
• Must have served at least 2 years in a supervisory position, preferably in retail business.
• Experience in working with analytics tools such as BI, Qlik, Business Warehouse e.t.c

 Key Skills:

• Interpretation of financial information with a commercial lens.
• Excellent financial modelling skills.
• High attention to detail, excellent analytical and presentation skills.
• High level of integrity and confidentiality.
• Ability to build collaborative relationships across the organization.
• Stakeholder and risk management experience.
• A strong team player with demonstrated experience in leading and working with teams.
• Knowledge of commercial finance best practices.