Accounts Payable Manager

Excellerate; Johannesburg; On-site; ZAR 700,000 - 1,000,000; Full time

Job summary

Excellerate is seeking a proactive Accounts Payable (AP) Manager to lead end-to-end AP processing for a national client, ensuring timely and complete vendor payments and accurate reporting. You will strengthen internal controls, drive data integrity, and lead optimisation and automation initiatives to improve efficiency and scalability across finance and operations.

Work with the Account Finance Lead, Lease Administration Team, and Utilities Team to validate charges and maintain governance of

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in Accounting, Finance, or a related field.
• 5+ years of Accounts Payable experience, including 2+ years in a leadership or management role.
• Strong experience managing creditors’ ageing, reconciliations, and payment completeness.
• Experience with ERP systems (e.g., SAP, Oracle, NetSuite) and AP automation tools.
• Demonstrated experience in process optimisation, control enhancement, and automation initiatives
• Proven ability to improve data integrity and drive operational excellence.

Responsibilities

• Oversee and manage all AP processes, ensuring accuracy, timeliness, and completeness of payments.
• Drive and maintain clean creditors’ ageing, ensuring outstanding balances are actively managed and resolved.
• Identify control weaknesses, operational risks, and inefficiencies, and implement corrective actions.
• Strengthen vendor and account master data controls, ensuring data accuracy and governance.
• Lead process optimisation and support automation initiatives within AP.
• Manage and coach the AP team, ensuring accountability and adherence to best practices.
• Collaborate with the Account Finance Lead, Lease Administration Team, and Utilities Team to validate charges and ensure completeness of financial obligations.
• Escalate material risks or control gaps to senior management where required.

Skills

Accounts payable management

Team leadership

Process optimisation

Automation initiatives

Data integrity and governance

Internal controls

Education

Bachelor’s degree in Accounting

Tools

SAP

Oracle

NetSuite

AP automation tools

Job description

About the role:

We are seeking a proactive, detail-driven Accounts Payable (AP) Manager to lead AP operations for a national client. This role is responsible for overseeing end-to-end AP processes, ensuring timely and complete vendor payments, maintaining clean creditors’ ageing, and delivering accurate and reliable reporting.

The AP Manager will drive strong internal controls, identify and mitigate financial and operational risks, ensure completeness of monthly payments, and continuously improve processes and ways of working. The role also includes strengthening vendor and account master data integrity, while driving optimisation and automation initiatives to enhance efficiency, accuracy, and scalability.

The AP Manager will work closely with the Account Finance Lead, Lease Administration Team, and Utilities Team to ensure accurate validation of lease charges, utility costs, accruals, reconciliations, and reporting, while maintaining strong alignment across financial and operational stakeholders.

What you will bring:

• Bachelor’s degree in Accounting, Finance, or a related field.
• 5+ years of Accounts Payable experience, including 2+ years in a leadership or management role.
• Strong experience managing creditors’ ageing, reconciliations, and payment completeness.
• Experience with ERP systems (e.g., SAP, Oracle, NetSuite) and AP automation tools.
• Demonstrated experience in process optimisation, control enhancement, and automation initiatives
• Proven ability to improve data integrity and drive operational excellence.

Skills Required:

• Strong organisational and time-management skills.
• High attention to detail and financial accuracy.
• Advanced Excel capability and strong ERP proficiency.
• Strong analytical skills, particularly in ageing analysis, trend identification, and risk detection.
• Ability to drive process improvements, optimisation, and automation adoption.
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills.

Team Leadership & Management Skills:

• Proven ability to lead, manage, and develop an Accounts Payable team.
• Strong work coordination and workload allocation capability to ensure deadlines and payment cycles are met.
• Ability to set clear performance expectations and monitor delivery against KPIs (e.g., ageing, payment completeness, turnaround times).
• Coaching and mentoring skills to support professional development and succession planning.
• Ability to drive accountability, ownership, and a strong control culture within the team.
• Conflict resolution and problem-solving skills within team and stakeholder environments.

Knowledge required:

• End-to-end Accounts Payable processes: invoice processing, payment runs, reconciliations, accruals.
• Creditors’ ageing management and working capital principles
• Internal controls, compliance frameworks, and audit requirements
• Vendor and account master data governance and controls.
• Financial reporting related to AP, including completeness of monthly obligations
• Tax and VAT compliance related to supplier invoices.
• Process optimisation methodologies and AP automation best practices.
• Strong SAP AP knowledge

What you will be doing:

• Oversee and manage all AP processes, ensuring accuracy, timeliness, and completeness of payments.
• Drive and maintain clean creditors’ ageing, ensuring outstanding balances are actively managed and resolved.
• Identify control weaknesses, operational risks, and inefficiencies, and implement corrective actions.
• Strengthen vendor and account master data controls, ensuring data accuracy and governance.
• Lead process optimisation and support automation initiatives within AP.
• Manage and coach the AP team, ensuring accountability and adherence to best practices.
• Collaborate with the Account Finance Lead, Lease Administration Team, and Utilities Team to validate charges and ensure completeness of financial obligations.
• Escalate material risks or control gaps to senior management where required.