About Primark
At Primark, people matter. Primark has grown from its first store in Dublin in 1969 to a £9bn+ turnover business with over 80,000 colleagues and more than 440 stores in 17 countries.
Role overview
The Stock Accounting & Controls Manager is responsible for providing financial oversight, governance and control of Primark's inventory accounting processes, ensuring the integrity and accuracy of stock balances reported in the Balance Sheet and supporting the accurate recognition of stock-related impacts within the Profit & Loss account.
Working closely with the outsourced service provider, the Sales & Margin Manager, Supply Chain, Retail Operations, Technology and Internal Controls teams, the role will act as the primary inventory accounting subject matter expert within Primark.
The position will oversee end-to-end stock accounting and reconciliation processes, challenge and support service provider outputs, drive continuous improvement, strengthen financial controls, and ensure risks are identified and resolved in a timely manner.
Principal duties and responsibilities
- Financial control and governance: Own the governance framework surrounding inventory accounting and stock-related balance sheet accounts; oversee outsourced stock accounting activities; review reconciliations, ageing items, variances, provisions and write-off recommendations; and lead inventory accounting support for internal and external audits.
- Balance sheet ownership and period-end reporting: Ensure the completeness and accuracy of inventory and related balance sheet accounts, review reconciliation outputs, approve material balances and adjustments, challenge unusual movements and variances, review stock-related journals, and provide inventory commentary and analysis for financial reporting.
- Profit and loss support and business partnering: Work with the Sales & Margin Manager to explain the impact of stock movements, adjustments, provisions and write-offs on trading margin and profitability, while providing insight into stock losses, inventory trends and performance metrics.
- Outsourced service provider oversight: Act as the escalation point for complex queries, monitor service delivery and quality, provide technical guidance, review accounting treatments, and drive standardisation and automation opportunities.
- Controls, risk and continuous improvement: Maintain process documentation and control requirements, implement new controls, support root-cause analysis and remediation, and oversee controls relating to stock losses, returns to vendors, stock recalls, freight and duty accounting, stock write-offs, depot transfers, franchise inventory and other inventory processes.
- Projects and change management: Represent Finance on inventory-related projects, system changes and transformation initiatives, providing accounting and financial control expertise and ensuring appropriate governance is embedded in process changes.
Qualifications and experience
- Qualified accountant (ACA, ACCA, CIMA or equivalent) with 5+ years of experience in a high-volume or retail environment.
- Strong understanding of financial control, balance sheet governance and period-end reporting.
- Significant experience in inventory accounting, stock control, financial reporting or financial control environments.
- Experience managing or overseeing outsourced or shared-service operations.
- Experience supporting internal and external audits within a robust control framework.
- Experience working cross-functionally with Finance, Operations, Supply Chain and Technology teams.
- Experience leading process improvement, controls enhancement and change initiatives.
Skills and competencies
- Strong analytical and problem-solving capabilities.
- Excellent stakeholder management and influencing skills.
- Strong communication and presentation skills.
- High attention to detail and commitment to financial accuracy.
- Ability to manage multiple priorities and deliver under tight reporting deadlines.
- Strong Excel and financial systems knowledge; experience with ERP, preferably Oracle.
Benefits
Benefits include healthcare, pension, potential bonus, 27 days of leave plus bank holidays, the option to buy five additional days, Tax Saver Tickets, a fitness centre and a subsidised cafeteria.
All offers of employment are subject to background checks, including right to work, reference, education and, for some roles, criminal and financial checks.