Accounts Payable Controller – AECI Corporate

Job Description

Purpose of the Job

The purpose of the Accounts Payable Controller role is to lead and manage the AP team, ensuring the accurate, timely, and compliant processing of supplier invoices, payments, and reconciliations while maintaining strong financial controls and optimising cash flow. This role is accountable for team performance against SLAs and KPIs, including payment accuracy, processing turnaround times, and vendor query resolution. The AP Controller provides leadership and direction to foster a high-performance culture, setting clear expectations and conducting regular performance reviews to develop team capability. This role partners with HR to coordinate onboarding for new team members, implements training initiatives to address skills gaps, and ensures open communication channels to support engagement and change management. Operationally, the AP Controller oversees the end-to-end accounts payable function, including invoice processing, payment runs, vendor reconciliations, and month-end close activities. The Controller ensures compliance with delegated authority limits, financial controls, and service level agreements (SLAs), while acting as the primary escalation point for complex supplier disputes or payment issues. The role is also responsible for cash flow management through the strategic scheduling of payment runs, optimising payment terms with suppliers, and ensuring accurate accruals and provisions for month-end and year-end reporting. The AP Controller owns the team-wide process documentation framework, leads structured knowledge transfer, and drives continuous improvement initiatives to enhance efficiency, automation, and control within the AP function.

Key Responsibilities

• Validate and approve complex or high-value AP transactions, including invoices, credit notes, and reversals.
• Ensure compliance with Delegation of Authority (DOA) and company policies.
• Approve one-time vendor and alternate payee requests.
• Review and approve rejected invoice reprocessing.
• Monitor 2-way and 3-way matching exception reports.
• Investigate recurring pricing, quantity, or PO variances.
• Drive root cause analysis and coordinate resolutions with Procurement and Business Finance.
• Escalate systemic issues to SAP CoE or management where required.
• Review and approve vendor reconciliations.
• Monitor unreconciled items and aged creditor balances.
• Ensure timely clearing of reconciling items.
• Escalate long-outstanding disputes to management.
• Approve and schedule payment runs in alignment with cash flow forecasts.
• Consult with Business Finance and GAM to ensure adequate funding for payment cycles.
• Review and authorize foreign payment instructions and bank instruction forms.
• Perform pre-approval checks on payment uploads.
• Review and validate AP accruals for accuracy and completeness.
• Ensure prepayments and advances are accurately captured, monitored, and cleared.
• Support finance team with month-end AP reporting and reconciliations.

Requirements

• Degree in Accounting or equivalent (NQF7) level Diploma in Accounting.
• 5 – 7 years’ experience in accounts payable or similar environment with 2 years supervisory / management experience.
• Experience with shared services or outsourced finance operations.
• SAP ECC6 (essential).

How to Apply

To apply, please visit: jobs.aeciworld.com

REF Code: 2161

Closing Date: 2026-10-15