SAP GUI
Siyamthanda Takalani
Finance Management
Johanessburg
Summary
Finance professional with strong background in financial management, analysis, and reporting. Adept at team collaboration and achieving results, with flexible approach to changing needs. Skilled in budgeting, forecasting, financial planning, and compliance. Known for reliability, analytical thinking, and effective problem-solving.
Overview
18
18
years of professional experience
Work History
Finance Officer - Product Accounting
Liberty Group Limited
08.2021 - Current
- Application of IFRS & GAAP for reporting purposes and financial statement preparation as per standard practice
- Assisting in the implementation of IFRS 17, testing that migrated policies are in compliance with the reporting requirements of IFRS 17, and that the reconciliation templates are as recommended by the technical team, as well as testing that revenue recognition, liabilities in the form of but not limited to client claims are reported satisfactorily as recommended by the standard and that the assets recognized are in line with the recognition criteria as set out in the IFRS 17 standard
- Checking that the mapping of accounts is correct as and when new GL accounts and subaccounts are created
- Accounting for Offshore Investment contracts as well as Forex Accounting on those
- Accounting for Holding Fund Investment Accounts
- Journal preparations, request for approvals of journals as well as processing on SAP
- Income Statement and Balance Sheet General Ledger Reconciliations
- Data Analytics includes variance analysis and investigations of fluctuations within various ledger accounts and providing reports detailing the reasons for variances to Senior Managers
- Balance Sheet Risk Management including: Working on Claims Pending Account: Investigation of Large debit balances to help detect and prevent duplicate payments to beneficiaries at claim stage on the policies as well as to flag overpayment to clients and to correct the accounting on policies where overpaid clients have refunded Liberty
- Member Billing Investigations: Investigation of contracts where the system has been raising a receivable on lapsed policies and flag such to the relevant department
- Member Loans Investigations: Investigate and flag member loans where clients have paid off the loan, but the system still raises a receivable
- Matching of unmatched receipts and cancelled premiums on policies
- Quality and Assurance Testing and giving approval on the Compass System Transactions while it is still on the development stage
- Reconciliation and Journal processing on Offshore Policies
Creditors Team Leader
Famous Brands
06.2021 - 08.2021
- Establish rules of engagement across the various role players in the credit process
- Manages accounting functions including maintenance of general ledger, accounts payable; ensures accuracy and timeliness
- Manages accounts payable including Vendor relations and the disbursements, tax related matters and ERP system requirements
- Manages monthly closing of financial records and posting of month end information; ensures accuracy of financial statements
- Excellent understanding of the classes of credit, age analysis, billing, invoicing, debt recovery and ITC, risks involved in credit vetting, the impact of delinquent debtors on business
- Develops, implements, and maintain systems, procedures, and policies, including accounts payable functions to ensure adherence to company guidelines
- Manages monthly risk list publication, accuracy and monitoring thereof
- Acts as a liaison between the company and external accountants to meet information needs and to ensure that proper information is maintained for historical purposes
- Train and evaluate team to enhance their performance, development, and work product
- Addresses performance issues and make recommendations for their personnel actions
- Motivates and rewards employees within the company guidelines as per the IPM programme
- Supply Treasury with cashflow projections monthly and daily for funding of accounts and be the custodian of the relationship with Treasury
- Monitor spent against budget and report variances, as necessary
- Ensure integrity in the data in the department and ensure the correct supplier is paid timeously and accurately
- Recordkeeping to be immaculate and all documentation to be available to support each payment made
- Ensure all settlement discount suppliers/vendors are paid on time to utilize positive benefit for the Group
- Maintain integrity with regards to reconciliation of bank statement and cashbook processes
- People management including assessment of functions performed by team
- Enhance communication across the business units to improve relationship
