Job Title - Project Accountant

Duration - Ongoing

Location - Stavanger, Norway

Rate & Benefits - Competitive day rate

Our client

A major international oil and gas operator.

Position Summary

It is the responsibility of the Project Accountant to provide a robust control framework. The role is seen as crucial to provide challenge to project teams on cost monitoring of actual out-turn against Authorisation for Expenditure (AFE), budget and forecasting assumptions. The role has a key interface with the project budgetholder and / or the Project Cost Engineer (depending on the materiality of the project) with respect to detailed cost models and business project performance reporting. Specific accountabilities are:

The Role

Cost Control & Approvals
The Project Accountant is expected to provide a key interface between the Project Controls and the Project Finance Team. This role will provide support as follows:

• Analyse timewriting reports - challenge and review billable.
• Taking the lead on governance matters such as ensuring compliance with Financial Authorities Standard.
• Compliance with the client's Value Assurance Framework.
• Obtain a thorough understanding of the investment case and budget for the project and, where applicable, help to compile these.
• Lead on quarterly investments forecast process and annual budget process for Projects responsible for. Establish good working relationship with Project Controls lead in this process to ensure consistent messaging.
• Provide spent reports by WBS to enable reconciliation between spend and forecast.
• Responsible for the maintaining the WBS model in SAP for Projects responsible for.
• Ensure appropriate financial controls are being applied.
• Liaise with Project Controls to include VOWD accrual estimates in project reporting.

Financial and Management Reporting
Monthly management accounting and reporting is a key deliverable for the Project Accountant. The Project Accountant is expected to liaise closely with the Joint Venture Accountant responsible for the project to ensure reporting of capital projects is consistent and reliable. This includes:
• Investments reporting, including project commentaries.
• Key liaison with Joint Venture Team for cash call process and any ad-hoc licence queries from partners.
• Input into monthly Projects departmental cost report.

Invoicing
• Provide AFE coding for all project invoices.
• Ensure that all project-related invoices are approved for payment on a timely basis.
• Assist Accounts Payable / Procurement department with any invoice follow-up specific to coding / estimated value of work remaining on purchase orders

Project Close-Out
• Actively participate in the process to achieve timely financial close-out of all commitments, contracts and purchase orders.
Ensure that the final project cost report agrees to actual costs recorded on SAP.
• Reconcile project VOWD to ensure project spend agrees with actual cost recorded on SAP.


Governance & Audit
• Ensure compliance with Governance processes.

Essential Skills and Experiences

You will be experienced working within a finance function, ideally in presenting financial data and be capable of drilling down to the critical points for a management or non-finance audience.

You will have knowledge of the Norwegian Oil and Gas Industry and International Financial Reporting Standards applicable to the Oil and Gas industry. Ability to understand the client's Finance process and procedures and be capable of using them to add value to the Norway business is essential.

A sound knowledge of oil & gas accounting, high attention to detail and accuracy and a strong working knowledge of SAP ERP is required to excel in this role.

In addition you will be Performance focus and able to demonstrate the ability to plan and organise a large volume of activity, committed and capable of working under pressure to meet tight deadlines. Have the ability to use initiative and creativity to discover and implement new ways of team working, communicate effectively both orally and written and deal with set-backs whilst not deflecting from achieving targets.

Fircroft is a leading provider of technical recruitment solutions to a number of specialist industries, active in over forty countries worldwide.

Our key sectors include: Oil & Gas, Petrochemical & Process, Automotive & Aerospace, Nuclear & Power, Mining & Minerals and General Engineering.