Job Title: Country Accountant
KickStart is an award-winning, global non-profit social enterprise that
develops and mass-markets low-cost irrigation solutions that are bought by
thousands of small-holder farmers in developing countries and used to increase
their income by up to a factor of ten, enabling them to lift themselves
sustainably out of poverty. They are looking for a motivated & result
driven individual for the above vacancy.
Reports to: Country Manager
Job Summary
The Country Accountant’s role is an integral part of the leadership team at the
program level and is responsible for the day to day management of the financial
and administrative functions of the country office. The Country Accountant is responsible
to the Director of Finance for financial and administrative matters in
accordance with policies as determined by Management ensuring that these are
aligned with the organisation’s strategic vision.
It is expected that the Country Accountants will undertake their
responsibilities with an attitude of proficient competency in support of the
ethos, mission and vision of KickStart.
Duties and Responsibilities:
Financial Management:
1) Ensure that there is proper accounting and financial control over all income
received and expenses incurred.
2) Assist in preparation of elements of the annual budget in consultation with
the Country Manager and other functional managers, Budget & Grants Finance
Officer and the Director of Finance in the context of goals set by the
organisation.
3) Advice the Country Manager of matters relating to the financial operation of
the organization through preparation of management accounts and reports on a
monthly basis or as required, including a written report highlighting issues of
variance requiring attention at the program level.
4) Inherent in 1 above is the need to ensure strong systems of internal control
are implemented and followed, specifically.
Maintenance of an effective and controlled ordering/procurement, sales and
inventory processing systems.
Maintenance of a system to ensure goods received are matched against orders and
that variations to orders are reconciled.
Payment of all creditor accounts on a timely basis taking advantage of
discounts where ever possible.
Control of expenditure against budget.
5) Management of weekly and monthly cash and cash flow process by keeping all
the finance/accounts books up to date to a point where it would be easy to
extract current cash balances on a day-to-day basis.
6) Payroll activities; such as payment of all salaries, payment of tax
and other monthly deductions as required by legislation, timely
preparation of annual payment summary reconciliation, monitor compliance with
all tax Legislation.
7) Develop and review accounting policies and procedures to ensure optimum
effectiveness across all aspects of the organisation’s operations.
8) Ensure the organisation’s Asset Register is maintained on a regular basis
and appropriate depreciation schedules are completed on monthly basis.
9) In coordination with the Sales & Marketing Managers, develop a credit
management policy for debtors that ensures all outstanding debts are collected
on time and that any disbursement of KickStart equipments is done following the
laid down procedure.
10) To review business/field advances taken by employees and ensure that
KickStart’s policies regarding these advances are adhered to and that all
monies are accounted and ensure staff are provided with regular updates of
their personal accounts.
11) Ensuring that all the bank accounts held by KickStart are reconciled on
month-to-month basis. All these should be reviewed by the Grants & Budget
Finance Officer every month before more funds are released into the accounts.
12) Liaising with the Budgets & Grants Finance Officer ensure that book of
accounts are audited by external auditors yearly and at any other intervals as
necessary. Ensuring all recommendations from such audits is implemented.
13) All the finance & admin staff in the country program fall under the
instruction of the Accountant. The Country Accountant is to ensure that they
are well supervised, trained and coordinated. They should also be working and
ensure their smart goals are reviewed in order for them to give the desired
results.
Office Management:
1) Ensure the effective and efficient day to day operation of the office
administration function.
2) Ensure that proper and accurate administration of records are maintained,
including:
Asset register.
Official Correspondence.
Customer, Vendor and/or Donor data base.
Grant information.
Adequate and effective filling.
3) Provision of a professional standard reception function during office hours.
4) Ensure supplies are available for the administration function across the
organization and that equipment is properly maintained.
5) In liaison with the HR department, ensure all insurances are in place,
up-to-date and relevant to the level of risk identified.
6) At all times, ensure that the organisation’s administrative requirements are
adequately covered, consulting with the Senior Management as necessary.
7) Establish system for regular inventory of basic supplies, and ordering
office supplies such as stocks of printers cartridges, fax toner, copier toner,
and other non-public supplies.
8) Post clear instruction sheets for the operation of all office equipment,
location of supplies, for clearing jams, changing cartridges, and adding paper
to allow staff and consultants to operate all equipment independently.
9) In liaison with Procurement, establish office services contracts to clean
computers, back-up data, and to clean and maintain the office premises.
10) Arrange for repair, maintenance, and improvements to the facility and
office equipment as necessary.
11) Ensure the maintenance of a publicly accessible supply of all required
forms for travel, personnel and accounting.
12) Establish a central filing system and maintain it.
13) Ensure that a system is in place to send and receive/distribute regular
mails and parcels.
14) In liaison with HR, equip the office with fire extinguishers, and where
necessary, smoke and carbon monoxide detectors, emergency numbers for fire and
police support, and evacuation plans.
15) Establish systems for issuing and tracking all keys to the office and
ensuring that the office is open on time each day and locked at the end of each
day.
16) Carry out any other duties on a day-to-day basis that may be lawfully
prescribed in order to meet the demands of the organisation.
How to Apply:
Please follow the instructions as stated below as failure to do so could lead
to disqualification.
1. Send an Application letter and CV/Resume.
2. Merge these two documents into one document in either word or pdf format.
3. Do not attach or send any scanned documents, these are sometimes too large
for our inbox.
4. Include the job title and/or reference number in the subject line of the
email address and send your application by email to kickstartjobs@nftconsult.com
5. Only successful candidates will be contacted. For all other inquiries please
contact our offices directly.
Deadline: 22 Mar, 2013