- Production of group reports monthly including KPI measurement across department
- If necessary, and as cost justified, implement enhancements, or propose new system
Senior Accountant (Manager AP and AR)
Johnson Matthey (Pty) Ltd
09.2019 - 09.2020
- Application of IFRS & GAAP for reporting purposes and financial statement preparation as per standard practice
- Treasury management including cash flow forecasting, cash management - ensuring that sufficient levels of cash are maintained in the daily transactional accounts to avoid out of cash situations, investing any monies that are over the daily cash threshold on the transactional account to ensure the organisations earns interest on its excess cash, hedge account ensuring that foreign debtors and creditors that are at risk are appropriately hedged and that hedging instruments that will offset the risk are in place, ensuring that the hedging relationship is documented, the risk management strategy and the hedged items and instruments are documented, ensuring that the hedging relationship meets the criteria for effectiveness and that gains and losses on the hedging instruments are matched with gains and losses on the hedged items
- Ensure correct hedge accounting in accordance with IFRS 9, i.e
- There are three types of hedging relationships namely Fair Value Hedge, Cash Flow Hedge and Hedge of a Net Investment in Foreign Entity (accounted for as a Cash Flow Hedge)
- Liaising with external auditors to achieve optimum accounting treatment
- Support other group areas and areas of Treasury in accounting for Financial Instruments
- Managing the Accounts Receivable Clerk
- Ensure that invoicing is done timeously, allocation of cash received is done on a timely manner to ensure a positive impact on the Working Capital
- Ensure that the Accounts receivable clerk sends out statements to debtors on a timely manner to enable smooth cash collection
- Managing the debtors ageing, constantly following up with debtors’ clerk to ensure debtors do not exceed their credit limits and adhere to the agreed payment terms
- Managing the Accounts payable Clerks
- Ensure that statements are requested on a timely manner from suppliers and payments are made on due course to avoid damaging the relationship with suppliers
- Preparing balance sheet reconciliations and identify over 90 days accounts for Accounts Payable and Accounts Receivable
- Reconciling the balance sheet and General Ledger accounts and Identifying irregularities and enquiring with the relevant business users to maintain a clean Trial Balance to avoid balance sheet risks
- Support the Project team: Manage Assets Under Construction and ensuring Projects are accounted for correctly
- Monitoring and increasing budgets for the Project Team to enable them to spend on the Projects where additional spend is warranted and approved
- Ensuring that Assets Under Construction are Capitalised on a timeous manner to allow correct depreciation of assets
- Daily Bank Recons: Performance of daily bank recons to monitor movements in the banking system and to help alleviate the possibility of fraud going unnoticed
- Compliance Duties: Monitoring compliance licenses with various Regulatory Boards (Namely: The South African Diamond Board, The South African Reserve Bank) to ensure that renewal of licenses happen on a timely manner
- Monthly submission of STATS Reports to Statistics SA
- Monthly Forecasting and annual Budgeting
- Intergroup Balance Reporting
Senior Accountant (Manager Financial Reporting) and Project Accountant
Denel Vehicle Systems and Denel Aeronautics
03.2014 - 08.2019
- Senior Accountant (Manager Financial Reporting): Application of IFRS & GAAP for reporting purposes and financial statement preparation as per standard practice
- Treasury management including cash flow forecasting, cash management - ensuring that sufficient levels of cash are maintained in the daily transactional accounts to avoid out of cash situations, investing any monies that are over the daily cash threshold on the transactional account to ensure the organisations earns interest on its excess cash, hedge account ensuring that foreign debtors and creditors that are at risk are appropriately hedged and that hedging instruments that will offset the risk are in place, ensuring that the hedging relationship is documented, the risk management strategy and the hedged items and instruments are documented, ensuring that the hedging relationship meets the criteria for effectiveness and that gains and losses on the hedging instruments are matched with gains and losses on the hedged items
- Ensure correct hedge accounting in accordance with IFRS 9, i.e
- There are three types of hedging relationships namely Fair Value Hedge, Cash Flow Hedge and Hedge of a Net Investment in Foreign Entity (accounted for as a Cash Flow Hedge)
