Payroll Accountant

Go2Africa is an award-winning travel company harnessing passion and technology to create tailormade bucket-list African Safari experiences since 1998. Based in Cape Town, South Africa, our + 25-year success has stemmed from an unwavering dedication to providing expert, independent advice and 5-star service to our clients from the early travel planning phase until well after they return home.

Go2Africa has a strong following of guests and partners and an excellent, dominating SEO presence since its early days. At Go2Africa, we value our trusted relationships – whether that be with our travel partners, global client base or our Go2Africans and the vital role they play in supporting our growth trajectory and with that our contribution to conservation of wildlife, pristine wilderness areas and sustainable development of rural communities.

Always ambitious, even in times like COVID19, we added to our team of experienced professionals with the goal of keeping Go2Africa as the industry-leading authority in luxury African travel. 

Role Summary:

Payroll Accountant for a company in the travel industry with a focus on payroll processing and accounting for the South African entities as well as working with the Financial Manager and HR Executives within the group for HR and payroll reporting requirements.

Key Areas of Responsibility:

Payroll

• Calculation and management of salaries, ensuring staff are paid accurately and timely, recoveries of all relevant costs from staff salaries and related entries are captured correctly to the GL accounts and cost centres

• Monthly receiving of all salary information, ensuring that all salary changes are authorised and that correct documentation is received

• Capturing of all payroll changes on SAGE 300 People

• Monthly reconciliation of staff loans schedule, ensuring all staff loans are recovered timely manner and pre-authorised by management

• Monthly reconciliation and update the incentive schedule

• Print and reconcile Earnings and Deductions lists (payroll schedules)

• Review salaries with the Financial Manager

• Publish payslips to ESS; Assist with payslips queries or requests in a timely manner

• Import the salary journal into the accounting system and ensure the Excel salary spreadsheet net pay agrees with the accounting system salary import and salary payments made from the salary bank account

• Process salary month-end journals for errors and losses, staff loans, and salary cost allocations.

Commission

• Management of commission calculations, ensuring accurate calculations of commission due to staff/contractors

• Processing of commission payments to the GL, ensuring correct/accurate GL accounts and periods used, and reporting costs accurately

• Monthly calculation of commission to sales consultants

• Review commission calculations with the Financial Manager

• Forward commission statements to staff/contractors for review

• Attend promptly to any queries regarding commission calculations

• Capture the sales consultant commission payment batch in the normal banking profile and take it to the relevant parties to release

• Process independent contractor payments in the Standard Bank current account cash book

Company benefits management

• Ensure company benefits are applied in line with the Nawiri Group policies for South African employees.

• Perform the monthly reconciliation of the benefits schedule/statement received from the medical aid schemes, retirement and pension funds to the total benefits in SAGE 300 People.

• Processing payments to the medical aid schemes, retirement and pension funds monthly.

• Liaising with the company brokers on any group benefit-related matters.

Statutory submissions and filing with the relevant governing body

• Bi-annual payroll taxes reconciliation and filing of returns on SARS E-filing (IRP5 reconciliations)

• Annual payroll taxes reconciliation and filing of returns on SARS E-filing (EMP501)

• Monthly payroll taxes reconciliation and filing of returns on SARS E-filing (EMP201)

• Assist HR with annual CATHSETA reporting.

• Prepare and submit the annual WCA Return of Earnings.

• Collaborate with HR for the completion of UIF forms (staff on maternity leave)

GL Management

• Ensure monthly journals are processed accurately and timely to the correct GL accounts, and relevant reconciliations are being performed:

  o   Payroll costs import from SAGE 300 People journal

  o   Commission deductions journal

  o   Salary incentives accruals journal

  o   Salary deduction journals

• Monthly review of balance sheet accounts - supporting schedules and recons for all balances

• Payroll Liability accounts (Medical Aid Control, Company Benefits Control, Salary Control, UIF Control, PAYE control, SDL control, Staff loans Control)

• Accrued Leave

Payroll and HR Reporting

• Maintain and update HR and payroll reporting, ensuring that they are updated timely, focusing on accuracy and usefulness of data

• Monthly: Update the HR reports once the month-end is completed, among other:

  o   Staff turnover;

  o   Payroll cost analysis Masterfile update;

  o   Accrued leave balances – flagging excessive balances to managers, etc.

