Finance Controller

General

Guarantees full compliance with the Group Controlling guideline.

Designs the system setup to perfectly mirror the responsibilities in the organisation.

Ensures a timely distribution of financial information (plan and actual) to every budget holder by sending out reports, by allowing system access and by presenting the information in regular meetings.

Promotes efficiency in Controlling in order to minimise time spent for report generation and increases time for analysis, commenting and insights sharing.

Supports the establishment of a true bottom up planning process and the development of a local planning calendar based on the group planning timetable allowing for sufficient review time and feedback cycles.

Contributes to a high forecasting accuracy of business plans, revised estimates and long term forecasts.

Measures and reviews the cost/benefit ratio of proposed activities.

Builds a solid relationship with budget holders based on mutual respect and trust.

Is driven through a service mentality by sharing insights, by supporting budget reallocations, by ensuring overall budget adherence, by acting as a facilitator to achieve objectives, by highlighting risks and opportunities, by providing financial simulations and by developing business cases for new projects.

Manages fact and knowledge bases; spreads and exchanges information.

 

Month End Closing

Verifies the sales cut-off and the correct revenue recognition.

Coordinates the monthly accrual process following the cost revenue matching principle.

Calculates timing accruals.

Updates allocation keys and performs COPA allocations.

Ensures the reconciliation of systems (SAP/BI/Hyperion).

Ensures master data quality and verifies the consistency of the customer, product and internal order hierarchies.

Reviews changes in payment terms.

 

Reporting and Analysis

Prepare the weekly sales report.

Calculates the volume change, price change and product mix impact by Key Account.

Calculates the customer mix impact on the total P&L.

Calculates the exposure between customers.

Calculates/reports the major KPIs (Financial Sales, DSO), basic exposure rate, advanced exposure rate.

Prepares reports on aggregated or on detailed level by GKA and LKA comparing the profitability YTD, comparing PY vs CY vs RE vs Year to Go.

Prepares the international exposure rate report.

Prepares and distributes a detailed monthly report including comments on brand, project (= internal order), account, and cost centre level using SAP, BI and Hyperion for each budget owner and GM.

Prepares and distributes a report on the cash flow and the working capital development.

 

Planning and Forecasting

Coordinates the Business Plan/Revised Estimate data collection and data entry.

Coordinates timings and input needed during the budget process.

Aggregates/consolidates the individual plans to a total plan.

Supports and challenges the budget owners during the planning process.

Prepares year to go best estimates.

 

 

Business Partnership

Acts as a contact and sparring partner for the Key Account Managers, Brand Manager, Communication Manager, Sports Manager, Events Manager, Culture Manager, Consumer Collection Manager and Operations Manager.

Works closely with the various contacts, has a service mentality but also challenges them, asks questions, gives suggestions and insights.

Knows all trade terms (on & off invoice) of customers, their budgets and the customer P&L.

Prepares trade term impact simulations, challenges assumptions and profitability.

Works closely with the KAMs on reducing the exposure between customers/products.

Works closely with the KAMs to calculate promotional ROI.

Matches POS/VISIT placement plans to budget, update on placement status.

Knows the contract terms of the media agencies, the media plan (classic vs flanker) and the status of spending commitments.

Works closely with the Brand Manager to increase the effectiveness of the media plan by also taking into account all other marketing and sales activities (local and international).

Knows the contract terms with athletes and opinion leaders as well as event agencies (fixed vs variable contract components).

Supports the Brand Manager, Sports Manager, Events Manager and Culture Manager in budget reallocations and simulations.

Benchmarks the costs of marketing activities and their impact on the consumer and challenges where appropriate. Considers potential 3rd party sponsoring income and questions assumptions.

Knows the Sampling and Student Brand Manager programs and their costs.

Knows the contract terms of logistics service providers for finished goods and visit material.

Evaluates new product launches and their impact on profitability.

Prepares scenarios and simulations with the input from the budget owners and models the impact. 

Performs ad hoc calculations, for example impact of price increase, and simulates “what if scenarios” (e.g. the customer does not accept the price increase).

Supports the budget owners in budget reallocations and ensure overall budget adherence.

Prepares product launch proposals jointly with KAM and calculates profitability down to the basic and advanced exposure rate by taking the GKA and LKA shelf price and retail margin into account. 

Defines the common list price for new products. Calculates the profitability of the new products after one year to compare the launch proposal's basic and advanced exposure rate (ex ante, ex post).

Calculates the new list price if a price increase is planned for the country. Supports the price elasticity assessment by product and the volume impact due to price changes.

 

 

Minimum of 5 years experience in a controlling role in consumer goods. 

In depth understanding of promotional mechanics and the related financial impact. 

Highly analytical and very skilled individual in the area of profitability analysis. 

Ability to quickly identify and analyze risks and impacts and able to define alternatives. 

Capable of communicating and presenting precisely and effectively with internal stakeholders up to GM level. 

A structured and well-organized individual. 

Must be self-motivated, self-directed and be able to work in a fast paced team environment.