Finance Manager (AU Accounting, Food Industry, Xero) - #35369

This is an exciting opportunity to join a growing Australian food and B2B distribution group, where you’ll lead its finance team, strengthen financial operations, and drive process improvements across two businesses. The role offers direct exposure to the CEO, significant ownership, and the opportunity to build scalable finance processes that support business growth.

Company Profile

Our client is a Sydney-based company in the corporate catering and hospitality industry, providing freshly prepared food for workplace meetings, corporate events, and everyday office occasions. Established in 2017, the company serves businesses of various sizes across Sydney.

The company is known for its commitment to freshness, quality, and reliable service, offering daily-prepared menus, on-time delivery, convenient online ordering, and a variety of dietary-friendly options. Its offerings include breakfast catering, working lunches, and corporate event packages.

With an in-house culinary team and locally sourced ingredients, our client focuses on delivering quality food and a seamless catering experience to its corporate customers.

Duties and Responsibilities

The opportunity

The main company’s finance operations are established and relatively clean. Your early focus will be bringing the other company to the same standard while strengthening finance across the whole group.  A major priority will be building a fast and reliable month-end process, with the goal of:

• Completing group close and consolidation within 48 hours of month-end

• Providing a useful management flash by Day 3

• Giving the CEO confidence that the numbers are complete and accurate

You will also improve the Xero and inventory-system workflows, strengthen controls, improve inventory and COGS accuracy, and reduce manual work. As the group grows, we want finance processes and systems to scale with it rather than simply adding more finance staff every time transaction volume increases.

A key priority will also be maintaining accurate, rolling cash flow forecasts to help the business manage cash requirements, particularly with ongoing investments in assets and capital expenditure.

What you’ll own

• The day-to-day finance function across the two businesses

• Leadership and development of a Philippines-based finance team of three

• Group month-end close and consolidation

• Management flash reporting by Day 3

• Xero workflows, reconciliations and finance-system integrity

• Maintain strong oversight of food-related inventory, stock movements and COGS, ensuring accurate reconciliation and visibility of the key drivers of food costs

• AP, AR, payment runs, collections and payroll oversight

• Finance controls, including approval workflows, segregation of duties, journals and write-offs

• Accurate supporting records for Australian BAS, PAYG, superannuation and external advisers

• Consolidated group management reporting, including Profit and Loss, Balance Sheet and EBITDA reports, with the ability to interpret financial results and explain the drivers of profitability

• Budgets, forecasts and cash-flow reporting

• Intercompany accounting and elimination

• Continuous improvement of finance processes, systems and automation

• Identifying finance errors and control weaknesses before they become larger problems

• Supporting the CEO with reliable financial information and analysis

• Building finance processes that can scale as the group grows

• Prepare and maintain accurate rolling cash flow forecasts to identify potential cash flow gaps and support business planning, particularly for asset investments and capital expenditure

• Prepare and review inventory reports, including stock-on-hand, stock adjustments, payables and receivables

• Prepare financial reports, cash flow forecasts and modelling required by the bank, while the Director/Owner retains responsibility for banking relationships

• Oversee high-volume weekly payroll processing across both businesses, including hands-on processing where required and periodic compliance audits. The catering business has a workforce of approximately 120 employees and growing, and payroll must comply with applicable Australian awards

• Liaise directly with the external accounting firm on finance and accounting matters

What success looks like

Within your first six months, you will have

• Built a clear understanding of the finance workflows across both businesses

• Established clear ownership and accountability across the finance team

• Built a reliable process for completing close and group consolidation within 48 hours

• Established a useful management flash by Day 3

• Improved the accuracy of inventory, stock and COGS reporting

• Strengthened Xero and connected finance workflows

• Improved group and multi-entity reporting

• Strengthened finance controls and removed major single points of failure

• Reduced avoidable manual work and recurring errors

• Improved the team’s capability and accountability

• Put in place finance processes that can handle business growth without simply adding more people

Requirements

You’ll be a strong match if you can show that you have

• Minimum 8 years of progressive accounting experience.

• Minimum 3 years in a financial management/leadership role (team management experience required

• Personally owned or led month-end close

• Supported & experienced with Australian businesses in a finance role

• Prepared Australian finance information relating to BAS, PAYG and superannuation

• Proven experience overseeing high-volume weekly payroll under Australian awards is essential. Experience supporting a workforce of approximately 120 employees or more is strongly preferred

• Worked across AP, AR, payroll, reconciliations and management reporting

• Formal multi-entity business experience is preferred but not mandatory. Experience managing multiple Xero files and handling internal transactions between them is required

• Improved finance controls, processes or systems

• Personally investigated finance errors or unusual balances

• Worked successfully in a hands-on finance leadership role

• Communicated finance issues clearly with senior management

• Demonstrated hands-on experience managing inventory, stock and COGS is a strict requirement, ideally within a food, catering, food production or food distribution environment

• Previous food industry experience is a strict requirement. Experience in FMCG, distribution, wholesale, logistics or supply chain is also highly regarded

• Hands-on Xero experience, particularly managing multiple Xero files, is required

• Cin7 Core experience is not essential. If you have strong transferable inventory or ERP experience, we can train you on Cin7

• CPA Philippines or an equivalent accounting qualification is highly regarded but is not the main selection criterion

You’ll enjoy this role if you

• Like taking ownership rather than waiting for somebody else to find problems

• Question whether numbers make sense

• Enjoy improving systems and controls

• Can lead people while still getting into the detail yourself

• Prefer improving processes over simply adding more headcount

• Like working directly with senior management

• Want meaningful influence over how a finance function operates

Job type: Permanent

Emp type: Direct hire; Full-time

Schedule: Monday to Friday, 9:00 AM to 6:00 PM Sydney Time (6am – 3pm PH Time)

Location: Remote / Work from home

Industry: Corporate catering company

Expertise: Finance/Accounting Management, Leadership, Australian accounting/finance, Xero, Inventory, Stock and COGS