- Liaising with external auditors to achieve optimum accounting treatment
- Support other group areas and areas of Treasury in accounting for Financial Instruments
- Monthly, quarterly, and annual month end close
- Including but not limited to the review and approval of journals, balance sheet recons, Management Accounts, and reporting packs
- Monthly consolidation of the three DVS Entities, namely DVS OMC, DVS Gear Ratio and DVS Mechatronics
- Management of the group foreign exchange exposures through foreign exchange contracts
- Oversee operations of the reporting, fixed assets, bank and cash and debtors’ sections, set goals and objectives, and design a framework for these to be met
- Preparation of Annual Financial Statements and Year end Reporting Packs
- Management of cost base reviews
- Preparation of annual budgets and rolling Forecasts
- Assist in the coordination of audits by both the internal and external auditors
- Implement and maintain reporting procedures to comply with internal control requirements
- Bank signatures both local and foreign bank accounts
- Reviewing of ad hoc, weekly, and monthly supplier payments
- Management of the close out of both internal and external audit findings within committed deadlines
- Effectively manage the team by recruiting, developing, and performance managing the team to ensure efficient human resources for the department
- Executing and managing Head office requirements within the deadline parameters
- Performing ad hoc investigations as requested by supervisors
- Investigation, preparation, and presentation of Wasteful, Fruitless and Irregular Expenditure Reports to management
- Stand in for Group Finance Manager from time to time
- Participate in other projects as and when required
- Project Accountant: Application of IFRS & GAAP for reporting purposes and financial statement preparation as per standard practice
- Support Project Managers in planning and monitoring project schedules and cost information
- Create financial reports specifically designed to track the financial progress of projects, which can then be used by managers to aid project management and provide management with critical information for strategic decision-making processes
- Provide Project Managers with the ability to accurately assess and monitor project budgets and ensure that the project is proceeding on budget
- Match project sales and cost of sales monthly for allocated business unit (Airbus A400M Isolocks, A400M CGVR, A400M Top shells, and Alstom Baseboard Ducts)
- Generate sales and cost of sales report to provide the list of all the invoices generated and cost of sales per current project
- Analyse the data for correctness and completeness
- Raise revenue recognition journals per project in according to the accepted accounting standard
- Submit the journals for approval by the Financial Accountant
- Update the month end reports, check information to ensure that project costs remain within budget
- Identify discrepancies and provide reasons for variances as part of the monthly management report
- Predict project cost to completion
- Issue a Cost to Completion standard template to Project Managers together with guidelines to determine labour and material cost
- Check to Ensure Bill of Materials are correct on the system
- Complete the calculations for the total cost per project for a bin-annual review according to the required format
- Setup the review meeting with Programme/Project Managers and the Executive Manager, Business Control to review cost to completion and feedback is provided to Business Control Executive
- In the event of a provision for loss, prepare journal entries on the system
- Provide financial information to reflect actual sales vs
- Cost of sales to the relevant Project Manager for reporting and auditing purposes
- Action resolutions in the following month (Provision adjustments for possible project overruns or revenue adjustments)
- Support the Bid-Room i.e., Review bid price calculations and ensure the prices are from an authorized price list, the mark-ups are properly calculated and are according to the authorized rate, check that the rate of exchange is appropriately applied
- Complete the calculations for the net profit analysis for the proposed project according to the required format
- Participate as a finance representative at the Steering Committee chaired by Business Development
- Establish Feasibilities using net profit analysis
- Assist in compiling of the sales, Opex and Capex budgets
- Liaise with facility/production and project managers to obtain input into the budgets in accordance with the overall budget guidelines, analyse and identify abnormal items or discrepancies and resolve and then pass on the information to the Manager Project Accounting for incorporation into overall budget
