Trade Spend Accountant

Work Setup: Hybrid (twice a week onsite)

Location: Makati, Metro Manila

Summary:

The Trade Spend Accountant is responsible in the Trade Spend Accounting of the assigned market. He/ She is responsible for monitoring Hershey’s Trade Spent commitments, accruals and payments. This includes closely working with the business unit to ensure that the claims paid are valid and with complete supporting documents and that the claims do not exceed against committed amounts. He/ She is also responsible for ensuring that the accounting for Trade Spent is in accordance with company policies, month-end accruals are reasonable and that the balance per schedule/monitoring file agrees with the balance per books.

The role will also handle receipt processed TP claims from Trade Spend Analysts, review of Invoice/ Wire Transfer Forms/ Approvers, uploading and updating the Mass Creation Settlement Documents file/ TP Upload Report for submission to Billing team. 

Major Duties/Responsibilities:

Trade Spend Accounting (25%)

• Pre-Close Activity
  • Responsible for the pre-closing activities related to Payment process, which includes Trade Promotion, Direct Marketing Expenses, Unsaleables, and Other Direct Brand Expenses. 
  • Preparation of Journal Entries related to the payment adjustments.
• Month End Reports
  • Responsible for the preparation of reports, i.e. Subsidiary reconciliation on payment side (IO reconciliation and SIS reconciliation) and ensure it is reconciled against to the GL Balance, IO and SIS System balance.
  • Responsible for the payment reconciliation of Trade Spend Balance Sheet Accounts and ensure that the SAP GL Balance is reconciled against to the payment tracking file.
• Blackline Tasks Certification
  • Performs the Tasks Certification in Blackline System.

Trade Promotion Posting Transaction (25%)

•    Perform receipt of transmittal for Trade Promotion Claims
•    Ensure the validity of Invoice
•    Ensure completeness and accuracy of Wire Transfer Form and its Authorized Approvers
•    Responsible for the creation of TP Upload Report for Billing Team
•    Ensure completeness and accuracy of Upload Process of documents in the System.
•    Responsibe for the Customer Refund Process

Trade Spend Claims Review (25%)

• Review of Distributor’s Claims on trade spent and ensures supporting documents, budget, classification of expenses, and charging are aligned with Hershey Guidelines.
  • Ensures non occurrence of double payment.
  • Ensures timeliness of claims review, and accuracy of the manual tracking file.
  • Facilitate Payment of claims thru preparation of wire transfer request (WTR), and routing to approvers, and encoding in Vendor Management System (VIMS). 
  • Reconciles payment made in SAP versus manual records.
  • Communicate with the Distributors on invoice queries.
• Perform review of Statement of Account Reconciliation for the markets handled. 
• Perform Daily Monitoring of Invoice and Aging Reports.
• Responsible for issue resolution for the assigned markets and act as SME for trade spend invoice processing activities of Trade Spend Associate.

TP Tool Administration and Master Data (10%)

• Periodic review of IO Master Data and coordinate with the TSR/TSC to ensure the timeliness and accuracy of data and are in accordance with the DME Policy.
• Provide operational back-up support and act as SME on creation/changes in Vendor/Customer/ Internal Order Master data and preparation of Chart of Authority Set Up.

Others (15%)

• Audit Support
  • Responsible for the preparation and submission of documents required for internal or external audit of the Hershey books and work processes.  Together with the immediate manager, the role is responsible for timely communication and resolution of issues identified during any internal or external audit
• Continuous Process Improvement
• Facilitate claims processing for Canada Trade promotion in High radius
• Key Performance Indicator (KPI) Tracking and Issue Resolution
  • Responsible for meeting and exceeding predefined set of metrics. 
  • Timely issues escalation and resolution.
• Adhoc/other Tasks: 
  • Others related ad hoc roles that may be assigned with alignment with the Accounting Service Senior Manager, AEMEA. 

Minimum knowledge, skills and abilities required to successfully perform major duties/responsibilities:  

Knowledge:  

• BS Accountancy, or its equivalent
• 5+ years exposure in Accounting Process involving Invoicing and Analysis
• General Accounting and Accounts Payable Knowledge
• Basic knowledge of SAP 
• MS Office - Excel Skills, at least average

Soft Skills:  

• Strong Oral and Written Communication Skills
• Good Interpersonal Communication Skills
• Collaboration Skills
• Attention to Details
• Strong Analytical and Problem-Solving Skills
• Works with minimum supervision
• Proactive
• Project Management Skills and ability to prioritize

Behavior/ Attitude:

• Customer Focused and Results Oriented. Understands issues from the customers’ perspective; considers the impact of decisions, processes, services on the customer; demonstrates passion for providing excellent customer service; treats customers with respect and care and uses a variety of approaches to identify customer needs; conveys a sense of urgency to get things done; ensures that there are necessary resources available for resolution of escalated customer issues; monitors the quality resolution of customer issues.
• Problem Solving. Detailed oriented; uses rigorous logic and methods to solve difficult problems with effective solutions; effectively researches and probes all sources for answers; can see/recognize hidden problems and look beyond the obvious. 
  • Solution Driven Approach
  • Keen into Details

Minimum Education and Experience Requirements: 

Education: Bachelor’s Degree required, in Accounting or its equivalent

Experience:

• Must have 5+ years exposure in Accounting Process involving Invoicing and Analysis