1. Financial Strategy & Business Partnering:
- Develop and execute the company’s financial strategy in alignment with business objectives.
- Partner with the MD/CEO and leadership team on business planning, expansion, investments, and strategic decisions.
- Provide financial insights on revenue, margins, customer profitability, branch performance, and business growth.
- Evaluate new business opportunities, commercial proposals, investments, and strategic initiatives from a financial perspective.
- Establish financial KPIs and performance dashboards for management review.
2. Financial Planning, Budgeting & MIS:
- Lead the annual budgeting and forecasting process.
- Prepare monthly management reports covering revenue, gross profit, EBITDA, cash flow, working capital, and variance analysis.
- Monitor actual performance against budgets and identify corrective actions.
- Develop branch, department, customer, trade-lane, and business-segment profitability reports.
- Ensure timely and accurate monthly and year-end financial closure.
3. Freight Forwarding Finance & Commercial Control:
- Monitor shipment-level and customer-level profitability.
- Ensure accurate recognition of freight revenue, vendor costs, accruals, provisions, and other shipment-related expenses.
- Review profitability of key trade lanes, services, customers, and contracts.
- Work closely with Sales, Pricing, Operations, Procurement, and Customer Service teams to improve margins.
- Establish financial controls around rate approvals, credit notes, rebates, vendor charges, and customer billing.
- Analyse gross profit leakage and identify opportunities to improve margins.
4. Working Capital & Cash Flow Management:
- Own the company’s working-capital strategy.
- Drive improvement in DSO, DPO, cash conversion cycle, and collections.
- Establish and monitor customer credit limits and payment terms.
- Strengthen receivables management and reduce overdue/outstanding balances.
- Ensure timely payment to shipping lines, airlines, transporters, overseas agents, customs brokers, and other vendors.
- Prepare regular cash-flow forecasts and manage liquidity requirements.
- Optimise utilisation of banking facilities and working-capital limits.
5. Credit Control & Receivables:
- Develop and enforce customer credit policies.
- Review customer creditworthiness and approve/recommend credit limits as per delegation of authority.
- Monitor ageing and high-risk accounts.
- Work with Sales and Operations on collection escalations.
- Establish controls for credit exposure, blocked accounts, disputed invoices, and long-outstanding receivables.
- Ensure timely resolution of billing disputes.
6. Banking & Treasury:
- Manage relationships with banks and financial institutions.
- Oversee working-capital facilities, guarantees, letters of credit, forex transactions, and other banking arrangements.
- Monitor daily cash positions and liquidity.
- Manage foreign-exchange exposure and associated risks.
- Ensure efficient management of bank charges and transaction costs.
- Evaluate financing options to support business expansion.
7. Statutory, Tax & Regulatory Compliance:
- Ensure compliance with applicable accounting standards, tax laws, GST, TDS, corporate regulations, and other statutory requirements.
- Oversee direct and indirect tax planning and compliance.
- Coordinate with statutory auditors, tax consultants, internal auditors, and regulatory authorities.
- Ensure timely filing of statutory returns and completion of audits.
- Keep management informed of significant regulatory and tax developments impacting the business.
8. Internal Controls & Risk Management:
- Establish and continuously strengthen financial policies, processes, and internal controls.
- Identify financial, operational, credit, fraud, and compliance risks.
- Ensure adequate segregation of duties and approval controls.
- Lead periodic internal control reviews and corrective actions.
- Develop appropriate controls around revenue recognition, vendor payments, customer credits, expenses, and cash management.
9. Overseas / International Finance:
- Oversee financial activities relating to overseas offices, agents, subsidiaries, and group entities.
- Monitor inter-company transactions and reconciliations.
- Manage overseas agent settlements and foreign-currency transactions.
- Ensure appropriate controls over cross-border payments and receivables.
- Coordinate with overseas finance teams for consolidated reporting and financial governance.
10. Audit & Financial Governance:
- Lead statutory, internal, tax, and other financial audits.
- Ensure timely closure of audit observations.
- Maintain strong documentation and financial governance standards.
- Present financial performance, risks, and key financial matters to the MD/CEO and Board/management as required.
11. Team Leadership:
- Lead and develop the Finance & Accounts function.
- Build a high-performance finance team with clear roles, accountability, and KPIs.
- Mentor finance leaders and strengthen succession capability.
- Drive process automation and adoption of technology within finance operations.
Qualifications:
- CA / MBA Finance / equivalent professional qualification preferred.
- 15 – 20+ years of progressive finance leadership experience.
- Strong experience in freight forwarding, logistics, shipping, supply chain, or a related industry preferred.
- Experience managing finance for multi-location and/or international operations will be an advantage.
Required Experience & Competencies:
- Strong understanding of freight forwarding and logistics financial processes.
- Excellent knowledge of accounting, taxation, treasury, and financial controls.
- Strong expertise in working-capital and cash-flow management.