Plant Cost Accountant - Essentia

Through committed service and sustainable proteins solutions, Essentia is dedicated to building a better business for our customers. We do this by holding true to our values: Teamwork, Respect, Agility, Creativity and Knowledge. The Cost Accountant will partner with finance personnel to analyze and understand the impacts to the business of production and changes in costs. This position will also identify areas for process improvements while focusing on efficiency and value to management.

JOB QUALIFICATIONS:

Education:

Bachelor’s Degree in Accounting, Finance, or Business Management preferred

Experience:

Minimum of three years accounting experience required

Strong Excel skills required

Intermediate PowerPoint or similar presentation software experience

JOB DUTIES:

• Reconcile monthly inventory movements for raw material inventories.

• Complete and process requisitions and purchase orders for necessary plant expenses, entering information into INFOR software to ensure the highest level of accuracy and timeliness.

• Report on periodic variances and their causes, focusing on spending and production volume variances

• Provide valuable cost analysis to management focusing on cost reduction

• Lead the preparation of monthly results to senior management.

• Research, maintain, and periodically review cost allocation methodologies

• Optimize efficiency by streamlining and automating complex cost accounting processes

• Work closely with manufacturing leadership to establish and maintain a solid understanding of production operations, inventory and yield calculations

• Support, analyze, and assist in the preparation and review of the company’s annual operating budget.

• Collaborates with production staff to resolve discrepancies and develop an understanding of daily production yields.

• Supporting fixed asset capital spending and tracking requirements.

• Create & review monthly expense comparatives.

• Assist in helping to foster a culture of transparency between the plant and corporate offices.

• Generate various ad hoc reports as requested

• Represent plant finance on cross functional teams designed to improve operations and reduce costs

• Assist with month end duties to support the efficiency of the team

• Provide analytics and explanations of monthly results as required

• Assist with maintaining company processes and controls and performing accounting and financial analysis

• Ensure all financial and operational transactions for the location are accurately captured

JOB REQUIREMENTS:

• General accounting knowledge and the ability to ensure fully functioning and accurate accounting processes

• General knowledge of accounting standards/procedures and cost accounting methodologies

• Ability to input and access a variety of operational and financial information

• Ability to research, compile, analyze and interpret data

• Intermediate to advanced Excel abilities, utilizing pivot tables, macros and MS queries.

• Knowledge of organizational methods and the ability to prioritize multiple work assignments simultaneously

• Ability to maintain a high level of confidentiality related to all duties and responsibilities

• Ability to apply accounting formulas and/or perform mathematical calculations.

• Ability to communicate effectively both orally and in writing

• Ability to work with other related projects as requested by the manager

LGI’s foundation began in 1916 as the Lauridsen Creamery, selling butter, eggs and poultry to the local community. Although our headquarters in Ankeny, Iowa, is not far from the old creamery in Dedham, Iowa, the company is now worldwide with more than fifty manufacturing and sales locations in twenty countries and sales in more than sixty countries.

Each company under the LGI umbrella is truly independent. They have the ability and the charge to be entrepreneurial, to seek out new markets, to develop new products and applications, and – above all - to discover new ways to add value through fractionation and novel application.

What’s more, because some LGI companies have offices and presence around the world, all LGI companies benefit from their exposure to new markets, new products, new applications and new thinking.