Cost Accountant

About Us

Data Analysis Incorporated (DAI) is the controlling entity of the O’Neil family of businesses. DAI and its subsidiaries operate in diverse industries worldwide, including global equity markets, health care, financial services, digital news, and insurance. Our global footprint allows our teams to be responsive to customer needs in a timely and efficient manner. We are dedicated to using technology and innovation to bring change and growth to our businesses. We believe in a dynamic workplace, creating engaging, informative products and services that help our customers succeed. Integrity is an essential characteristic for our firms and our associates
 

Summary

The Cost Accountant role will focus on strengthening the cost accounting system within a manufacturing environment. It involves implementing controls to ensure accurate reporting of inventories and manufacturing costs, researching variances, and making recommendations for improvement.

Duties and Responsibilities

• Create bill of materials for each job and the setup of standard costs, including labor, material, machining, and other direct and indirect conversion costs. 
• Review standard and actual costs against operating data to analyze manufacturing variances. Make recommendations to improve efficiency and reduce waste throughout the manufacturing process.
• Manage data accumulation from production systems and databases for a robust cost accounting system. Monitor controls in place to ensure the integrity of the cost data.
• Work with operations and production scheduling to develop assumptions for equipment throughput, material consumption, and labor efficiency used in standard costs. Track conversion process and costs throughout various stages of the manufacturing process. 
• Assist Estimating team in the proposal process by providing cost estimates for pricing and margin analysis. Build BOM library for the master product catalogue.
• Liaise with Purchasing for price evolution and raw material cost update. Ensure accurate and timely reporting of purchase price variance.
• Research and validate variances versus standard for purchases, processes, labor and spending. Make recommendations for improved adherence to standard. 
• Manage inventory valuation from cost update and inventory adjustments for GAAP reporting (e.g. price testing).
• Financial controls over inventory reporting. Ensure adherence to month-end and cycle count instructions. Monitors scrap and recycle of materials. Reviews inventory count adjustments and resolves discrepancies.
• Monitor inventory movement throughout the production process to ensure accurate accounting of costs by job and inventories on hand. Ensure accurate reporting of inventory in-transit and 3rd-party warehouses.
• Track project cost and analyze budget to actual variances over project life cycle.
• Assist in the budget process. Make sure the costs used in material procurement budget and manpower budget are accurate and supported by robust assumptions.
• Validate the cost of goods sold is accurately tracked by product by job as part of the month-end close.
• Accumulate and apply overhead costs by job and by cost centers. Ensure absorption is correctly calculated, accounting for  the changes in production volume and any impact from budget revisions.
• Supports FP&A in the preparations of management reports. Assist in the reporting on the effectiveness of operational performance by providing operations with financial analysis, plant metrics and KPIs.
• Analyze plant financial data to quantify cost savings opportunities and to support Operations and FP&A team by implementing cost reduction initiatives to improve operating profit.

Qualifications & Requirements

• Bachelor’s degree in Accounting or Finance required or equivalent experince.
• Certification in a recognized professional accounting designation is required, with preference given to management accounting or cost accounting designations (e.g. CMA, CIMA, CGMA).
• A minimum of five years’ work experience in cost accounting in a manufacturing environment is required.
• Training in lean manufacturing principles or quality control systems (such as Six Sigma) is a plus.
• Affinity for manufacturing operations and inquisitive for how thing work.
• Strong PC skills, including Microsoft Word and Excel.
  • Experience with business intelligence and analytics software is preferred.
• Previous experience with an ERP in a manufacturing environment is required.
• Excellent analysis skills and the ability to collaborate with multi-department teams.
• Expert level understanding of management accounting principles. Ability to implement cost accounting system by applying a conceptua