Temporary Cost Accountant

Job Profile
:
Temporary Cost Accountant
Company
:
Ballymaguire Foods (BMF)
Department
:
Finance
Location
: [BMF site ]
Contract
:
Temporary / Fixed-Term (Temp cover)
Reporting to
:
Finance Manager / MD

Role Purpose
To support Ballymaguire Foods’ fresh food manufacturing business by delivering accurate product costing, margin reporting, and cost analysis. This role provides strong cost visibility across ingredients, labour, yields, waste and overheads, enabling informed decision-making across Operations, Procurement and Commercial teams during the temporary cover period.

• Maintain accurate product, recipe/BOM and pack costings aligned to BMF product ranges
• Ensure standard costs reflect current material prices, labour rates, yields and overheads
• Prepare and analyse customer/product margin performance, highlighting key drivers and recommended actions
• Support pricing and commercial proposals with robust costing, scenario modelling and sensitivity analysis
• Provide costing inputs to NPD, including new product costings, specification/recipe changes and post-launch reviews

• Produce and investigate manufacturing variances including materials usage, purchase price variance, yield/waste, labour efficiency and overhead absorption
• Partner with Operations to understand performance drivers and support continuous improvement and cost reduction initiatives
• Support reporting on yield, waste, efficiency and giveaway, ensuring finance data ties to site performance metrics
• Develop and track cost-saving and profit-enhancing initiatives and support benefits realisation reporting

• Support month-end close for COGS, inventory movements, WIP and finished goods
• Assist with cycle counts and stocktakes, including preparation, valuation, reconciliation and variance investigation
• Maintain strong controls around inventory valuation, accruals and cut-off, in line with Group requirements
• Prepare accurate, relevant and timely financial information to support periodic financial reporting and Monthly Management Accounts
• Provide information and support to the Finance Team in relation to queries arising from the year-end financial audit

• Maintain costing inputs in ERP and related tools including BOMs/recipes, routings, labour standards, overhead rates and material prices
• Work closely with Procurement/Supply Chain to ensure purchase price changes, supplier updates, rebates/credits (where applicable) are reflected correctly
• Ensure strong control over master data impacting inventory and costing, and document key processes to support continuity
• Prepare clear, well-structured reporting for Finance and stakeholders; support internal/external audits as required

• Provide information and support to the annual budgeting and quarterly forecasting processes
• Provide information and support in any grant or loan applications relevant to the business
• Provide appropriate support to ad hoc projects and analysis requests as they arise from time to time

• Operations/Site teams: production performance, yields, waste, labour efficiency, overhead absorption
• Plant Operations Manager: cost drivers, operational performance reviews, improvement actions
• Procurement: purchase prices, supplier changes, rebates/credits where applicable, PPV analysis
• Supply Chain/Planning: inventory movements, stock accuracy, WIP/FG controls
• Commercial/NPD: costings for new products, changes, customer proposals and margin reviews

• Qualified or part-qualified accountant (ACA/ACCA/CIMA) or equivalent relevant experience
• Previous experience in manufacturing/FMCG cost accounting (fresh food environment an advantage)
• Strong knowledge of standard costing, variance analysis, and inventory accounting
• Advanced Excel skills; comfortable working with ERP systems and large datasets
• Strong analytical and communication skills—able to explain numbers clearly to non-finance teams
• High attention to detail; able to meet deadlines in a fast-paced, high-volume environment

• Hands-on, collaborative, and solutions-focused
• Comfortable working on-site with cross-functional teams
• Proactive mindset with a strong focus on accuracy, ownership and continuous improvement
• Able to work independently and manage priorities during a temporary assignment

• Timely, accurate costings and margin reporting
• Clear variance insight with actionable recommendations and follow-through
• Strong inventory controls, reconciliations and master-data accuracy
• Reporting deadlines consistently met and strong support provided across audit/budget/forecast cycles
• Stakeholder confidence and positive feedback across Operations/Procurement/Commercial