1. Financial Strategy & Business Partnering:

- Develop and execute the company's financial strategy in alignment with business objectives.

- Partner with the MD/CEO and leadership team on business planning, expansion, investments, and strategic decisions.

- Provide financial insights on revenue, margins, customer profitability, branch performance, and business growth.

- Evaluate new business opportunities, commercial proposals, investments, and strategic initiatives from a financial perspective.

- Establish financial KPIs and performance dashboards for management review.

2. Financial Planning, Budgeting & MIS:

- Lead the annual budgeting and forecasting process.

- Prepare monthly management reports covering revenue, gross profit, EBITDA, cash flow, working capital, and variance analysis.

- Monitor actual performance against budgets and identify corrective actions.

- Develop branch, department, customer, trade-lane, and business-segment profitability reports.

- Ensure timely and accurate monthly and year-end financial closure.

3. Freight Forwarding Finance & Commercial Control:

- Monitor shipment-level and customer-level profitability.

- Ensure accurate recognition of freight revenue, vendor costs, accruals, provisions, and other shipment-related expenses.

- Review profitability of key trade lanes, services, customers, and contracts.

- Work closely with Sales, Pricing, Operations, Procurement, and Customer Service teams to improve margins.

- Establish financial controls around rate approvals, credit notes, rebates, vendor charges, and customer billing.

- Analyse gross profit leakage and identify opportunities to improve margins.

4. Working Capital & Cash Flow Management:

- Own the company's working-capital strategy.

- Drive improvement in DSO, DPO, cash conversion cycle, and collections.

- Establish and monitor customer credit limits and payment terms.

- Strengthen receivables management and reduce overdue/outstanding balances.

- Ensure timely payment to shipping lines, airlines, transporters, overseas agents, customs brokers, and other vendors.

- Prepare regular cash-flow forecasts and manage liquidity requirements.

- Optimise utilisation of banking facilities and working-capital limits.

5. Credit Control & Receivables:

- Develop and enforce customer credit policies.

- Review customer creditworthiness and approve/recommend credit limits as per delegation of authority.

- Monitor ageing and high-risk accounts.

- Work with Sales and Operations on collection escalations.

- Establish controls for credit exposure, blocked accounts, disputed invoices, and long-outstanding receivables.

- Ensure timely resolution of billing disputes.

6. Banking & Treasury:

- Manage relationships with banks and financial institutions.

- Oversee working-capital facilities, guarantees, letters of credit, forex transactions, and other banking arrangements.

- Monitor daily cash positions and liquidity.

- Manage foreign-exchange exposure and associated risks.

- Ensure efficient management of bank charges and transaction costs.

- Evaluate financing options to support business expansion.

7. Statutory, Tax & Regulatory Compliance:

- Ensure compliance with applicable accounting standards, tax laws, GST, TDS, corporate regulations, and other statutory requirements.

- Oversee direct and indirect tax planning and compliance.

- Coordinate with statutory auditors, tax consultants, internal auditors, and regulatory authorities.

- Ensure timely filing of statutory returns and completion of audits.

- Keep management informed of significant regulatory and tax developments impacting the business.

8. Internal Controls & Risk Management:

- Establish and continuously strengthen financial policies, processes, and internal controls.

- Identify financial, operational, credit, fraud, and compliance risks.

- Ensure adequate segregation of duties and approval controls.

- Lead periodic internal control reviews and corrective actions.

- Develop appropriate controls around revenue recognition, vendor payments, customer credits, expenses, and cash management.

9. Overseas / International Finance:

- Oversee financial activities relating to overseas offices, agents, subsidiaries, and group entities.

- Monitor inter-company transactions and reconciliations.

- Manage overseas agent settlements and foreign-currency transactions.

- Ensure appropriate controls over cross-border payments and receivables.

- Coordinate with overseas finance teams for consolidated reporting and financial governance.

10. Audit & Financial Governance:

- Lead statutory, internal, tax, and other financial audits.

- Ensure timely closure of audit observations.

- Maintain strong documentation and financial governance standards.

- Present financial performance, risks, and key financial matters to the MD/CEO and Board/management as required.

11. Team Leadership:

- Lead and develop the Finance & Accounts function.

- Build a high-performance finance team with clear roles, accountability, and KPIs.

- Mentor finance leaders and strengthen succession capability.

- Drive process automation and adoption of technology within finance operations.

Qualifications:

- CA / MBA Finance / equivalent professional qualification preferred.

- 15 - 20+ years of progressive finance leadership experience.

- Strong experience in freight forwarding, logistics, shipping, supply chain, or a related industry preferred.

- Experience managing finance for multi-location and/or international operations will be an advantage.

Required Experience & Competencies:

- Strong understanding of freight forwarding and logistics financial processes.

- Excellent knowledge of accounting, taxation, treasury, and financial controls.

- Strong expertise in working-capital and cash-flow management.

- Experience with customer credit and collection management.

- Strong commercial and business-partnering orientation.

- Experience with ERP/accounting systems and finance automation.

- Strong analytical and problem-solving capabilities.

- Excellent leadership, communication, negotiation, and stakeholder-management skills.

- Ability to work closely with Sales, Pricing, Operations, Procurement, and senior management.

Ideal Profile:

- The ideal candidate should be a commercially oriented finance leader, not only an accounting professional. The person should be able to translate financial data into business decisions, understand the economics of freight forwarding, challenge commercial decisions where required, improve cash generation, protect margins, and build strong financial governance while supporting business growth.