Accounting Supervisor

BASIC FUNCTION:

The purpose of the role is to provide Controlling governance of financial reporting and internal controls for the manufacturing sites in Senai, and Batu Pahat, and a trading company in Kuala Lumpur in, Malaysia. There is a requirement to operate in accordance with Corporate Accounting Policies (US GAAP and IFRS) and local GAAP and maintain proper and close relations with external and internal auditors as well as internal control team.

This position will also support Manufacturing Controlling & Analysis for Malaysian manufacturing organizations in Senai with a dotted reporting line to the Global APS Manufacturing, Controlling & Analysis team, respectively.

This position is also responsible for supporting in-country tax activities in Malaysia for two legal entities, to ascertain compliance with both Direct and Indirect Tax regulations. Tax activities include proactive integration with the in-house tax team and external tax advisors for the compliance of Malaysian tax rules and regulations as well as close coordination and collaboration with various transactional process colleagues, site managers and departmental managers for accurate and timely tax reporting.

RESPONSIBILITIES AND ACCOUNTABILITIES:

Controlling Governance
Accounting and Reporting
1.Ensure through reporting and governance that financial accounting is in accordance with Corporate Accounting Policies (US GAAP and IFRS), and local GAAP
2.Review postings and adjustments required for accurate and complete preparation of financial statements in accordance with the Corporate Accounting Policies (US GAAP and IFRS). Following items are not exhaustive,
•Review GL and TB noting irregular and/ or material entries prior to SAP closing
•Review Manual Journal Entries during the period
•Review of revenue, cost of sales and margins reports noting if in line with sales volume, selling/ transfer prices and commissions
•Analyze cash fixed costs to ensure expenses are consistently recorded. Material fluctuations per line item (vs prior period) are being followed up for clarification.
•Review the validity and reasonableness of the accruals to capture all operating expenses and capital expenditures incurred in the period
•Review long ageing items in the financials to identify the validity of the transactions
•Review and analyze inventory valuation, including the ascertainment of cost of inventories and any write-down thereof to net realizable value as per LYB policy
•Review Asset Balances list to ensure all assets being accounted for timely and accurately; perform fast calculation on depreciation and compare the book during the period
•Review IC recharge & margins to ensure accuracy; Analysis imbalances and coordinate to resolve prior to month-end closing
•Examine Rebate accruals if it is sufficient in accordance with relative agreements; Communicate to proper stakeholders and seek approvals before reimbursement.
•Review Liabilities Balances list to ensure all liabilities being accounted for timely and accurately.
•Reconcile account balances in US GAAP/ IFRS to identify discrepancies.
•Take the lead to work with respective area of owner to resolve long ageing items timely to bring the financial information upto date for better reflection of company financial position
•Perform review in Ccert to ensure account reconciliation is performed in accordance with relevant LYB Policy
•Collaborate with Corporate for 10-Q disclosures and accounting for pensions, executive compensation, ARO, MAM, etc
3.Prepare and/or review local GAAP postings and adjustments required for accurate and complete preparation of the statutory financial statements in accordance with local GAAP in monthly closing
4.Prepare and maintain annual reconciliation of US GAAP / IFRS / Statutory GAAP differences with detailed supporting
5.Prepare statutory financial statements in accordance with local GAAP
•Coordinate with other transactional teams, namely, AP, AR, Inventory Accounting, Fixed Asset Accounting and General Accounting and other functions to collect and organize information/ data for annual audit
•Review audited financial statements, audit adjustments and management report
•Ensure local statutory financial statement (audited report) filing requirements are being met within local deadlines
•Lead and support any automation of statutory financial audit initiatives
6.Take ownership of accounting records of legal entities for which this position is responsible
7.Support the corporate initiative of Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) Reporting when required

Legal Entity Governance
8.Perform legal entities’ Balance Sheet review and Flux analysis (i.e. freight, margin, HQ recharges)
9.Facilitate and support other functional departments to fulfill government and other local financial reporting obligations to meet local compliance requirements
•Local direct tax requirements (PBT ownership and Tax support)
•Local compliance requirements (i.e. payroll, pension, etc.)
•Review VAT/ GST returns, SST filling, Withholding Tax payments for approval
•Assist in the preparation and the review of CIT returns
•Coordinate in information collection and data analysis and assist in the preparation of transfer pricing studies
10.Advise, monitor and coordinate dividend distributions
•Prepare cashflow forecast to ensure sufficient funding to maintain site operations
•Treasury to fix the dividend amount and execute dividends payment
•Tax to obtain local tax clearance and withholding payments for dividends
•Legal to prepare relevant documents for dividends, i.e. BoD minutes & resolutions, AGM
11.Facilitate the signoff of Representation Letter – country view

Internal Controls
12.Ensure through oversight that adequate preventative and detective controls exist and operate effectively as designed. Ownership of internal control as designed at country/region level.
13.Oversee the clearing of any audit or controls findings by coordinating with other Finance functions as applicable
14.Work with internal control team to drive for improvement in corporate governance measures
15.Observe and address any non-compliance of DoA policy for rectification during finance operations to ensure proper compliance of company DoA policy

