KickStart International Inc.
Vacant Position: Accounting Manager
KickStart International prides itself
in being an award-winning, global nonprofit 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.
Location: KickStart
HQ Office – Nairobi
Type of Contract: Open Ended
Role Purpose: The
Accounting Manager is responsible for all areas relating KickStart’s financial
reporting – both accounting and managerial as well as the overall accounting
activities.
The holder of this position is to
provide a full range of financial, compliance, and operational audits, business
advisory, internal audits and investigations, internal control structures
review and ensure accountability, and proper use of KickStart resources.
The Manager supervises the work of an
accounting team and is responsible for managing the team to ensure work is
properly allocated and completed.
This position addresses tight
deadlines and a multitude of accounting activities including month-end-close
process, internal reporting, year-end audit preparation and the support of
budget and forecast activities.
The ideal candidate will be
passionate about the value of ongoing process improvement within an advanced
cloud accounting environment.
KickStart uses Serenic navigator’s
accounting applications and the candidate must be confident of their ability to
thrive in an evolving, fast-paced environment.
Scope of Role:
Reports to: Director of Finance
Staff directly reporting to this post: None
Works with: Country/Program
Accountants, Project Accountants and the Budget & Grants Finance Manager
Key Areas of Accountability:
The position is responsible for
overseeing most of the accounting activities related to the maintenance of a
clean General Ledger to ensure data integrity and compliance with established
procedures.
The Accounting Manager’s key focus includes:
·
Obtaining and maintaining a thorough
understanding of the financial reporting and GL structure.
·
Ensuring an accurate and timely
monthly, quarterly and year-end close.
·
Ensuring the timely reporting of all
monthly financial information.
·
Management of Internal and Annual
Audits
·
Project Accounting Management
·
Maintenance of the general ledger and
reporting
·
Co-lead the annual budget process and
support monthly forecasting activities.
·
Lead process and system improvement
initiatives to enhance the workflow of the department.
·
Maintenance of the ERP System and
training accounting staff
·
Assist in training new and existing
accounting staff to support overall department goals.
·
Respond to inquiries about financial
results, special reporting requests and ad hoc projects
Key Performance Criteria:
·
Timely and accurate production of
financial reports with full integrity of data
·
Strengthening of the Country programs
/ field programs accounting functions / capacity and development of field
program accountants
·
Proper planning, coordination and
management of the annual audit process to ensure that these are done and
completed on time as scheduled and agreed with the external auditors.
·
Ensures action plans for responses to
management letters across offices and monitor execution of these plans by
giving guidance to the program staff.
·
Ensuring compliance to established
accounting and auditing standards such GAAP, IFRS and other international
accounting and auditing standards.
·
Ensuring internal audits are done on
time and management reviews acted upon accordingly with proper guidance and
direction to the program staff.
·
Ensuring the accounting functions of
the Country Offices are operating optimally by assisting the Country
Accountants to coordinate and manage the accounting activities at their offices
·
Ensuring regular review of the
General Ledger to ensure timely production of financial reports with data that
is full of integrity.
·
Demonstrate and help institute high
standards of conduct and ethics as well as appropriate judgment, independence
and discretion amongst finance and other key staff.
·
Help compose, type, and maintain
correspondence, reports, and various other materials and projects and submit
reports and documents as deemed necessary for projects such as Board Reports,
Budget Reports etc.
Qualifications and Experience
·
Bachelor’s degree with major course
work in Accounting or Finance, CPA training a strong plus.
·
Over six years of progressively
responsible accounting and auditing experience, with 2+ year’s supervisory
experience.
·
Knowledge of International Financial
Reporting Standards (IFRS), Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP),
Generally Accepted Auditing Standards (GAAS).
·
Ability to understand and apply some
government laws, regulations and compliance requirements on issues such as
taxes.
·
Experience working fund accounting in
a U.S. NGO is preferred.
·
Public accounting experience a plus.
Skills and Behaviours
·
Fluent in oral and written English
with ability to read, analyze, and interpret common scientific and technical
financial tools such as journals, Ledgers, Trial Balance and reports such as
Balance Sheet and Income Statement, and financial and legal documents.
·
Ability to work with departments
throughout the organization and respond effectively to common inquiries or
complaints from management and other staff, external auditors or regulatory
agencies.
·
Ability to write reports that conform
to prescribed style and format such as Board Reports, Budget Reports, Donor
Reports and Financial Statements.
·
Excellent communication and customer
service skills, with the ability to simplify and explain complex accounting
guidance to stakeholders of all levels across multiple functions.
·
Self-starter who can work with
minimal supervision in a fast -pace setting
Mathematical Skills
Mathematical Skills
·
Meticulous and attentive to details
and high degree of discerning financial information.
·
Ability to work with mathematical
concepts as they relate to auditing and fiscal analysis to include accounting
and the budget.
·
Ability to define problems, collect
data, establish facts, and draw valid conclusions.
·
Ability to interpret an extensive
variety of technical instructions in mathematical or diagram form and deal with
several abstract and concrete variables.
·
Exceptional analytical and
problem-solving skills.
·
Advanced Excel skills
If you feel you are the right
candidate for this job, please send your CV and Cover letter to hr@kickstart.org
quoting the position title on the subject line by COB 2nd December, 2016.
See www.KickStart.org
for more information.