Accountant: Programmes & Agencies

Development Bank of Southern Africa (DBSA); Midrand; On-site; ZAR 520,000 - 780,000; Full time

Job summary

Development Bank of Southern Africa (DBSA) is seeking an Accountant to provide end-to-end financial management, reporting and project accounting support within the infrastructure delivery environment. You will apply sound financial controls and strategic financial insight to enable effective project execution and programme sustainability.

Key duties include budgeting, forecasting, cost reporting, and ensuring IFRS and SARS compliance.

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s Degree in Accounting; auditing articles completion.
• Minimum 5 years’ financial accounting experience in complex organisations.
• Postgraduate qualification in Accounting (desirable).
• Strong Excel modelling and SAP FICO/BI knowledge (desirable).
• Knowledge of IFRS and SARS/tax compliance.
• Excellent governance and reporting skills.

Responsibilities

• Provide end-to-end financial management, reporting and project accounting support.
• Review budgets, calculate management fees and programme profitability.
• Oversee accounts payable/receivable and GL reconciliations.
• Prepare IFRS-compliant financial statements and regulatory reports (SARS).
• Maintain internal controls and monitor financial risks.
• Provide financial information to project leads and management for decision-making.

Skills

Financial accounting

IFRS knowledge

Tax compliance

Communication

Education

Bachelor’s Degree in Accounting

Postgraduate qualification in Accounting

Auditing articles completed

Tools

SAP FICO

BI

Excel

Job description

The Accountant is responsible for providing end-to-end financial management, reporting, and project accounting support within the infrastructure delivery environment by applying sound financial controls, accurate reporting, and strategic financial insight to enable effective project execution and programme sustainability.

Key Responsibilities

1. Programme and Agency Financial Management

• Conduct detailed reviews of programme budgets and agency agreements to identify recoverable costs and management fees.
• Calculate management fees and programme profitability based on programme type, including time-based and cost-of-work models.
• Prepare management fee calculations covering subsistence, travel disbursements, and recoverable costs for billing purposes.
• Create and maintain programme account codes, cost structures, and budget uploads on the project management system.
• Review and approve project disbursement requests, purchase orders, and payment submissions to confirm correct financial allocation.
• Monitor open commitments by tracking outstanding purchase orders and following up on unresolved items. Prepare project and programme financial reports, cost reports, cash flow statements, and close-out reports.
• Manage project and programme financial close-out processes in line with organisational policies. Authorise transfers of expenses into and out of project-related accounts where required.
• Maintain up-to-date knowledge of accounting standards, construction industry practices, project accounting methodologies, and financial systems to support effective financial management.
• Interpret financial and project information to translate technical data into practical insights for operational and programme teams.

2. Budgeting and Forecasting

• Facilitate the development of annual project, programme, and operational budgets aligned to approved business and construction plans.
• Compile forecasts and cash flow projections to support proactive financial planning and funding decisions.
• Analyse actual expenditure against budgets and forecasts to identify variances, cost overruns, or underspending trends.
• Provide variance analysis and financial commentary to support corrective action and strategic decision-making.

3. Transactional Processing and General Ledger Management

• Oversee accounts payable, receivable, payroll-related transactions, and project-related disbursements to support operational continuity and healthy cash flow.
• Maintain accurate general ledger records as the foundation for reliable financial reporting and compliance. Perform monthly reconciliations, journal entries, and balance sheet reviews to maintain data integrity and detect errors or irregularities.
• Review transactional postings to confirm correct allocation to projects, programmes, cost centres, and accounts.

4. Financial Reporting and Compliance

• Prepare accurate and timely inputs to the financial statements in line with IFRS, statutory requirements, and organisational reporting standards.
• Apply regulatory and tax requirements, including SARS compliance, to all financial transactions and reports.
• Maintain audit readiness by compiling supporting documentation and responding to internal and external audit queries.
• Prepare accurate, timely reports on recoveries, variances, and fee income for management and stakeholders.
• Review financial records and supporting schedules to promote transparency, credibility, and consistency in financial reporting.

5. Internal Control and Risk Management

• Implement and monitor financial control processes to safeguard assets and promote data accuracy.
• Identify financial risks related to projects, programmes, and operational activities and recommend mitigation actions.
• Apply governance frameworks, delegated authorities, and compliance standards across all financial activities.
• Review expenditure patterns and financial practices to detect potential control weaknesses or process gaps.

6. Stakeholder Management and Reporting

• Provide programme leads, project managers, and business performance teams with relevant financial information to support planning and control.
• Respond promptly to financial queries from internal stakeholders and management.
• Prepare management reports to support oversight of performance, risks, and opportunities.
• Produce financial and project reports to support informed operational and strategic decision-making.

Key Measurements of Outputs

• 1. Accuracy, quality and timeliness of quarterly and annual accounts.
• 2. Effective execution and quarterly updates of financial processes.
• 3. Budget and forecast accuracy: precision in balance sheet and cash flow projections.
• 4. Management of client relationships and key internal and external Stakeholders.
• 5. Timeliness of financial reports (e.g., number of reports submitted on time).
• 6. Accuracy rate of financial statements (e.g., number of audit adjustments).
• 7. Variance between actuals and budget (e.g., deviations).
• 8. Risk mitigation actions implemented.

