Purpose
The Senior Cost Accountant serves as a key member of the Finance team, responsible for ensuring the accuracy, integrity, and strategic analysis of inventory, manufacturing, milk, and co-packing costs across the organization. This role partners closely with Operations, utilization, FP&A, and accounting leadership to deliver actionable financial insights, strengthen internal controls, support decision-making, and drive continuous improvement across costing and inventory processes. The position leverages the ERP system (INFOR M3) and financial analytics within a complex manufacturing environment to support operational efficiency and business performance.
Essential Responsibilities
- Month-End Close: Own the month-end close process for inventory, material movement, product costing, and related balance sheet accounts, ensuring accurate, timely, and compliant financial reporting.
- Consolidation: Prepare data to reflect milk on the consolidated financials, including inventory absorption and profit elimination between entities.
- Costing: Maintain and enhance product standard costs within the ERP system, incorporating seasonal milk trends, ingredient fluctuations, manufacturing changes, and ongoing operational improvements.
- Budgeting: Partner with FP&A and Operations to develop product cost assumptions, budgets, forecasts, and scenario analyses that support strategic business planning.
- External Production: Manage financial accounting and reconciliation activities for external production and co-packing operations, ensuring transactions are accurately recorded and supported by appropriate documentation.
- Inventory Analysis: Perform detailed inventory roll-forward analyses by facility, validating inventory accuracy, production yields, shrink, and cutoff procedures while identifying trends and potential risks.
- Business Partnership: Collaborate cross-functionally with Operations, utilization, Quality, Risk Management and Finance leaders to improve reporting, resolve inventory issues, and enhance cost visibility throughout the organization.
- Purchase Price Variances: Own the monthly Purchase Price Variance (PPV) analysis for plants, packaging, and co-pack/butter operations, proactively identifying cost drivers, investigating material variances, and providing clear explanations of financial impacts and trends.
- Reporting and Automation: Partner with IT/BI to develop and maintain SQL/SSRS and ERP (INFOR M3) reports; and advance automation of the costing and inventory processes.
- General Ledger Maintenance: Ensure the integrity of inventory-related general ledger accounts through timely reconciliations, root-cause analysis of discrepancies, and adherence to internal control requirements.
- ERP Leadership: Serve as a subject matter expert for inventory and costing processes within the ERP environment, supporting troubleshooting, process optimization, product setup, standard cost maintenance, and master data governance.
Other Required Responsibilities
- Perform other duties as assigned by the Manager of Cost Accounting, Controller and CFO.
- Provide assistance to finance management by preparing support schedules used in meeting periodic internal and external reporting requirements.
- Provide supporting documentation for audits as requested.
- Support information requests from other management personnel for responsibility areas.
- Assist with writing and maintaining SOPs to document processes for areas of responsibility.
Skills and Qualifications
- Education: BA/BS in Accounting or Finance, or an equivalent combination of education and experience, CMA certification preferred.
- Technical Skills: Advanced Excel required; experience with SQL/SSRS or other BI/reporting tools and high-volume data reconciliation preferred
- Experience: 5+ years of progressive accounting and cost accounting experience in a manufacturing environment, including inventory accounting, product costing, variance analysis, financial reporting, and ERP systems. Experience within food, beverage, dairy, or consumer packaged goods manufacturing environments preferred.
Physical Requirements
Ability to sit and focus for extended periods of time in front of a computer screen and/or while utilizing various office equipment (calculators, copy machines, etc.).