- Interacts with internal and external auditors in completing the required audit process within area of responsibility
- Participate in staff meetings as and when required to discuss operational performance and business issues e.g., Denel Business Management Team Meetings
- Part of the Denel Aerostructures Cross Functional Team in selecting and approving new suppliers for new tenders
- (Perform a Due Diligence exercise on prospective suppliers, performing Financial Analysis to assess the liquidity status of bidders as part of the acceptance criteria)
- Help the stores division with inventory reconciliations, weekly stock cycle counts and identification of long existing inventory and putting through adjustments on provision for obsolesce stock as well calculations of the stock turns
Financial Accountant
Liquid Telecom
01.2012 - 03.2014
- Application of IFRS & GAAP for reporting purposes and financial statement preparation as per standard practice
- Accounting for three companies, trading across the three African Countries within a group of companies listed on the UK Stock Exchange, namely: TPS Zambia, TPS Kenya and TPS Botswana
- Processing of daily transactions from Bank statements to Trial Balance
- Reconciliation of Cash flows
- Management of Debtors (Billing Clients and following up on payment, ensuring clients do not exceed their payment deadlines and are within the acceptable credit limit, Debtor’s reconciliations and ensuring that payments received from debtors are allocated to the correct debtor’s accounts)
- Management of Creditors (Preparation of Purchase Orders and ensuring that they are approved by an authorized official, Gathering Supplier invoices and ensuring that suppliers are paid timeously
Trainee Accountant
Thort Chartered Accountants
02.2009 - 12.2011
- Application of IFRS & GAAP for reporting purposes and financial statement preparation as per standard practice
- Auditing
- Bookkeeping (Cashbook to trial Balance), Bank Reconciliation
- Accounts Receivable & Accounts Payable
- Internet Banking
- Statutory Returns
- Vat Returns, UIF, PAYE (Submission on e-filing and easy filing)
- Company Tax Returns
- Individual Tax Returns
- Tax Consulting with SARS
- Following up on client tax queries and tax objections
- Compiling documentation required by SARS for new tax registrations including PAYE, VAT, and Income Tax registrations
- Reconciliation of General Ledger Accounts
- Drafting Financial Statements making use of CaseWare Working Papers
- Monthly Management Accounts
- Analysis of Financial Information
- Maintaining Fixed Asset Register
- Stock Count
- Training Entry Level Trainee Accounting Clerks
- Foreign exchange transactions
- Intercompany transactions
Bank Teller
Standard Bank of South Africa Ltd
02.2007 - 01.2009
- Cash withdrawals
- Cash and cheque deposits
- Cheque encashment
- Printing customer bank statements and other ad hoc housekeeping duties
Education
Management Accounting
CIMA Global
Johannesburg, South Africa11-2018
Bachelor of Science - Accounting
University of Johannesburg
Johannesburg, South Africa 04.2001 -
High School Diploma -
Thaba-Jabula Secondary School
Johannesburg, South Africa 04.2001 -
Skills
Accounts payable
Financial statements
Bank reconciliation
GAAP
General ledger accounting
Internal controls development
Account reconciliation
Fixed asset management
Cash flow management
Accounts receivable
Revenue recognition
Financial forecasting
Software
SAP UNIFY
HYPERION WORKING SPACE
FIS/COMPASS
SAP BRIDGE
QMUZIK
ADVANCED MICROSOFT
BLACKLINE
Timeline
Finance Officer - Product Accounting
Liberty Group Limited
08.2021 - Current
Creditors Team Leader
Famous Brands
06.2021 - 08.2021
Senior Accountant (Manager AP and AR)
Johnson Matthey (Pty) Ltd
09.2019 - 09.2020
Senior Accountant (Manager Financial Reporting) and Project Accountant
Denel Vehicle Systems and Denel Aeronautics
03.2014 - 08.2019
Financial Accountant
Liquid Telecom
01.2012 - 03.2014
Trainee Accountant
Thort Chartered Accountants
02.2009 - 12.2011
Bank Teller
Standard Bank of South Africa Ltd
02.2007 - 01.2009
Bachelor of Science - Accounting
University of Johannesburg
04.2001 -
High School Diploma -
Thaba-Jabula Secondary School
04.2001 -
Management Accounting
CIMA Global
Similar Profiles
Onica KungwaneOnica Kungwane
Control Monitoring Analyst at Liberty Group LimitedControl Monitoring Analyst at Liberty Group Limited
Phindile JamelaPhindile Jamela
Sales Consultant at Liberty Group LimitedSales Consultant at Liberty Group Limited
Mosela RashakaMosela Rashaka
Customer Service Agent at Liberty GroupCustomer Service Agent at Liberty Group