Group Financial Controller (100% onsite)

AsiaPeopleSearch Inc.; Metro Manila; On-site; PHP 2,000,000 - 3,200,000; Full time

Job summary

AsiaPeopleSearch Inc. is seeking a Group Financial Controller to oversee financial reporting, budgeting, forecasting, cash flow management and internal controls across all entities.

The role partners with the Chairman, CEO and cross-functional leaders to drive performance and risk management. The candidate will lead a finance team, develop robust policies, coordinate audits, and ensure accurate, timely financial information for strategic decision-making.

Qualifications

• Certified Public Accountant or equivalent recognized professional accounting qualification; CPA strongly preferred.
• At least 10 years of progressive finance and accounting experience, including controllership, audit, financial reporting or senior finance leadership.

Responsibilities

• Own the monthly, quarterly and annual closing calendar for every legal entity and the consolidated Group.
• Coordinate external audit, tax audit and statutory reporting requirements.
• Lead the 2027 group budget and subsequent annual budget cycles.
• Produce consolidated P&L, balance sheet, cash flow and procurement plans.
• Establish bank-account governance, signing authority and online banking controls.
• Develop and enforce finance policies for purchasing, reimbursement, capex and vendor master.

Skills

Financial leadership

Financial reporting

Budgeting & forecasting

Internal controls

Audit coordination

Communication with executives

Education

CPA or equivalent

Tools

ERPNext

Multi-entity accounting

Job description

JOB OVERVIEW

The Group Financial Controller is responsible for overseeing the Group’s overall financial reporting, budgeting, forecasting, cash flow management, internal controls, and financial governance across all business entities. The role ensures the accuracy and integrity of financial information, strengthens financial policies and processes, manages audit requirements, and drives effective cost, inventory, procurement, and capital expenditure controls. The position works closely with the Chairman, CEO, and cross-functional leaders through providing strategic financial analysis, enabling decisions that will support business performance and operational efficiency, while managing risk. They take the lead in developing a competent and accountable finance team.

RESPONSIBILITIES AND DUTIES

A. Financial Reporting and Close

• Own the monthly, quarterly and annual closing calendar for every legal entity and the consolidated Group.

• Ensure complete, accurate and timely books, schedules, reconciliations, accruals, provisions and management accounts.

• Establish common accounting policies, chart of accounts, close checklists and certification by accountable preparers and reviewers.

• Lead intercompany reconciliation and consolidation entries; investigate and resolve long-outstanding balances.

• Present financial performance, trends, risks and corrective actions to the CEO and Chairman in a clear executive format.

• Coordinate external audit, tax audit and statutory reporting requirements without transferring management responsibility to auditors.

B. Budgeting, Forecasting and Performance Management

• Lead the 2027 group budget and subsequent annual budget cycles.

• Issue budget assumptions, templates, calendars, cost-center structures, account rules and budget-owner responsibilities.

• Challenge bottom-up submissions against strategy, historical performance, operating drivers, cash capacity and return on investment.

• Produce consolidated profit and loss, balance-sheet, cash-flow, manpower, capex and procurement plans.

• Implement monthly budget versus actual reporting and quarterly rolling forecasts.

• Require accountable managers to explain material variances and execute corrective actions.

• Preserve separate views of original budget, approved revisions, latest forecast and actual results.

C. Cash, Treasury and Working Capital

• Implement a weekly 13-week cash-flow forecast and monthly 12-month cash outlook.

• Coordinate collections, supplier payments, payroll, taxes, debt service, capex and inter-company funding.

• Establish bank-account governance, signing authority, online banking access, payment limits and independent review.

• Reduce overdue receivables, excess inventory, unnecessary advances and avoidable cash leakage.

• Monitor covenant, financing and liquidity risks and escalate projected shortfalls early.

D. Internal Controls and Finance Policies

• Design, document and implement financial controls aligned with risk, materiality and practical operating needs.

• Own finance policies for purchasing, reimbursement, cash advances, capex, inventory, vendor master, payment, write-offs, inter-company transactions and financial close.

• Establish segregation-of-duties and maker-checker requirements across systems and manual processes.

• Design compensating controls for branches or small teams where full separation is not operationally possible.

• Maintain a finance risk and control register and report unresolved control failures to the CEO and Chairman

• Ensure management overrides are documented, time-limited, independently reviewed and reported.

E. Procurement and Reimbursement Financial Governance

• Integrate approved budget, purchase requisition, canvass or sourcing, supplier award, PO, receiving, invoice and payment into one controlled transaction chain.

• Implement budget reservation for open POs and block transactions without valid cost center, project, account and accountable budget owner.

• Define requirements for original quotations, exceptions, three-way matching, duplicate checks and retrospective PO reporting.

