Cost Controller At Eric Kayser

Department: Accounting & Finance

Job Purpose

• The Cost Controllerwill be responsible for supervising,monitoring and controlling food, beverage, production, inventory, and purchasing costs across the business.
• The role will work closely with the Finance, Operations, Procurement, Store, Kitchen, Pastry, Bar, and other relevant departments to ensure that recipes, production records, stock movements, and purchase prices are accurately captured and maintained on the cost control system.
• The Cost Control Supervisor will also identify and report variances that may affect the profitability of the business and provide management with accurate periodic cost-control reports.

Key Responsibilities

Cost Control System (Software) Management:

• Learn and fully understand the company's cost control system and processes.
• Ensure that all relevant cost, recipe, inventory, and production information is accurately maintained on the system.
• Regularly review system (software) information for completeness and accuracy.
• Liaise with relevant departments to resolve discrepancies identified on the system.

Recipe Management and Costing:

• Work closely with Executive Chefs, Kitchen Heads, Pastry, Bar, Operations, and Finance to review all existing recipes on the system.
• Identify recipes that are incomplete or missing from the system.
• Obtain all outstanding recipe information from the relevant departments and ensure they are correctly uploaded.
• Validate existing recipes to ensure quantities, ingredients, yields, and costing information are accurate.
• Regularly review recipes for cost changes and discrepancies.
• Report significant recipe-cost variances to management.

Production Monitoring and Reporting:

• Collect production records from all relevant production departments.
• Ensure daily or periodic production information is accurately entered into the cost control system (software).
• Review production inputs and outputs to determine expected versus actual yields.
• Identify unusual production variances, wastage, shortages, or inconsistencies.
• Investigate material discrepancies in conjunction with the relevant department.
• Prepare production variance reports for management.

Inventory and Stock Control:

• Regularly review stock records across stores and operational departments.
• Conduct or participate in physical stock counts.
• Compare physical stock quantities against quantities recorded on the system (software).
• Identify and investigate stock variances.
• Validate stock balances and ensure discrepancies are appropriately reported and resolved.
• Monitor stock movements to identify unusual consumption, wastage, shortages, or other cost-control concerns.

Purchase Price Monitoring:

• Review purchase prices of raw materials and other relevant inventory items.
• Compare current purchase prices against previous purchases and established costs.
• Identify significant price increases or unusual fluctuations.
• Work with Procurement and Finance to understand material price changes.
• Maintain appropriate purchase-price comparison and variance records.

Variance Analysis:

The Cost Controller will monitor and report variances relating to:

• Stock and inventory
• Recipes and recipe costing
• Production inputs and outputs
• Raw material prices
• Food and beverage costs
• Actual versus system stock
• Consumption and wastage
• Significant variances must be investigated and escalated to the appropriate management members.

Cost Control Reporting:

Prepare and submit comprehensive cost-control reports on a:

• Bi-weekly basis
• Monthly basis
• Other periodic basis as required by management

Educational Qualifications

• Minimum Bachelor's Degree or HND in Accounting, Finance, Business Administration, or a related discipline.
• Specialisation or professional training in Cost Accounting, Cost Control, Inventory Management, or a related area will be an advantage.

Experience Requirements:

• Relevant experience in cost control within the hospitality, restaurant, food service, or related industry is required.
• Experience working within a multi-department restaurant or hospitality operation is strongly preferred.
• Candidates should have practical exposure to food and beverage costing, inventory control, recipe costing, production monitoring, and variance analysis.
• Experience working in an operation comprising multiple production and service areas, such as restaurant kitchens, pastry, bakery, ice cream, bar, beverage, and related departments, will be an advantage.
• Strong understanding of hospitality inventory and cost-control systems is required.

Skills and Competencies:

The successful candidate should possess:

• Strong numerical and analytical skills
• Excellent attention to detail
• Strong understanding of cost and inventory controls
• Recipe costing and food-cost analysis skills
• Production and yield analysis skills
• Purchase-price variance analysis
• Inventory reconciliation skills
• Strong reporting capabilities
• Ability to investigate discrepancies objectively
• Ability to work effectively with Finance and Operations teams
• Strong communication and follow-up skills
• Ability to work with cost-control and inventory management systems
• Good Microsoft Excel skills
• High level of integrity and accountability

Initial Performance Expectations:

• The successful candidate will be expected to develop a strong understanding of the company's cost-control processes and system within 2026.

The initial priorities will include:

• Understanding and mastering the cost-control system (software).
• Reviewing and validating existing recipes.
• Completing all missing recipes on the system.
• Establishing accurate production reporting across departments.
• Reconciling physical stock against system stock.
• Monitoring raw-material purchase-price movements.
• Establishing consistent variance analysis and reporting.
• Producing reliable bi-weekly and monthly management reports.

Note: Salary is subject to experience and interview assessment.