Finance and Accounting Senior Specialist - #35300

This is a great opportunity to join a growing hospitality company and take on a key role supporting financial statement consolidation and multi-entity accounting operations. The position is based onsite in Makati.

Company Profile:

Our client is a privately-owned regional hotel group established in 2010, the company operates within Asia's growing budget hotel sector.

The company owns and operates multiple hotels across the Philippines and Thailand.

Its properties utilize a robust and scalable technology platform that supports efficient reservations and provides customers with local attraction guides. The company offers stylish budget accommodations, with properties centrally located and equipped with high-speed Wi-Fi.

Duties and Responsibilities:

General Leger Management and Period Close

• Manage the general ledger and ensure all financial transactions are accurately recorded, properly classified, and supported by complete documentation.
• Lead the month-end, quarter-end, and year-end closing process, including journal entry review, accruals, prepayments, depreciation, intercompany entries where applicable, and cut-off validation.
• Ensure the chart of accounts, cost center structure, account mapping, and reporting hierarchies remain accurate and aligned with business, statutory, and group reporting requirements.
• Review account reconciliations, schedules, and closing files to ensure all balance sheet and P&L accounts are fully supported, investigated, and cleared on a timely basis.
• Maintain closing calendars, checklists, and service level expectations to ensure timely completion of deliverables across the accounting team and shared stakeholders.
• Monitor unusual entries, aged balances, unsupported reconciling items, and posting errors, and ensure prompt corrective action.
• Ensure accounting records and working papers are organized, complete, and readily available for management review, audit, tax examination, and group reporting.

Financial Reporting, P&L Preparation, and Analysis

• Prepare and/or review accurate monthly, quarterly, and annual financial statements, management reports, schedules, and reporting packs.
• Ensure timely and accurate preparation of the P&L, balance sheet, cash flow support schedules, and related notes or analytical schedules required by management and group reporting.
• Perform variance analysis against budget, forecast, prior period, and prior year, and explain key movements in revenues, payroll, operating expenses, fixed costs, and other material line items.
• Validate revenue, cost, and expense recognition to ensure compliance with accounting standards, company policies, and period cut-off requirements.
• Coordinate with operations and department heads to explain financial results, validate accruals, and improve the quality of submitted information affecting the financial statements.
• Support preparation of board, owner, or regional reporting materials by providing accurate financial data, schedules, and commentary.
• Ensure all submitted reports are internally consistent, mathematically accurate, and aligned with ledger balances and approved adjustments.

Financial Statement Consolidation

• Execute monthly FS consolidation across all Group entities, in close coordination with the Finance and Accounting Manager, including intercompany eliminations, minority interest, investment-in-subsidiary eliminations, and FX translation between functional and presentation currencies.
• Prepare consolidation adjustments — including purchase accounting entries, goodwill, and equity pickup for associates/joint ventures where applicable — for review and approval by the Finance and Accounting Manager.
• Support the Finance and Accounting Manager in maintaining the consolidation calendar and ensuring monthly consolidated FS are completed within the Group’s reporting deadline, immediately following entity-level book close.
• Work jointly with the Finance and Accounting Manager to clear the outstanding FS consolidation backlog (current period: March–June 2026) within the timeline agreed with the Sr. Director of Finance and Accounting.
• Support the transition of consolidation and controllership deliverables from the external audit/outsourced provider to an internal, sustainable process, including documentation handover, methodology alignment, and knowledge transfer.
• Assist in building consolidation scope and templates to onboard new entities as the Group’s portfolio grows.
• Provide support in completing other General Ledger tasks to ensure timely completion of ledger close, consolidation, and account reconciliation.
• Support the maintenance of the Financial Reporting Control Framework, including Risk and Control Matrices (RCM), J-SOX walkthroughs, and segregation of duties (SoD) across relevant systems and processes, in coordination with the Finance and Accounting Manager
• Leads multi-entity FS consolidation
• The Finance and Accounting Manager and the incumbent will jointly own" clearing the backlog
• Balance Sheet integrity, and J-SOX adherence;
• Defined growth path to Controllership/Managerial scope .
• Also: support the external-provider transition; build consolidation templates for new entities;
• Support other GL tasks; maintain the RCM/J-SOX/SoD framework.

Statutory Compliance, Tax Support, and Documentation

• Support the Sr. Director of Finance and Accounting in ensuring compliance with Philippine tax and statutory reporting requirements, including BIR-related submissions, schedules, and reconciliations.
• Review tax-related accounting schedules and supporting documents to ensure amounts reported are traceable to the books and records.
• Coordinate the timely submission of requirements for VAT, withholding taxes, corporate income tax support schedules, local tax requirements, and other statutory obligations handled by the department.
• Ensure books, ledgers, reconciliations, invoices, official receipts, contracts, and supporting schedules are maintained in an orderly and audit-ready manner.
• Support tax audits, statutory audits, and regulatory inspections by preparing schedules, documentary support, account analyses, and responses to finance- related queries.
• Help maintain the documentation discipline required for BIR compliance, external audit, and group control requirements.