• Restrict reimbursement to genuine exceptions and require pre-approval, itemized evidence, proof of payment, receipt confirmation and independent review.

• Produce exception reports for after-the-fact purchases, split purchases, repeat reimbursements, unliquidated advances and manual overrides.

F. Vendor Governance (Old and New)

• Establish a centralized vendor master and prohibit uncontrolled duplicate vendor creation.

• Design onboarding for new vendors including legal identity, tax registration, bank validation, ownership disclosure, conflict-of-interest declarations, sanctions or adverse information checks appropriate to risk, and required operating licenses.

• Revalidate old or legacy vendors according to risk; block inactive, duplicate, incomplete, unverified or dormant vendors until corrected.

• Require independent callback or bank-confirmation procedures for vendor bank-account changes.

• Separate vendor creation, vendor approval, PO creation, invoice processing and payment release.

• Monitor related-party vendors, employee-linked vendors, concentration risk, supplier performance and unusual pricing patterns.

G. Inventory, Cost and Profitability Control

• Create consistent costing methods and reporting for inventory, imports, clinical supplies, product lines and warehouses.

• Ensure physical counts, cycle counts, branch reconciliation, expiry monitoring, obsolescence assessment and loss investigation.

• Develop branch, brand, business-unit, service-line and project profitability reporting.

• Analyze margins, treatment consumable usage, product costs, discounts, wastage and working-capital drivers.

• Support Purchasing and Operations in setting reorder parameters, safety stock and consolidated purchasing strategies.

H. Capital Expenditure and Project Control

• Create capex policy, classification rules, business-case templates and approval thresholds.

• Ensure each project has an approved total cost, project code, cash schedule, sponsor, benefits case and completion criteria.

• Monitor commitments, change orders, overruns, capitalization and depreciation.

• Conduct post-investment review of material projects and report whether promised revenue, savings or operating benefits were achieved.

I. Finance Systems and Data Governance

• Act as finance process owner for ERPNext or any successor system and related digital workflows.

• Define chart of accounts, cost centers, projects, approval matrices, user roles, master data and control requirements before configuration.

• Lead finance user-acceptance testing and ensure system controls cannot be bypassed through uncontrolled spreadsheets or manual processes.

• Protect the integrity, confidentiality, retention and recoverability of financial data.

• Require formal change control for finance configurations, reports and access rights.

J. Leadership and Team Development

• Assess finance-team roles, competence, workload, succession and ethical culture.

• Develop clear job descriptions, performance standards, training plans and backup coverage.

• Create a culture in which issues are escalated early and unsupported numbers are challenged respectfully.

• Coach the Finance Manager and other leaders while making objective decisions on placement, development or replacement.

• Ensure institutional knowledge is documented and not held by one employee.

K. Compliance, Ethics and Audit Coordination

• Ensure timely tax, statutory, regulatory and contractual financial compliance.

• Coordinate with Legal, HR, IT, Medical, OPC, Purchasing and external advisers on financially significant risks.

• Provide complete records to Internal Audit and respond to findings with root-cause corrective action.

• Escalate suspected fraud, conflict of interest, financial misstatement or deliberate control override according to approved protocols.

• Protect whistleblowers and preserve evidence within the Controller's management responsibilities while respecting Internal Audit and Legal mandates.

L. Executive Decision Support

• Provide the Chairman and CEO with reliable analysis for expansion, pricing, cost reduction, financing, acquisitions, new businesses and major contracts.

• Distinguish accounting profit, cash impact, capital requirement and risk exposure.

• Create scenario analysis and identify decisions that may threaten liquidity, margin, compliance or control quality.

• Ensure recommendations state assumptions, alternatives and consequences rather than presenting unsupported

JOB QUALIFICATIONS

Certified Public Accountant or equivalent recognized professional accounting qualification; CPA strongly preferred.

At least 10 years of progressive finance and accounting experience, including substantial controllership, audit, financial reporting or senior finance leadership responsibility.

Demonstrated experience in multi-company, multi-branch, inventory-intensive, retail, healthcare, distribution, manufacturing, or similarly complex operations.

Proven leadership of annual budgeting, forecasting, cash planning, management reporting and internal-control implementation.

Hands-on experience with ERP implementation or major finance-system redesign.

Strong understanding of Philippine tax, statutory reporting and business practices; ability to engage external specialists where needed.

Ability to challenge senior managers respectfully and communicate directly with owners and governing executives.

High integrity, sound judgment, professional skepticism, documentation discipline, and willingness to escape material issues.

Preferred differentiators:

Experience in a family-owned or founder-led group undergoing professionalization.

External audit or internal audit foundation combined with operational controllership experience.

Experience redesigning procure-to-pay, vendor master, inventory, reimbursement and branch controls.

Track record building a finance team rather than only inheriting a mature one.

Ability to translate technical finance issues into concise executive decisions.