• Monthly: Update the Payroll reports once the month-end is completed

• Ad hoc reporting requests from HR Managers, Financial Manager and Managing Director

Error and Loss

• Ensure all errors and losses recorded are reported to Management and recovered from staff or authorisation received for write off, minimising risk on unrecovered errors

• Monthly update of the error and loss report and send to Team Leaders/Managers

• Follow up on outstanding errors to ensure prompt recovery from staff

• Recording of error and loss forms received on the Under/Over spreadsheet

• Monthly update of the error and loss report on the MIS reporting directory

Year-end / Audit

• Assist the Financial Manager in year-end close and audit of the payroll accounting to ensure a smooth audit/year-end with accurate reporting and minimal audit queries

• Assist in year-end preparation of schedules for the audit file

• Assist in year-end supplying information requested and resolving audit queries

Backup for roles within the department

• Keep up to date on the Senior Payroll Accountant role and serve as a backup when required

General

• Ensure monthly filing is up to date and filed in the correct files/sections

• Maintenance of email inbox and sub-folders

  • Timely response to emails and queries sent to the central payroll email box.

Quarterly objectives

• Achieve all agreed goals, objectives and targets on a periodical and annual basis

• Set quarterly objectives for yourself and manage against achieved objectives

Qualifications:

• B-Com Accounting degree or equivalent qualification/diploma in Bookkeeping OR

• Diploma in Bookkeeping and Payroll Processing with 5 years of experience.

Experience & knowledge

• International financial management, complying with IFRS

• Accounting systems and procedures (SAGE Accpac advantageous)

• Payroll accounting

• Multi-country and multi-currency accounting

• Statutory requirements – PAYE, UIF, SDL

• Payroll management systems – (SAGE 300 People advantageous)

• Payroll accounting and reconciliations

• Contract negotiation, review and ability to read and understand contracts

• The travel industry would be advantageous

Skills & Competencies

• Understand financial accounting and principals.

• Analytical skills, highly numeric.

• Computer skills, MS Office, SAGE Accpac (or equivalent), Internet banking, VIP/ SAGE 300 People, SARS E-filing

• Communication skills, excellent verbal and written communication skills, strong presentation (written & oral).

Attributes and Behaviours

• A self-starter with the ability to work in a cooperative manner whilst maintaining independence.

• Problem solving.

• Detail-oriented with the ability to see the big picture.

• Sound judgment and decision-making skills.

• Confident and decisive.

• Results-driven.

• Accountability.

• ·Impeccable ethics and integrity.

• A natural team player with a willingness to contribute and to learn.

• Persuading and influencing- ability to operate and interact with senior stakeholders.

• Positive attitude.

• Stress and pressure management.

Go2Africa Core Values

We Care

Without our people, we wouldn’t exist. Simply put: we have a genuine concern for our people, and their well-being. We value the close relationships with our partners to ensure the best experience for our travellers. When it comes to our travellers, every detail, even the very finest, matters. This motivates us to offer only the very best experience, one that they will forever hold in their memories, leaving an indelible mark for life.

Without our Go2Africans, partners and travellers we wouldn’t exist.

We Trust and are Trusted

Our reputation of 20+ years precedes us and we’re among the longest-standing TOs in the country. We place our trust in each other, our partners and our many industry accolades are testament to our delivery, knowledge, and client service. Our travellers trust us for it.

We Go Above and Beyond

We don’t settle, we go further, do better and strive more every day to give our travellers the very best experience.

We are Resilient

We weather any storm.

We are solid, can take the hard knocks, learn from them, and move on.

We Collaborate

We pride ourselves on our partnerships – be that with our travellers, partners or Go2Africans. Our approach is personal, and we take great care of each and every one of our relationships, to ensure we always deliver the highest quality result and share in our joint success.

We Conserve

We care deeply about Africa’s sustainability, and are invested in protecting communities, wildlife, fauna, and flora. We are deeply passionate about Africa. It’s more than a destination, it’s in our heart …it’s our home.

We are Africa

Africa is in our bones, our blood, and our hearts, from the beat of her drum to the wild sounds of the Serengeti. Every trip, experience and memory are one that we curate with care, and we share our love and respect for Africa with everyone who travels with us.

We Are Go2Africa.