Accounting Team Lead

About the Company

The Lead, Expense Accounting is responsible for the end-to-end expense accounting and related accrual processes for Client Group entities, including payroll-related expenses and benefits. The role ensures that operating expenses are accurately recognized, timely recorded, properly reversed when needed, and fully supported, in line with applicable accounting standards, internal policies, and tax and audit requirements.

About the Role

The Lead manages the monthly and year-end close for expense accounting, including accruals, payroll and benefits accounting, reconciliations, and analytical reviews. The role also drives process improvements and automation and may supervise analysts or specialists supporting expense and payroll-related accounting activities.

Responsibilities:

End-to-End Expense Accounting and Accruals

• Own the end-to-end expense accounting cycle, including:
• Identification and assessment of expenses requiring accruals.
• Preparation and review of monthly accrual and reversal entries.
• Timely recording of expenses based on appropriate cut-off and supporting documents.
• Ensure expenses are accurately classified to the correct GL accounts, cost centers, and entities, aligned with the chart of accounts and budget structures.
• Prepare and review SAP upload files for journal entries, ensuring correct formats, mapping, sign conventions, and data validations before posting.
• Coordinate with relevant teams (e.g., FP&A/FBA, Treasury, Disbursement, Procurement, BUs) to gather inputs, resolve issues, and prevent duplicate or missing expense entries.
• Monitor and manage expense accruals and reversals such that open balances reflect only valid, unactualized obligations.

Payroll-Related Accounting and Reconciliations

• Act as accounting owner for payroll-related expenses and benefits, including (but not limited to):
• Salaries and wages.
• Overtime, allowances, and variable pay.
• Bonuses (e.g., 13th month, performance bonuses, retention schemes).
• Statutory contributions and withholdings (e.g., income tax, SSS, PhilHealth, Pag-IBIG, other mandated benefits).
• Company benefits (e.g., HMO, group insurance, incentive schemes) and other employee-related costs.
• Coordinate closely with HR/Payroll and other stakeholders to:
• Obtain monthly payroll runs, summaries, and detailed reports by entity and cost center.
• Validate completeness and accuracy of amounts and cost allocations.
• Clarify special items (e.g., one-off payouts, corrections, back pay, terminations).
• Prepare, review, and post payroll-related journal entries for:
• Monthly payroll expense and related liabilities.
• Payroll accruals for cut-off and year-end (e.g., unpaid salaries, bonuses, unused leaves where applicable).
• Reclassifications between expense and balance sheet accounts, where necessary.
• Ensure timely and accurate recognition of statutory obligations, including:
• Proper set-up and clearance of payroll-related liability accounts.
• Alignment of accounting records with actual remittances and statutory deadlines.
• Perform regular reconciliations of:
• Payroll-related GL accounts vs. payroll system/sub-ledger reports.
• Payroll clearing/bank accounts vs. payroll disbursements.
• Accrued payroll and benefits vs. HR/Payroll schedules and approved provisions.
• Support HR/Payroll and Finance leadership with analytics on payroll and benefits expense trends, headcount cost, and related KPIs as needed.

Month-End and Year-End Close

• Lead the month-end close for expense and payroll accounting, including:
• Cut-off monitoring for expense and payroll-related transactions.
• Booking of required accruals and reversals within agreed timelines.
• Performance of analytical reviews and variance/flux analysis on expense and payroll accounts.
• Prepare and review expense and payroll-related schedules and reconciliations, such as:
• Detailed expense listings by account, cost center, and business unit.
• Accrued expense and accrued payroll schedules and aging.
• Prepaid and other balance sheet reconciliations related to expense and payroll accounts.
• Support year-end activities, including:
• Year-end accruals for expenses and payroll (e.g., bonuses, leave conversions, pending benefits).
• Clean-up of long-outstanding items in expense and payroll-related GLs.
• Coordination with BUs and HR/Payroll on year-end guidance, deadlines, and documentation.
• Roll-forward of key balances and schedules to the succeeding year.

Controls, Compliance, and Audit Support

• Ensure adherence to generally accepted accounting principles (GAAP), internal accounting policies, and tax and regulatory requirements relating to expense and payroll recognition and documentary support.
• Design, maintain, and enforce control procedures in the expense and payroll accounting processes, including:
• Maker–checker segregation and approval workflows for key entries.
• Standard documentation and naming conventions for working files and uploads.
• Checklists and control logs for month-end and year-end tasks.
• Maintain complete and well-organized documentation and audit trails for all significant expense and payroll-related entries and adjustments (working files, approvals, supporting documents, system reports).
• Act as a key contact for internal and external audits on expense and payroll-related matters, including:
• Providing schedules, supporting documents, and process walkthroughs.
• Addressing audit queries and observations and implementing agreed remediation actions in coordination with HR/Payroll, Tax, and other control functions.

Process Improvement and Automation

• Identify opportunities to simplify, standardize, and automate expense and payroll accounting processes and working files (e.g., templates, data models, dashboards, and reconciliation tools).
• Lead or support continuous improvement initiatives, such as

Qualifications:

Education & Certification

• Bachelor's degree in Accountancy
• Certified Public Accountant (CPA) preferred.

Experience

• Minimum 4–6 years of progressive experience in accounting, with strong exposure to expense and/or payroll-related accounting and accruals.
• At least 2–3 years in a senior or lead role handling month-end close and expense/payroll-related processes in a medium-to-large organization; experience in financial services or tech/fintech is an advantage.
• Hands-on experience with SAP FI/CO (or similar ERP) is strongly preferred, including:
• GL line-item analysis and reporting.
• Journal entry preparation and upload.
• Experience integrating or reconciling data from payroll systems or HRIS is a plus.
• Demonstrated track record in:
• Improving or sustaining fast close timelines.
• Performing flux/variance analyses on operating expenses and/or payroll and benefits.
• Managing accrual schedules and related balance sheet reconciliations.

Skills and Competencies

Technical Skills

• Strong foundation in expense and payroll recognition, accruals, and cost classification under GAAP.
• Proficiency in ERP systems (preferably SAP) for GL and expense/payroll reporting, and in Excel/Google Sheets for data analysis, templates, and reconciliations.
• Working knowledge of tax and regulatory considerations that impact payroll and expense recording (e.g., documentation, timing, withholding and remittances, statutory contributions).
• Ability to design and maintain robust working files and controls for expense and payroll-related processes.

Behavioral & Leadership Skills

• High attention to detail and commitment to accuracy and completeness.
• Strong analytical and problem-solving skills, with ability to identify root causes and propose practical solutions