Practice Manager / Accounting Operations Manager

SUMMARY:
Practice Manager / Accounting Operations Manager

Location: Remote – South Africa, ideally Cape Town or JohannesburgSalary: R80,000 – R110,000 per month, depending on experienceQualification: CA(SA) or SAIPA Professional AccountantExperience: 5–10 years post-articles experience

POSITION INFO:
The Role Our client is looking for a highly capable, hands-on Practice Manager \/ Accounting Operations Manager to take responsibility for the day-to-day management and continued development of a growing accounting practice. This is a senior operational role for someone who can take ownership, manage people and clients, solve problems independently and build the systems and structures needed to support growth. The successful candidate will initially manage a team of approximately five employees, with the team expected to grow over time. The core objective of the role is to take increasing responsibility for the operational running of the practice, allowing the business owner to focus more heavily on strategy, growth and business development. Key Responsibilities Take ownership of the day-to-day running of the accounting practice Manage, lead and develop an existing team of approximately five employees Recruit and build additional teams or departments as the business grows Allocate work and manage team capacity and workflow Ensure deadlines, client commitments and internal targets are consistently achieved Implement and improve processes, workflows, controls and accountability Train and develop employees to improve technical capability and performance Monitor team and individual performance against agreed targets Work directly with clients and take ownership of client queries and concerns Deal confidently with escalated client matters and operational issues Ensure work is accurate, complete and delivered on time Identify bottlenecks and implement practical solutions Improve systems and processes to make the practice more efficient and scalable Take increasing responsibility for operational matters currently managed by the business owner Support accounting, tax, payroll, company secretarial and related practice requirements where needed Maintain appropriate quality, compliance and professional standards Build a culture of ownership, accountability and delivery Systems & Technology Strong exposure to accounting practice technology is important. Experience with several of the following systems will be highly advantageous: GreatSoft Draftworx Xero Karbon Dext SimplePay Sage Accounting \/ Sage One SARS eFiling CIPC Candidates do not need experience with every platform but must be highly comfortable working with accounting technology and learning new systems quickly. Minimum Requirements Qualified or SAIPA Professional Completed articles Approximately 5-10 years' post-articles experience Strong accounting practice or professional services experience Proven experience managing and developing staff Experience managing multiple clients, priorities and deadlines Strong client-facing experience Experience training, mentoring and developing employees Strong understanding of accounting, taxation and compliance processes Excellent organisational and operational management ability Comfortable working remotely while maintaining high levels of accountability and performance Ideal Candidate Profile The successful candidate must combine strong technical accounting knowledge with leadership, operational ability and commercial judgement. We are looking for someone who is: Stable and dependable Highly accountable Practical and solutions-driven Comfortable making decisions Calm under pressure Confident and appropriately assertive Highly organised Commercially minded Comfortable managing different personalities Willing to address poor performance directly Confident dealing with clients Able to resolve problems without constant supervision Able to create structure where it does not yet exist This is an outcomes-driven environment. Performance will be measured against agreed deliverables, deadlines and targets. What Success Looks Like The successful person will progressively: Take significant operational pressure off the business owner Build a strong, capable and accountable team Ensure client work moves through the practice efficiently Improve delivery against deadlines and targets Create clear and scalable systems and processes Develop employees so that responsibility can be delegated effectively Reduce the need for owner involvement in daily operational matters Build the operational infrastructure required for continued growth Remuneration R80,000 - R110,000 per month, depending on experience and qualifications. A 13th cheque \/ performance-related component may form part of the remuneration structure and will be linked to agreed performance targets.