Internal Controls, J-Sox Support and Controllership

• Maintain and strengthen internal controls over financial reporting, journal approval, account reconciliation, master data changes, and period-end close activities.
• Support J-SOX or group internal control requirements by preparing narratives, risk and control matrices, evidence files, walkthrough support, and control performance documentation where applicable.
• Ensure accounting processes are designed and executed with proper authorization, segregation of duties, review controls, and escalation mechanisms.
• Review the adequacy of accounting controls and identify gaps, recurring issues, and control weaknesses requiring remediation.
• Recommend and help implement corrective actions to improve controllership, reporting reliability, and audit readiness.

Audit, Risk Management & BCP Support

• Serve as a key accounting lead during internal audit, external audit, tax audit, and ownership or regional reviews.
• Prepare audit schedules, lead sheet support, roll forwards, reconciliations, sampling support, and documentary requirements in accordance with agreed timelines.
• Track audit issues, management letter points, and remediation items affecting accounting and reporting, and ensure timely closure.
• Identify accounting and reporting risks that may affect accuracy, compliance, or timeliness, and escalate material concerns promptly.
• Support business continuity planning for accounting and reporting processes, including backup files, process documentation, access management, and continuity of critical period-end tasks.

Process Improvement, Systems, & Policy Implementation

• Drive process improvements that enhance closing efficiency, reconciliation quality, reporting accuracy, and control effectiveness.
• Document, update, and help implement accounting policies, SOPs, desk procedures, and reporting guidelines for the department.
• Identify opportunities for automation, standardization, and better use of ERP, hotel systems, spreadsheets, and reporting tools.
• Strengthen reporting templates, file retention practices, and documentation standards to support scalability, audit readiness, and management transparency.
• Participate in system changes, chart of accounts updates, and finance-related projects to ensure accounting requirements are built into processes and controls.
• Identify automation and standardization opportunities within the close cycle — including ERP configuration, Power Automate, or workflow redesign to reduce manual journal adjustments and process variation.

Analogous Task

• Handle other tasks and responsibilities analogous to the purpose and reasonable expectation

Requirements

Must-Have Skills / Qualifications

• Must be a graduate of BS Accountancy.
• CPA is strongly preferred but not required. Non-CPA candidates with strong financial consolidation experience will be considered.
• At least 5 years of progressive accounting experience, with hands-on experience in financial statement consolidation, financial reporting, and financial analysis.
• At least 3–5 years of hands-on experience in group financial statement consolidation, corporate controllership, or a similar role within a multinational corporation, shared services center, or accounting/audit firm.
• Hands-on financial consolidation experience is a critical requirement, including consolidation across multiple legal entities and preparation/review of consolidated financial statements.
• Strong financial analysis experience is a critical requirement, including analysis of financial results, account movements, variances, and management reporting.
• Demonstrated experience handling multi-entity businesses or clients, including consolidation across multiple entities.
• Direct hands-on experience in clearing a multi-month consolidation or reporting backlog.
• Significant exposure to supporting the transition of consolidation, controllership, or reporting activities from an external audit or outsourced provider to an in-house team.
• Experience working as a technical peer to an external audit firm (Big 4 or equivalent), not solely as a preparer responding to audit requests.
• Prior experience in hospitality, hotels, real estate, retail, shared services, or other multi-entity environments is an advantage. Budget hotel experience is a strong plus.
• Strong working knowledge of PFRS/IFRS-based standards, Philippine taxation fundamentals, statutory reporting, and accounting controls.
• Strong understanding of GL structure, account reconciliations, financial statement preparation, financial analysis, and management reporting.
• Exposure to audit coordination, documentation governance, internal controls, and process improvement.
• Experience supporting Japan-headquartered, multinational, or highly controlled environments is an advantage, including exposure to J-SOX-related documentation or testing support.
• Advanced in Microsoft Excel and accounting/ERP systems, with the ability to work with large datasets, schedules, and structured reporting packs.
• Strong written and verbal communication skills, with the ability to explain financial information clearly and concisely.

Functional Competencies

• Expert level in FS Consolidation (intercompany eliminations, minority interest, FX translation);
• Proficient in ERP architectures/automated workflows (Power Automate, VBA/BOT) and advanced Excel;
• Advanced level in Internal Control Support/J-SOX/Audit Coordination;
• Highly proficient in Accounting Policy and SOP Documentation.

Core Competencies:

• Initiative and sound judgement to resolve bottlenecks independently.
• Operate with urgency on-time critical deliverables while maintaining control discipline.
• Advanced written/verbal communication distilling complex consolidation issues into executive-ready commentary.