Job Description

 Production Planner / General Accountant

Location: Helderberg, Western Cape

Industry: Manufacturing / Production

Employment Type: Permanent | Full-Time | On-site Working Hours – Important

The company's working hours are strictly: Monday – Thursday: 07:30 – 17:00

Friday: 07:30 – 16:00

Candidates must be comfortable with these fixed working hours.

Salary – Depending on experience

About the Opportunity

Our client, an established company based in the Helderberg area, is seeking a highly organised, numerically strong and detail-oriented Production Planner / General Accountant to join their team.

This is primarily an administrative and operational support position combining general accounting administration, spreadsheet management and weekly production planning.

The position does not require an advanced or specialist accounting background. The successful candidate should, however, have a good practical understanding of basic accounting principles and be comfortable working with financial information, figures and reconciliations.

A significant part of the position involves maintaining and updating Excel spreadsheets, working accurately with numerical information and assisting with the weekly planning of production quantities.

Minimum Requirements

• Reside in the Helderberg area or within reasonable travelling distance.
• Mathematics and Accounting at school level.
• A diploma or relevant tertiary qualification with Accountancy as a subject would be beneficial, but is not essential.
• A practical understanding of basic accounting principles.
• Previous experience in an administrative, accounting, costing or production-related environment would be advantageous.
• Strong numerical ability.

Very good Microsoft Excel and spreadsheet skills.

• Comfortable working with large amounts of numerical and administrative information.
• Experience with Pastel Evolution would be advantageous.
• Fully bilingual in Afrikaans and English.
• Exceptional accuracy and attention to detail.
• Highly organised and methodical.
• Able to work under pressure and meet deadlines.
• Able to manage multiple administrative responsibilities.
• Able to work independently and follow instructions accurately.

Key Responsibilities

• General Accounting & Administration
• Maintain various cash books for a number of property companies and trusts.
• Calculate VAT relating to the relevant cash books.
• Maintain accurate financial and administrative records.

Assist with statutory administration, including:

• Assist auditors during the annual audit period.
• Review and complete supplier credit agreements.
• Assist with ad hoc information and reports required by banks and creditors.
• Maintain various administrative and financial spreadsheets.
• Prepare and update ad hoc spreadsheets and reports requested by management.
• Provide general administrative support to the Financial Director and Production Cost Director.

Production Planning & Costing Administration

• Assist with weekly production planning.
• Determine and maintain the quantities of each product that need to be produced for the week.
• Maintain and update product codes.
• Maintain production-related spreadsheets.
• Maintain spreadsheets relating to production costing.
• Ensure production information and quantities are captured accurately and updated timeously.
• Assist the Production Cost Director with ongoing spreadsheet and reporting requirements.
• Identify and correct discrepancies in production and costing information.

Important: This is not a highly technical production-planning position. The successful candidate does not need in-depth technical knowledge of every product. The focus is primarily on planning the required quantities of each product to be produced each week and accurately maintaining the related information.

Excel & Spreadsheet Skills

• Strong spreadsheet skills are particularly important for this position.
• The successful candidate should be comfortable with:
• Maintaining and updating multiple spreadsheets.
• Formulas and calculations.
• Working with production quantities and costing information.
• Checking and reconciling data.
• Identifying discrepancies.
• Preparing reports from spreadsheet information.
• Working accurately with figures and large amounts of data.

Annual Leave

The company provides 15 working days' annual leave per year, structured around Head Office closure periods:

5 working days during July

10 working days during December / January

The specific dates are determined according to the company's Head Office closure dates. Candidates must be comfortable with this structured leave arrangement.

Ideal Candidate

The ideal candidate is not necessarily a highly qualified or specialist accountant. Rather, the company is looking for someone who is:

Excellent with numbers + excellent with spreadsheets + highly accurate + administratively strong + understands basic accounting + able to coordinate weekly production quantities.

This would suit someone who enjoys working behind the scenes, keeping information organised and accurate, maintaining spreadsheets and ensuring that both the financial administration and weekly production information are kept up to date.