Introduction:

Starke Ayres is the foremost African specialist and global supplier of premium vegetable, flower and lawn seed varieties – both for commercial and home garden planting. The following position has become available for an Assistant Accountant, based in Epping, Cape Town.

Description:

Starke Ayres is the foremost African specialist and global supplier of premium vegetable, flower and lawn seed varieties – both for commercial and home garden planting. The following position has become available for an Assistant Accountant, based in Epping, Cape Town.

Purpose: Assist the finance team with the processing of monthly and annual financial transactions and the preparation of the company’s monthly management accounts. Ensure accurate reconciliation of general ledger accounts to the trial balance. Prepare and submit VAT returns and provide support during VAT audits. Support the finance team during year-end audits with external auditors, as well as ad hoc reviews with internal auditors. Responsibilities include work across Starke Ayres South Africa and selected African subsidiaries.

RESPONSIBILITIES:

• Maintains strong working relationships with both internal and external stakeholders by always acting professionally and responsibly, promoting goodwill and a positive image of the Company and the finance team.


• Ensures all documentation is securely filed, kept up to date, and readily accessible to the team.


• Supports the finance team with ad hoc requests to ensure all financial tasks remain current and up to date


• Ensuring all audit schedules and reconciliations are up to date for both internal and external audits.


• Process monthly financial journals and related entries, including bank transactions, prepayments, accruals, fleet expenses, and interest.


• Assist the Accounts Payable team with credit card reconciliations when required.


• Manage petty cash for the African subsidiaries.


• Process foreign exchange (forex) revaluations


• Perform bank reconciliations, ensuring they are kept up to date, with any reconciling differences—whether payable or receivable—promptly escalated to the relevant departments for resolution.


• Reconcile balance sheet accounts and clear outstanding entries to maintain clean accounts, ensuring no income statement items remain and supporting accurate interpretation of the company’s profit or loss.


• Complete monthly intercompany reconciliations, ensuring that long-standing reconciling items are identified, addressed timeously, and cleared


• Assist the finance team with processing fixed asset transactions, including capitalisation, disposals, and asset transfers.


• Help ensure asset management processes are followed, including proper labelling of assets, maintaining up-to-date asset registers, and ensuring effective control is in place


• Submit monthly Import VAT returns and ensure all related payments are forwarded to the Accounts Payable team and processed timeously.


• Prepare and submit the company’s monthly and bi-monthly VAT returns and ensure all related payments are forwarded to the Accounts Payable team and processed timeously.


• Complete annual VAT reconciliations (VAT) required for the year-end audit.


• Liaise with tax consultants and provide support during VAT and tax audits, ensuring matters are resolved promptly

Requirements:

REQUIREMENTS:

Education:

• Grade 12 (essential)


• Diploma Finance/Bookkeeping (essential)

Experience:

• Minimum 3 years Bookkeeper.


• Assistant/Junior Accountant 1 year.

Skills:

• Meticulous and attention to detail


• Excellent communication skills


• High level integrity and degree of confidentiality


• Time management


• Proficient in Microsoft Office, particularly Outlook, Teams, and Excel.


• Accounting Software Experience - SAGE X3 (preferred)

Other:

• Must be able to work in Cape Town, Epping.


• Sage X3 experience (advantageous)