Accountant

Maintain general ledger as needed.  Generate and interpret financial records and statements for management.  Analyze financial data in order to prepare financial reports and prepare budget forecasts.  Maintain records of assets, liabilities, profit and loss, tax liability, or other financial activities within an organization.  Investigate budget and variance issues.

Key Responsibilities

• Statutory / Tax management and compliance.
• Manage relationships with outsourced Statutory / Tax service provider for compliance, execution, and associated local filings and audits.
• Main point of contact for the Statutory / Tax compliance vendor to ensure that local General Ledgers are maintained as required. Provide review and assurance on all areas of the General Ledger including reconciliations and US to local GAAP differences.
• Preparation or review of local Financial Statements (IFRS or similar) for countries in scope.
• Act as a key focal point for escalation as well as managing relationships with local authorities where required.
• Teamwork with the Tax team on the execution of the annual Tax package and the segmented P&L exercise.
• Responsible for compliance related audit activities for both internal Cisco audits and external auditors.
• Collaborate with Process Leads (Opex, Cash, Intercompany transactions, Fixed Assets, Payroll Accounting) to ensure accurate end-to-end entity figures during the month. The Process Leads will be responsible for the end-to-end accounting processes and will provide all the information needed to the Senior Accountants (Entity Finance Controllers) to proceed with the management of the close, push and reporting to consolidate in line with the Cisco policies.
• Work with the P&L Manager to ensure that all bookings are correct and in line with policy including OPEX & balance.
• Act as a key escalation point for issue resolution. Work with key partners and employees to resolve and manage such issues.
• Responsible for periodical balance sheet reviews at entity level.
• Conduct periodic review with the Business Units at entity level (sales finance etc.).
• Business partnership with key customers across the business. Ensure the accurate and timely delivery of information and ensure all upstream and downstream data sources are controlled effectively.

Personal attributes:

• Ability to communicate effectively and to listen and understand concerns and issues.
• Drive best practice and continuously challenge and drive initiatives.
• Strong Business understanding and acumen.
• Ability to work with others in a formal process for solving issues and problems.
• Willing to undertake occasional travel to ensure compliance in the regions. Education and certifications: Degree in Finance or Accounting.
• An achieved or part-achieved Accounting certification/ ACCA.

Skills Required

• 7 years accounting operations experience.
• Ideally, a minimum of 3 year’s relevant working experience gained in an international oriented environment.
• Strong knowledge of accounting principles (US GAAP knowledge advantageous).
• Ability to quickly interpret and understand local requirements and valid treatments for both Local and GAAP purposes.
• Collaboration across teams (essential).
• IT and systems expertise: Ms Office including Excel (essential), Hyperion (advantageous), Oracle (advantageous).
• Program and project management experience (advantageous).
• Excellent oral and written communication skills in English (essential), German (optional), French (optional), Spanish (optional).