Chief Accountant at FarmDrive

Role Overview:

The Chief Accountant will be the epicenter of FarmDrive’s financial operations and management. The successful candidate will have the skills necessary to simultaneously build the accounting and financial reporting ship and also sail it.

Responsibilities

• Design, implementation, and execution of the entire accounting and financial reporting function for the organization
• Maintain the general ledger in accordance with IFRS for all transactions
• Record loan activity in the general ledger, using outputs from the organization’s loan portfolio management software
• Take responsibility for and manage the work of any external financial and accounting consultants working for the organization
• Produce monthly financial statements and accompanying reports comparing actual to budgeted performance.
• Develop management dashboards for different function heads and automate reports using financial intelligence tools
• Submit financial results with commentary to board on monthly and quarterly basis and share variance analysis on key movements related to P&L.
• Prepare, consolidate and report on financials and forecasts for all stakeholders including profitability analysis on different product categories and statements on different metrics
• Grant and loan portfolio management
• Develop, prepare and deliver financial performance information related to the organization’s loan portfolio to senior management, grantors, debtors, the board of directors, and loan portfolio consortium partners.
• Prepare and deliver mandated financial reports to satisfy the requirements of existing and new grants received by FarmDrive.
• Manage the invoicing relationships with FarmDrive’s consoritum partners and grantors to allow for an expedited flow of funds through the business model as it pertains to grantor funds.
• Loan portfolio management software
• Assist with the implementation/customization of loan portfolio management software to allow for loan portfolio activity to be properly recorded in the general ledger
• Be the point of contact with the loan portfolio software provider regarding all transaction fee billing issues
• Internal controls / internal audit / monitoring
• Ongoing development, maintenance and evaluation of internal controls and the internal audit function
• Implement a series of checks and balances to ensure that the organization’s financial reporting to all vested parties is correct and complete
• Audit and tax
• Prepare for and manage the annual external audit process
• Prepare for and manage consortium related audits and other grantor related audits
• Provide advice to senior management on strategies, policies, and actions to minimize the entity’s tax burden
• Budgeting and forecasting
• Develop and maintain the organization’s budget, evaluating actual results against the budget and recommend corrective actions to minimize financial risk
• Develop and maintain loan book revenue and cost forecasts
• Develop financial models and strategies to help the business become sustainable and validate the existing route to market and profitability for entire business structure
• Fundraising & Financial Strategy
• Build financial strategy to support the executive team on launching new tactical initiatives to grow the business
• Support fund raising efforts (Debt & Equity) from prospective funders, and other relationship management with existing investors,
• Support due diligence and signing of term sheets for investments to maintain liquidity in business
• Build debt / finance Function and grow relationships with auditors, bankers and other external stakeholders
• Strategic Inputs to management team on new markets, market intelligence and business growth parameters
• Pricing structure buildup and management to ensure margin adequacy is maintained
• Gatekeeper for all contracts and pricing structure and ensure that margins are accurately represented in commercials
• Support product marketing and new product launch
  Annual operating plan for all business units and all functions

Qualifications

• Minimum of 5 years of internal accounting and financial reporting experience, preferably in a financial services organization
• CPAK certified
• Supervisory experience – external audit experience as a team-lead for a large accounting firm is a plus
• A self-starter and independent mentality – someone who does not wait to be told where to expend energy
• The ability and confidence to identify weaknesses in the internal and external reporting structure and recommend and implement changes