Description

Role Overview
The Project Accountant plays a critical role in supporting the PMO and Project Owners to effectively manage the financial performance of their projects. This position is responsible for ensuring accurate financial tracking, monitoring actuals against budgets and forecasts, and providing timely insights to enable informed decision-making. A focus of the role is to design and maintain financial models that support benefit realisation tracking across the project lifecycle.
Key Responsibilities

• Financial Management
• Partner with Project Owners to understand project scope, financial requirements, and key cost drivers.
• Provide ongoing financial guidance, ensuring alignment with organisational policies and funding constraints.
• Support the development of project budgets, business cases, change requests and financial plans.
• Budgeting & Forecasting
• Maintain detailed project budgets and regularly update forecasts based on actual performance and emerging risks.
• Track and reconcile actual expenditure against approved budgets, identifying variances and recommending corrective actions.
• Prepare monthly project financial reports, dashboards, and commentary for stakeholders and governance forums.
• Financial Modelling
• Build and maintain robust financial models to support project planning, scenario analysis, and benefit realisation tracking.
• Work with Project Owners and PMO to define benefit metrics, baselines, and measurement methodologies.
• Monitor benefit realisation progress and provide insights into deviations, risks, and opportunities.
• Compliance
• Ensure all project financial activities comply with internal controls, procurement policies, and audit requirements.
• Support preparation of financial documentation for internal and external audits.
• Maintain accurate financial records and ensure data integrity across systems.
• Stakeholder Engagement
• Act as a trusted financial advisor to Project Owners, PMO, and senior leadership.
• Communicate complex financial information in a clear, accessible manner tailored to non-financial stakeholders.
• Collaborate with cross-functional teams including Finance, Procurement, and PMO.

Skills & Qualifications

• Qualifications
• CA/CPA qualified.
• Skills and Experience
• Experience in project accounting, management accounting, or financial analysis.
• Strong analytical and financial modelling skills (Excel, Power BI, or equivalent).
• Ability to interpret financial data and translate insights into actionable recommendations.
• Excellent communication and stakeholder engagement skills.
• Key Behaviours
• Structured and detail-oriented.
• Proactive, accountable, and able to manage competing timelines.

Key Relationships

• Head of Reporting and Accounting : Direct reporting line; escalate issues, provide updates.
• CFO : Providing accurate and insightful reporting to support decision making.
• Head of PMO : Regular updates of program financials and provide guidance to reduce variances to plans; provide regular analysis, reporting and insights, ensuring variations are managed appropriately.
• Project Owners : Supporting the detailed analysis and reporting to Project Owners that provides guidance and insight.

Performance Measures

• Timeliness of Reporting : Accurate and timely financial reporting for all key projects.
• Stakeholder Management : High stakeholder satisfaction and strong relationships with Project Owners.
• Effective Financial Modelling : Effective financial models that support decision-making and benefit tracking.