Job Title
Cost Control Specialist
(Manufacturing/Industrial Environment)
Reporting Line:
Financial Controller
Role Purpose:
To support commercial and manufacturing decision-making through Sales performance analysis, sales margin analysis, accurate product costing, production variance analysis, inventory analytics. Ensuring integrity of cost of goods sold (COGS), margins, and financial reporting in a multi-plant manufacturing environment.
The role acts as a bridge between Sales, supply chain, production and finance, providing actionable cost and margin insights while maintaining strong control over manufacturing and commercial finance processes.
Key Responsibilities
Commercial Finance & Sales Support
- Prepare sales margin analysis by product, customer, and market.
- Support pricing decisions through estimated product cost calculations for new and existing products.
- Assist sales and management teams with Sales performance insights. (Sales Price & volume variances analysis vs Budgets by product, segment and market.
- Support in preparation and compilation of annual Sales budgets by BU.
Manufacturing Costing & Production Accounting
- Perform production order variance analysis and closure for manufacturing orders across plants.
- Analyse material, labour, overhead, and machine hour variances, identifying root causes and corrective actions.
- Review and validate Bills of Materials (BOMs) in coordination with R&D and production teams.
- Calculate and periodically update applied overhead rates by work centre.
- Run monthly standard cost calculations, including:
- Actual cost based on average raw material prices
- Simulated cost scenarios incorporating current RM prices and rebate factors
Inventory Analysis & Control
- Prepare and review inventory ageing reports, highlighting slow-moving and obsolete inventory risks.
- Support inventory valuation accuracy and coordination with stores and supply chain teams.
- Perform periodic physical inventory counts.
Monthly end closing activities.
- Reconcile group wide Sales to General ledger on a monthly basis.
- Reconcile COGS to general ledger on a monthly basis.
- Calculate and post export freight cost & logistics cost accruals, including:
- Differential freight cost vs system freight module
- Periodic review and validation of freight accrual balances
- Calculate and manage accruals for:
- Customer rebates and incentive schemes
- Sales commissions
- Export freight, customs duty, and marine insurance on sales
- Product claims, quality complaints, and customer provisions
- Ensure accurate scheduling, reconciliation, and clearance of accrued balances.
- Contribute to monthly closing activities and adherence to month end targets.
- Ensure compliance with authority matrix and internal control requirements.
Qualifications & Professional Experience
- Bachelor's degree in accounting and finance
- Professional certification in Cost & Management accounting (ACMA, CMA or equivalent.)
- 5+ years of experience in cost accountant role within a manufacturing industry.
Computing & Technical Skills
ERP functional experience. (Infor, MS Dynamics, SAP, etc.)
MS office (Excel, power point, Word) Expert
Hands on experience with Charts and Graphs.
