Manufacturing Cost & Inventory Accountant

A day in the life

You start your morning by preparing the daily shipping and receiving manifest, then spot-check incoming raw-material deliveries against purchase orders to ensure every receipt is properly supported. Before lunch, you review laminating job bags to confirm materials are allocated to the right jobs, and you verify that all material issues flow accurately through production and into work-in-process (WIP). You’ll also manage any return-to-vendor (RTV) items and organize job bags and sheeting paperwork so everything is audit-ready.

Midday is about partnering with operations: you facilitate a weekly production waste meeting and help implement reduction strategies, calculate and oversee production KPIs used for the incentive plan, and run weekly audits of finished goods and subassembly materials. You’ll keep physical inventory and cycle-count programs on track, including valuation and obsolescence reviews, and manage customer-supplied inventory usage for each receipt and order.

Afternoons often shift toward the close: processing billing and accounts payable invoices, maintaining WIP values for the trial balance, reconciling inventory stock status to the trial balance, and ensuring standard costs are current. At month-end, you complete cost and inventory accounting activities, calculate the monthly COGS to align expenses with revenue, prepare and submit the gross-profit report, and support the close schedule and balance-sheet analysis. You’ll also review and close manufacturing jobs once production is complete, perform consolidation and intercompany reconciliations, support quarterly and annual audits by bank and financial auditors, and take on miscellaneous accounting projects as assigned.

What you’ll tackle

• Execute cost and inventory accounting, including monthly closings and upkeep of standard costs.
• Own physical inventory and cycle-count programs, with valuation and obsolescence reviews.
• Support quarterly and annual audits conducted by bank and financial auditors.
• Run weekly audits of finished goods and subassembly inventories.
• Review all laminating job bags to ensure materials are correctly allocated.
• Confirm material costs are issued properly and flow accurately through production and WIP.
• Review and close manufacturing jobs after production wraps.
• Lead weekly production waste meetings and drive waste-reduction initiatives.
• Calculate and oversee production KPIs for the incentive plan.
• Audit all incoming raw-material receipts against purchase orders.
• Process billing and accounts payable invoices.
• Manage RTV materials and any related inventory adjustments.
• Organize and file job bags and sheeting paperwork.
• Own and complete all inventory adjustments.
• Calculate monthly COGS and align expenses to revenue.
• Maintain the WIP balance for the trial balance.
• Reconcile inventory stock status to the trial balance for month-end close.
• Prepare and submit the month-end gross-profit report.
• Handle miscellaneous accounting projects as assigned.
• Manage customer-supplied inventory and usage by receipt and order.
• Prepare the daily shipping and receiving manifest.
• Support the month-end close calendar and balance-sheet analysis.
• Perform consolidation and intercompany reconciliations.

Reports to: Accounting Manager

Your toolkit

• Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP)
• Cost Accounting
• Bookkeeping
• Inventory Management & Control
• Manufacturing Accounting