Expertise & Technical Competencies

a) Financial Acumen

• Possesses sufficient expertise to establish and manage income and expenditure monitoring systems for their own area of the business.
• Understands cost/revenue drivers within own area and can take actions to control resources and expenditure to meet financial targets.
• Understands basic management accounting reports and the processes by which financial resources are identified, obtained, allocated, managed, and accounted for.
• Strong written and verbal communication skills, with the ability to articulate technical accounting positions clearly to both finance and non-finance audiences.

b) Financial Accounting

• Thorough understanding of relevant accounting principles for DBSA and ability to guide others in their application.
• Implements controls for and monitors accounting transactions to ensure legal/regulatory compliance, and accuracy and timeliness of accounting information.
• Ability to apply credit/collection concepts independently, and able to adapt or develop new procedures as needed within DBSA and professional guidelines.
• Identifies bottlenecks and areas for improvement within the organisation’s Financial Services with respect to efficiency and accuracy of the existing financial systems and processes.

c) Stakeholder Management

• The skills, knowledge, and abilities required to establish, maintain, and enhance effective collaborative relationships between an organisation and its internal or external partners. This is essential for driving strategic alignment, fostering innovation, and achieving mutual goals through synergistic partnerships.

d) Financial Analysis

• Interprets, analyzes and/or evaluates compliance with applicable legislation, sound regulatory practices and procedures, generally accepted accounting principles, and other such rules and regulations.
• Analyses or interprets financial records and develops program procedures, financial models and databases.
• Demonstrates a thorough knowledge and understanding of applicable regulations, rules, entity/company practices, concepts, and industry issues.
• Demonstrates a thorough knowledge or experience working with legal and regulatory issues in their subject area.
• Develops and maintains effective working relationships with regulated industries, government officials, administrators, and civic leaders.

e) Costing and Budgeting

• Sets, maintains and updates the budgeting control process/methodologies.
• Reviews and monitors budget to ensure that the required financial procedures are adhered to and all monies are accounted for.
• Able to verify that monthly close procedures have been followed and identify anomalies.
• Significant experience in the analysis of variance reports to identify underlying operational trends.
• Can collate budget inputs from across the organisation and analyse bids to determine consistency with DBSA overall cost/revenue targets.
• Able to prepare company-wide budget reports and manuals.
• Develops options and recommendations for budget targets.

Minimum Qualification

• A Bachelor’s Degree in Accounting or a related discipline.
• Completion of auditing articles at an audit or TOPP (training outside public practice) firm.

Minimum Experience

• A minimum of 5 years’ experience in financial accounting in a complex organisation with the built environment, working on programme development or a large to medium complex organisation with multidimensional businesses.
• Working experience in taxation computations and SARS e-filing submissions (value-added tax and PAYE).
• Experience in working with financial management systems, e.g. SAP.
• Strong understanding of and a strong commitment to good corporate governance and specifically international reporting standards, including IFRS, Basel, GAAP and other regulatory requirements, including the PFMA.
• Excellent accounting and reconciliation skills.
• Experience in a corporate, public sector, or audit environment.
• Strong knowledge of IFRS and South African tax laws.

Desirable Requirements

• A Postgraduate qualification in Accounting.
• Strong advanced Microsoft Excel modelling skills.
• Knowledge of SAP FICO and BI.
• Experience in fund accounting, restricted fund management, or development finance environments.

*The KPA’s, competencies and relationships listed in this document are not exhaustive, and the incumbent will be expected to undertake additional duties within their capacity to meet the needs of business and/or the business unit.*

Required Personal Attributes

Customer Service Orientation

• Tries to understand the underlying needs of customers and matches these needs to available or customised products and services.
• Adapts processes and procedures to meet ongoing customer needs.
• Utilises the feedback received by customers to develop new and/or improve existing services/products that relate to their ongoing needs.
• Think of new ways to align DBSA’s offerings with future customer needs.
• Demonstrated ability to operate effectively in a multi-stakeholder environment without direct authority over those stakeholders.

b) Self-awareness and Self Control

• Withholds effects of strong emotions in difficult situations.
• Keeps functioning or responds constructively despite stress.
• May apply special techniques or a plan of time to manage emotions or stress.

c) Strategic and Innovative Thinking

• Experiments with new approaches, tests scenarios, questions assumptions, and challenges conventional thinking.
• Creates new concepts that are not obvious to others, leveraging internal and external sources of information, to build incremental revenue and growth opportunities.

d) Driving Delivery of Results

• Sets challenging goals that will have a significant impact on the business or support the organisational strategy.
• Commits significant resources and/or time to ensure that challenging goals are achieved, while also taking action to mitigate risk.

e) Teamwork & Cooperation

• Acts to promote a friendly climate and good morale, and resolves conflicts.
• Creates opportunities for cross-functional working.
• Encourages others to network outside of their own team/department and learn from their experience.