Collaborations
16.Business (manufacturing, commercial and other functions) go-to person to provide advice and support to site management for any initiatives which have financial impact in both Senai and Batu Pahat sites.
17.Partner with the other accounting transactional teams to ensure accounting records are accurate and complete
18.Provide accounting guidance, advice and approvals to FS&T teams, as necessary
19.Provide input and support for SAP enhancements and projects relating to RTR; lead implementation when required
20.Liaise with the external auditor and other external third parties with reference to audits and other procedures to be performed
21.New business/JV Supports – actively participate in any new business projects with the provision of financial and internal control consultation and support to the project team. Take the leadership role to drive for the readiness of different finance and accounting transactional teams to provide on-going financial support for new start-ups.
22.Assist FP&A and Business Services in compiling annual fixed cost budget and subsequent FCR (Actual vs Budget) and cost controls
23.Work with ESG team to support the corporate ESG reporting initiatives when required

Manufacturing Controlling & Analysis
1.Being an active business partner for the Regional Manufacturing Director(s), site managers and other functional managers of manufacturing sites, FP&A Team, the BDA Team, the Internal Controls Team and Internal Audit Team.
2.Encompasses all things accounting-related for the respective Sites of responsibility, having a helicopter-view on but also including accounting activities; manufacturing fixed and variable cost analysis, manufacturing and corporate reporting, as well as additional core and ad-hoc functions for various site support organizations.
3.Providing key information on historical and forward-looking trends and related cost analysis at the micro and macro level.
4.Coordination/Preparation/Supporting of: (1) Annual manufacturing fixed and variable cost budget, (2) Site forecasting, (3) LRP, (4) Monthly cost reviews and quarterly cost reviews for management, (5) Site appraisals, (6) Internal controls and Sox compliance, (7) Financials related to Turnarounds, (8) Process order analysis, (9) Maintain, create, change and execute monthly cost centre assessment cycles, (10) Ensuring all overhead manufacturing cost centres have a zero balance after running the monthly cost centre assessment cycles (11) Coordination and support Inventory Physical Stock Count process (12) Site audits and other major site projects, and (13) Ad-hoc financial support for the manufacturing site(s)
5.Ensure timely and accurate preparation of the yearly Volumetric Exposure Analysis as part of the Global Volumetric Policy.
6.Support LYB initiatives, for example; benchmark studies, synergy tracking and headcount tracking.
7.Support Site Managers for any ad-hoc questions
8.Support Sales and marketing for costing for product price request if needed

Support compliance with Direct and Indirect Taxes for Malaysian APS manufacturing organizations
1.Preparation and submission of monthly imported SST files to in-house tax team for review, complete filing submission and payment for imported tax services within the due date
2.Review WHT payment & file returns
3.Co-ordinate preparation & timely submission of CIT returns to authorities, including tax estimation
4.Ensure upload of CIT workings and filings for corporate tax team review.
5.Submit Corporate tax submission on team share after review of calculation, including, but not limit to, UTP and QSTM
6.Ensure payment of all taxes within the due dates
7.Prepare and co-ordinate with consultant/ tax office for all information/ documents required during assessment and tax audit. Ensure accuracy and timely submission
8.Coordinate and support the preparation for annual Transfer Pricing Analysis
9.Monitor with AP team to ensure country HR send the information to Income Tax Revenue Board after payroll tax payment for maintaining static virtual bank account for online payroll tax payment

PERSON SPECIFICATION:

Education:
•University degree or commensurate education in accounting, finance or related discipline

Work Experience:
•10+years of relevant work experience
•Exposure to technical GAAP knowledge (USGAAP, IFRS and local GAAP) related to a wide variety of topics, with the ability to extract appropriate accounting elements from business deals / contracts.
•Experience with Internal Controls and SOX/404 requirements.
•Understanding of the business and finance processes within the Petrochemicals business model, highly desirable.
•Exposure to use SAP is preferred
•Good interpersonal and communication skills
•Good spoken and written business English

Licenses & Certifications:
•Professional qualifications in CPA/CA or its equivalent is desirable

Critical Competencies/Behaviors:
•High integrity and holds oneself to highest standards of ethics and accountability
•Hand-on, results-driven leader able to communicate key issues to different spectrum of stakeholders – superior, peers, subordinates across the company
•Influence and negotiation skills to get buy-in from other stakeholders e.g. FS&T process leads, Commercial or Manufacturing leaders.
•Unquestionable, Impeccable Ethics and Integrity: will not waive from doing the right thing under any circumstances; objective at all times and in all situations, always operates free from bias.
•Customer Focus: Is dedicated to meeting the expectations and requirements of internal and external customers; acts with customers in mind; establishes and maintains effective relationships with internal customers and gains their trust and respect.
•Process Management: Good at figuring out the processes necessary to get things done; knows how to organize people and activities; understands how to separate and combine tasks into efficient workflow; knows what to measure and how to measure it; can see opportunities for synergy and integration; can simplify complex processes; gets more out of fewer resources.
•Drive for Results: Can be counted on to exceed goals successfully; is constantly and consistently one of the top performers; very bottom-line oriented; steadfastly pushes self and others for results.
•Problem Solving: Uses rigorous logic and methods to solve difficult problems with effective solutions; probes all fruitful sources for answers; can see hidden problems; is excellent at honest analysis; looks beyond the obvious and doesn’t stop at the first answers.
•Building/Leading Effective Teams: creates strong morale and spirit in his/her team; shares wins and successes; fosters open dialogue; Provides challenging and stretching tasks and assignments to his direct reports; holds frequent development discussions; is aware of each direct report’s career goals; constructs compelling development plans and executes them.
•Decision Quality: Makes good decisions based upon a mixture of analysis, wisdom, experience, and judgment; most of his/her solutions and suggestions turn out to be correct and accurate when judged over time; sought out by others for advice and solutions.
•Strong ability to influence works effectively with various levels within an organization, including senior-level leadership, professionals and staff and quickly build relationships.