Usha International - Deputy General Manager/General Manager - Costing - ICWA

The role would be Responsible for Cost Accounting, which involves analysing financial data, obtained through evaluation, to determine the cost of business products.

The role will support the leadership at Usha International for the following :

1. Validation of Budgets

2. Product costing (for in-house and third party manufactured products)

3. Preparing cost estimates and Comparing actual cost to estimates

4. Vendor Management & Negotiations

5. Providing management with detailed reports for use in making business decisions and controlling expenditures.

6. Providing financial analysis to evaluate special projects, programs, products costing, etc. when necessary.

7. Lead in developing and verifying data relevant to cost accounting and margin analysis.

8. Inventory valuation

9. Driving cost efficiencies in support staff.

Team / Reporting Relationship:

The position reports into the Chief Financial Officer and would also be interacting with the senior leadership who include :

1. Chief Executive Officer

2. Business Heads

3. Marketing Heads

4. Supply Chain and Logistics team

5. Quality & R&D Head

Expectations from the Role / Job:

Cost Planning / Validation & Reviewing:

1. Facilitate the development and validation of financial budgets (from costing point of view) and validate the various financial plans, Pricings, business cases, feasibility studies, investment proposals as well as other cost related documents that may be required from time to time.

a. Coordinate and implement, under the direction of the CFO, the instructions and planning worksheets for validating Costs preparation of the annual budget.

b. Provide analysis and support to business unit managers, department heads and operations to develop staffing schedules, cost estimates and expense budgets, capital equipment budgets and overhead rate budgets for the financial year.

2. Work towards optimization of Product Cost process that will include calculating, reviewing, analysing the Business and Support costs, Production rates, Overhead Costs, Raw Material Costs and Labor costs.

3. Provide detailed reports, analysis and MIS to the management on various Cost related actuals and support in taking business decisions basis those analysis.

a. Monitor actual costs on all product development / R&D projects on a monthly basis and report variances against budgets.

b. Set up processes to review costings for raw material, packaging, Work in Progress and Finished Goods items; create and maintain production BOMs; maintain periodic cost rolls/updates.

c. Track actual overhead absorption, compare to budget and identify the reasons for variances. Recommend adjustments to budgeted costs as and when required.

4. Work with various department heads / managers on a monthly basis and review the status of costs being accrued for various line items.

5. Ensure that internal controls are adequate to safeguard assets and proprietary information and short term / long term cost incurs are properly documented.

6. Calculate and monitor standard costs for inventory valuation, project estimating and job costing purposes.

7. Review stock aging for determination of obsolete and/or excess inventory write off.

8. Create and distribute detailed monthly job cost reports to project managers which include actual and estimated costs to-date as well as projections to complete.

9. Evaluate all proposals related to capital or operational investment proposals and assess financial / business viability of the same.

10. Review with rigor on Investment Returns and financial productivity (margins, profits, costs, expenses, etc) and ensure proper tracking / information mechanisms are in place to keep the senior leadership informed.

Risk Management:

1. Proactively inform the CEO & CFO regarding any irregularity, lack of compliance, lack of adherence, lacunas and problems whether actual or potential concerning the cost plans, cost accounting, cost audits, budgets and any other matter of a financial nature or which could or does have a financial implication.

2. Ensure all key organizational risks related to the Costs are identified, assessed in terms of likelihood and magnitude of impact, determining a response strategy, and monitoring progress.

3. Recommend and review appropriate `COST risk response strategy for specific risks identified and analysed.

Vendor Evaluation / Management / Negotiations:

1. Support the teams for negotiating with, and, evaluating the External Vendors in terms of Costs and Returns, Cost Benefit Analysis and provide inputs for onboarding or exiting the vendors.

2. Periodically evaluate / audit existing vendors in terms of their operational efficiencies, costings, value chain and provide regular reports of the vendors against the benchmarks on efficiencies.

Major Challenges:

1. Achievement of intended end results through short term spending

2. Dynamic nature of industry wherein the costs of material, labour and other direct / indirect factors change and can have a larger impact on the Profitability or Business Operations

3. Review / analysis of cost related ROI in specific and quantifiable measures

4. Ensuring adequate systems and planning controls are in place to mitigate ROI risks at different touchpoints.

Key Decisions this job will facilitate:

1. Support the Leadership in rightly assessing cost impacts of various activities for Trading and Manufacturing operations.

2. Facilitating decision making at the time of financial evaluation of a cost proposals

a. This role will facilitate the management in analyzing the viability / success of critical investments in the short term or medium term spends

3. Support the management on taking various decisions based on KPIs and trends and prioritizing the direction as well as the cost expenditure

4. Act as a validating authority for any financial payments / schemes / payouts / opex directly impacting the revenue of the Organization.

Education : ICWA (mandatory)