Cost Accountant

Third State Management LLC; Quakertown (Bucks County); On-site; USD 65,000 - 92,000; Full time

Job summary

Third State Management LLC is seeking a detail-oriented Cost Accountant to support costing, inventory valuation, and financial reporting in a manufacturing setting.

You will work with accounting, operations, and supply chain teams to analyze batch costs, identify variances, and drive cost improvements using Excel and ERP data.

This role emphasizes accuracy, data analysis, and collaboration to ensure accurate product costs and insightful manufacturing performance metrics.

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in Accounting, Finance, Business, or a related field preferred.
• Experience with cost accounting, manufacturing accounting, or plant accounting strongly preferred.
• Experience with batch accounting or batch-based manufacturing environments highly desirable.
• Understanding of standard costing, inventory accounting, manufacturing variances, and cost-of-goods-sold calculations.
• Strong analytical and problem-solving abilities.
• High level of accuracy and attention to detail.
• Ability to analyze financial information and explain findings to both accounting and operational teams.
• Strong organizational and time-management skills.
• Experience working with ERP or manufacturing accounting systems preferred.

Responsibilities

• Perform batch accounting and batch-level cost analysis for manufactured products.
• Calculate, review, and maintain accurate product and manufacturing costs.
• Analyze raw material, labor, overhead, and production costs.
• Review manufacturing batches and production transactions for accuracy and completeness.
• Investigate differences between expected and actual batch costs.
• Perform standard cost versus actual cost variance analysis.
• Analyze material usage, labor, overhead, purchase price, and production variances.
• Maintain and update standard costs, bills of materials, routings, and related cost-accounting information.
• Support inventory accounting, inventory valuation, and reconciliation activities.
• Assist with cycle-count and physical-inventory reconciliation.
• Review inventory adjustments and investigate discrepancies.
• Prepare journal entries, account reconciliations, and supporting schedules.
• Assist with monthly and year-end closing activities.
• Develop reports identifying cost trends, production inefficiencies, margin changes, and opportunities for cost improvement.
• Work with plant and operations teams to understand production processes and resolve costing discrepancies.
• Support budgeting, forecasting, and financial analysis as needed.
• Maintain accurate documentation and ensure compliance with internal accounting controls and procedures.

Skills

Cost accounting

Batch accounting

Inventory costing

Variance analysis

Financial reporting

Microsoft Excel

Education

Bachelor’s degree in Accounting, Finance, Business, or related field

Tools

ERP systems

Job description

We are seeking a detail-oriented Cost Accountant to support accounting and financial operations within a manufacturing environment. This role will focus heavily on cost accounting, batch accounting, inventory costing, variance analysis, and financial reporting.

The ideal candidate is comfortable working with large amounts of manufacturing and production data and has strong Microsoft Excel skills. This position will work closely with accounting, operations, production, purchasing, and supply chain teams to ensure accurate product costs and provide insight into manufacturing performance.

Key Responsibilities

• Perform batch accounting and batch-level cost analysis for manufactured products.
• Calculate, review, and maintain accurate product and manufacturing costs.
• Analyze raw material, labor, overhead, and production costs.
• Review manufacturing batches and production transactions for accuracy and completeness.
• Investigate differences between expected and actual batch costs.
• Perform standard cost versus actual cost variance analysis.
• Analyze material usage, labor, overhead, purchase price, and production variances.
• Maintain and update standard costs, bills of materials, routings, and related cost-accounting information.
• Support inventory accounting, inventory valuation, and reconciliation activities.
• Assist with cycle-count and physical-inventory reconciliation.
• Review inventory adjustments and investigate discrepancies.
• Prepare journal entries, account reconciliations, and supporting schedules.
• Assist with monthly and year-end closing activities.
• Develop reports identifying cost trends, production inefficiencies, margin changes, and opportunities for cost improvement.
• Work with plant and operations teams to understand production processes and resolve costing discrepancies.
• Support budgeting, forecasting, and financial analysis as needed.
• Maintain accurate documentation and ensure compliance with internal accounting controls and procedures.

Excel & Data Skills

Strong Microsoft Excel proficiency is required. Candidates should be comfortable working with large datasets and performing detailed financial analysis.

Preferred Excel skills include:

• PivotTables and PivotCharts
• INDEX/MATCH
• SUMIFS and COUNTIFS
• IF and nested formulas
• Data filtering and sorting
• Conditional formatting
• Data validation
• Reconciliation of large datasets
• Creating financial and operational reports
• Importing, cleaning, and analyzing data from accounting or ERP systems

Experience with Power Query, Power Pivot, or advanced Excel reporting is a plus.

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in Accounting, Finance, Business, or a related field preferred.
• Previous experience in cost accounting, manufacturing accounting, or plant accounting strongly preferred.
• Experience with batch accounting or batch-based manufacturing environments highly desirable.
• Understanding of standard costing, inventory accounting, manufacturing variances, and cost-of-goods-sold calculations.
• Strong analytical and problem-solving abilities.
• High level of accuracy and attention to detail.
• Ability to analyze financial information and explain findings to both accounting and operational teams.
• Strong organizational and time-management skills.
• Ability to manage multiple priorities and meet month-end reporting deadlines.
• Experience working with ERP or manufacturing accounting systems preferred.

Preferred Background

Candidates with accounting experience in manufacturing, chemicals, plastics, pigments, coatings, specialty materials, food production, pharmaceuticals, or other batch-processing environments are especially encouraged to apply.

Ideal Candidate

The successful candidate will be someone who enjoys digging into numbers, identifying discrepancies, and understanding why manufacturing costs differ from expectations. They should be equally comfortable reviewing detailed batch-level transactions in an ERP system and using Excel to turn that data into useful financial and operational insights.