Accountant: Africa at TFG (The Foschini Group)

Purpose of the job

With a vision to be the leading fashion lifestyle retailer in Africa whilst growing our international footprint, The Foschini Group (TFG) currently trades out of 215 stores in Namibia‚ Botswana‚ Zambia‚ Lesotho‚ Eswatini.

Reporting into the Manager Financial Accountant within the Group Accounting and Reporting Centre of Excellence, this role is responsible for the general accounting activities associated with the various African entities, including the determination and processing of various charges and journals, supporting analysis and management reporting, preparation of statutory financial statements and supporting workpapers, and submission of statutory returns. Assisting with group reporting team with monthly and consolidation processes as well as ongoing projects.

This role supports the Africa Business Partner to ensure that all accounting activities are conducted in accordance with company policies and accounting standards, ensuring compliance with all regulatory and statutory requirements for TFG entities in the rest of Africa.

Skills and attributes

• Strong technical knowledge of financial accounting and reporting
• Good analytical/computational capability
• Accuracy and attention to detail
• Ability to work under pressure
• Deadline orientated
• Able to work independently and initiate process improvements where appropriate
• Strong at building and managing relationships

Qualification

• CA(SA)

Experience

• 2-4 years post qualification and accounting experience (advantage)
• Exposure to accounting, tax and regulatory reporting in countries outside of South Africa and in Retail (advantage)
• Knowledge of SAP and Caseware (advantage)
• Exposure to transfer pricing (advantage)

Key performance areas

• Prepare statutory financial statements for all African legal entities
• Prepare interim and year end workpapers and liaise with external auditors in South Africa and different African jurisdictions
• Ensure that consideration is given to the required disclosures from other functional areas such as treasury, tax, payroll, IFRS 16, etc.
• Prepare and review all trial balances and net profit for African entities
• Calculate and invoice all intercompany fees on a quarterly basis
• Assist with withholding tax journals relating to intercompany fees
• Prepare external reporting required by regulators and central banks
• Monitoring of intercompany loan accounts
• Prepare and maintain transfer pricing calculations for service fees and cost mark-up on merchandise and review calculations of IT fees.
• Assist with preparation of transfer pricing files per legal entity.
• Prepare impairment calculations for fixed assets and IFRS 16 right-of-use assets.
• Review and support the central stock team in calculating closing stock and gross profit per legal entity.
• Assistance with re-projections and budgeting where required (legal entity & group)
• Provide support on IFRS matters, disclosure items, new accounting standards and technical account matters
• Provide support to the Africa Finance Business partner
• Assist with the preparation of Group monthly deliverables (including consolidation) as well as the month end close process, and provide additional supporting analysis;
• Assist with the preparation and review of Group board packs and presentations;
• Assist with the monthly forecasting, budget and reporting process as a back-up role if required
• Apply reasonability checks and analysis to monthly reconciliations for all TFG entities;
• Assist with Group projects and ensure these have been accurately implemented as well as reported.