Practice Manager / Accounting Operations Manager

Conductio Consulting (Pty) Ltd; Durbanville; Remote; ZAR 893,000 - 1,228,000; Full time

Job summary

Conductio Consulting (Pty) Ltd is seeking a hands‑on Practice Manager / Accounting Operations Manager to oversee day‑to‑day operations of a growing accounting practice in South Africa. You will take ownership, manage a ~5‑person team, and build systems to support scale, with a view to growing departments as the business expands.

The role requires CA(SA) or SAIPA experience, completed articles, and 5–10 years post-articles in professional services.

Qualifications

• Qualified CA(SA) or SAIPA Professional Accountant.
• Completed articles.
• Approximately 5–10 years' post-articles experience.
• Strong accounting practice or professional services experience.
• Proven experience managing and developing staff.
• Experience managing multiple clients, priorities and deadlines.
• Strong client-facing experience.
• Experience training, mentoring and developing employees.
• Strong understanding of accounting, taxation and compliance processes.
• Excellent organisational and operational management ability.
• Comfortable working remotely while maintaining high levels of accountability and performance.

Responsibilities

• Take ownership of the day‑to‑day running of the accounting practice.
• Manage, lead and develop an existing team of approximately five employees.
• Recruit and build additional teams or departments as the business grows.
• Allocate work and manage team capacity and workflow.
• Ensure deadlines, client commitments and internal targets are consistently achieved.
• Implement and improve processes, workflows, controls and accountability.
• Train and develop employees to improve technical capability and performance.
• Monitor team and individual performance against agreed targets.
• Work directly with clients and take ownership of client queries and concerns.
• Deal confidently with escalated client matters and operational issues.
• Ensure work is accurate, complete and delivered on time.
• Identify bottlenecks and implement practical solutions.
• Improve systems and processes to make the practice more efficient and scalable.
• Take increasing responsibility for operational matters currently managed by the business owner.
• Support accounting, tax, payroll, company secretarial and related practice requirements where needed.
• Maintain appropriate quality, compliance and professional standards.
• Build a culture of ownership, accountability and delivery.

Skills

Staff management

Team development

Client facing

Operations planning

Process improvement

Education

CA(SA)

SAIPA professional

Completed articles

Tools

GreatSoft

Draftworx

Xero

Karbon

Dext

SimplePay

Sage Accounting / Sage One

SARS eFiling

CIPC

Job description

The Role

Our client is looking for a highly capable, hands‑on Practice Manager / Accounting Operations Manager to take responsibility for the day‑to‑day management and continued development of a growing accounting practice.

This is a senior operational role for someone who can take ownership, manage people and clients, solve problems independently and build the systems and structures needed to support growth.

The successful candidate will initially manage a team of approximately five employees, with the team expected to grow over time.

The core objective of the role is to take increasing responsibility for the operational running of the practice, allowing the business owner to focus more heavily on strategy, growth and business development.

Key Responsibilities

• Take ownership of the day‑to‑day running of the accounting practice
• Manage, lead and develop an existing team of approximately five employees
• Recruit and build additional teams or departments as the business grows
• Allocate work and manage team capacity and workflow
• Ensure deadlines, client commitments and internal targets are consistently achieved
• Implement and improve processes, workflows, controls and accountability
• Train and develop employees to improve technical capability and performance
• Monitor team and individual performance against agreed targets
• Work directly with clients and take ownership of client queries and concerns
• Deal confidently with escalated client matters and operational issues
• Ensure work is accurate, complete and delivered on time
• Identify bottlenecks and implement practical solutions
• Improve systems and processes to make the practice more efficient and scalable
• Take increasing responsibility for operational matters currently managed by the business owner
• Support accounting, tax, payroll, company secretarial and related practice requirements where needed
• Maintain appropriate quality, compliance and professional standards
• Build a culture of ownership, accountability and delivery

Systems & Technology

Strong exposure to accounting practice technology is important.

Experience with several of the following systems will be highly advantageous:

• GreatSoft
• Draftworx
• Xero
• Karbon
• Dext
• SimplePay
• Sage Accounting / Sage One
• SARS eFiling
• CIPC

Candidates do not need experience with every platform but must be highly comfortable working with accounting technology and learning new systems quickly.

Minimum Requirements

• Qualified CA(SA) or SAIPA Professional Accountant
• Completed articles
• Approximately 5–10 years' post-articles experience
• Strong accounting practice or professional services experience
• Proven experience managing and developing staff
• Experience managing multiple clients, priorities and deadlines
• Strong client-facing experience
• Experience training, mentoring and developing employees
• Strong understanding of accounting, taxation and compliance processes
• Excellent organisational and operational management ability
• Comfortable working remotely while maintaining high levels of accountability and performance

Ideal Candidate Profile

The successful candidate must combine strong technical accounting knowledge with leadership, operational ability and commercial judgement.

We are looking for someone who is:

• Stable and dependable
• Highly accountable
• Practical and solutions-driven
• Comfortable making decisions
• Calm under pressure
• Confident and appropriately assertive
• Highly organised
• Commercially minded
• Comfortable managing different personalities
• Willing to address poor performance directly
• Confident dealing with clients
• Able to resolve problems without constant supervision
• Able to create structure where it does not yet exist

This is an outcomes-driven environment. Performance will be measured against agreed deliverables, deadlines and targets.

What Success Looks Like

The successful person will progressively:

• Take significant operational pressure off the business owner
• Build a strong, capable and accountable team
• Ensure client work moves through the practice efficiently
• Improve delivery against deadlines and targets
• Create clear and scalable systems and processes
• Develop employees so that responsibility can be delegated effectively
• Reduce the need for owner involvement in daily operational matters
• Build the operational infrastructure required for continued growth

Remuneration

R80,000 – R110,000 per month, depending on experience and qualifications.

A 13th cheque / performance-related component may form part of the remuneration structure and will be linked to agreed performance targets.