**Group Chief Accountant
Job Description | Full-Time | Beirut
The Role
The company is a group operating in several countries, each with its own accounting. The group needs one chart of accounts, one system and one way of keeping its books, so that it can be read and run as one business.
The Group Chief Accountant leads that change and then runs the accounting of the group.
Title: Group Chief Accountant Based in: Beirut, with regular travel to the group’s other markets Reports to: The owners Works with: The accounting staff of each company, the ERP implementation partner, and the external auditors.
What the Role Will Do
- Redraw the Chart of Accounts
Design one chart of accounts for the group that every company uses, built so the business can be read by company, by store, by channel and by product line, and so the companies consolidate cleanly into one set of group accounts.
- Unify the Accounting Data Across the Group
Bring every company onto the same structure, the same policies and the same monthly routine.
Reconcile everything that passes between the group’s companies every month, and produce one consolidated set of group accounts.
- Take Control of the Accounting of Every Entity
Own the books of each company: the monthly close, bank and cash reconciliations, payables and receivables, stock accounting, VAT and tax filings, and the relationship with the auditors.
Bring any open prior periods to a clean close.
- Lead the Migration to Odoo
Lead the move from the legacy accounting system to Odoo:
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Clean and restructure the data before it moves.
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Set clean opening balances.
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Rebuild the product, customer and supplier records to the group standard.
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Direct the implementation partner.
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Test and run both systems in parallel until the numbers agree.
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Train the team.
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Apply the same standard to the group’s existing Odoo set-up.
- Report and Control
Produce one monthly management pack for the owners.
Support the yearly budget and the monthly cash plan.
Put basic controls in place, including approval limits, separation of duties, and documented procedures.
- Build the Finance Team
Lead the accounting staff across the group and shape the finance function the group will need as it grows.
What Success Looks Like in the First Year
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One group chart of accounts, approved and in use across the group.
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The legacy system retired, with every company on Odoo and clean opening balances.
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Every company closing every month on time, following the same routine.
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One consolidated monthly pack that the owners read and trust.
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Everything between the group’s companies reconciled every month.
The Profile
Must Have
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A degree in accounting or finance, and a recognised professional qualification (CPA, ACCA, CMA or equivalent).
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At least 10 years of accounting experience, including 3 or more years leading the accounting of a company or a group.
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Multi-company, multi-currency accounting and consolidation experience.
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Has led at least one full ERP migration, from data cleaning to go-live.
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Hands-on knowledge of Odoo Accounting, or of a comparable modern ERP and the ability to master Odoo quickly.
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Working knowledge of tax and VAT across more than one country in the region.
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Fluent English and Arabic.
Strongly Preferred
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Retail, fashion or a stock-heavy business, including stock costing.
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Experience designing a chart of accounts from scratch.
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Experience working directly with the owners of a family business.
The Person
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Hands-on: Builds the structure and does the work, not only supervises it.
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Structured and patient: Comfortable working with messy data and able to explain it simply.
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Discreet: Has sound judgement on confidential matters.
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Flexible: Comfortable travelling across the group’s markets.**
