Plant Finance & Cost Accounting Consultant

Position: Plant Finance & Cost Accounting Consultant

Reports to: Director of Finance Operations

Locations: [Shakopee, MN OR Salt Lake City, UT]

Duration & Type: 6 – 12-month contract, Full-time Monday – Friday; Onsite

Company: Privately held, contract manufacture of food products

Compensation: [TBD]

Chamberlain Advisors is seeking a hands-on, detail-oriented Plant Finance & Cost Accounting professional who will be accountable for tracking, monitoring, and accurately tracking costs associated with a plant closure. In this position, you will partner with engineering, operations, maintenance, procurement, and corporate accounting teams to ensure closure-related expenses are properly identified and coded while maintaining clear visibility into equipment transfers and their associated financial implications. Success in this role requires a proactive approach to monitoring plant purchase requisitions and expenses to enforce cost controls, ensuring disciplined oversight of both operational and transition costs through consistent weekly tracking mechanisms. Rather than operating passively behind reporting tools, you will identify unusual activity early and address potential issues before they impact financial results by asking thoughtful, direct questions and demonstrating the emotional intelligence needed to operate independently within a manufacturing environment during a plant transition.

Differentiators: experience in the following areas will set you apart in the selection process

• SAP HANA/S4: hands-on proficiency in SAP S/4HANA, with the ability to navigate and extract data across financial and procurement functions to reconcile purchase orders, cost centers, and asset movements during a plant closure.
• Plant Cost Oversight & Purchase Order Governance: You will enforce disciplined cost control by proactively reviewing SAP purchase requisitions and maintaining a weekly reporting cadence to ensure all expenditures—distinguishing between operational and closure costs—are necessary and approved before company funds are committed.
• Plant Closure & Asset Transition Accounting: In collaboration with Engineering and Corporate Accounting, you will manage the accurate tracking, reconciliation, and GAAP-compliant coding of all financial activities related to asset transfers, equipment relocation, and shutdown-related disposal expenses.
• Financial Controls & Operational Visibility: By analyzing labor, production volumes, and expense trends, you will maintain robust reporting mechanisms to identify misclassifications and provide critical financial clarity during sensitive operational transitions.
• Cross-Functional Partnership: Serving as a high-EQ on-site liaison, you will proactively engage with plant leadership and diverse technical teams to clarify spend and navigate the complexities of a transitioning manufacturing environment with professional composure.
  
  

What You Will Be Accountable For Accomplishing

Manufacturing Cost Control & Expense Governance

• Manage total plant financial integrity by analyzing standard costing systems (BOM and routing accuracy) and monitoring production variances (labor, material, overhead) to identify inefficiencies.
• Enforce disciplined purchase governance by reviewing SAP requisitions and orders to ensure cost controls are followed and appropriate approvals are secured before committing funds.
• Drive proactive cost oversight by questioning unusual or non-standard expenses—including miscoded or at-risk items in the PO stream—to resolve issues before they become incurred costs.
• Execute precise cost segmentation by differentiating and accurately coding plant shutdown, relocation, and one-off costs from recurring operating expenses in compliance with ASC 420 and company policy.
• Oversee inventory and asset accuracy, coordinating cycle counts and physical audits to minimize shrinkage while ensuring production volumes and throughput align with financial expectations.
• Lead continuous improvement and forecasting by analyzing Purchase Price Variances (PPV) and Material Usage Variances (MUV) to provide data-driven insights for monthly forecasting and margin-improvement goals.
  
  

Plant Closure & Asset Transition Accounting

• Partner with Engineering and Corporate Accounting to track plant asset movements, ensuring alignment between operational activity and the General Ledger.
• Maintain and reconcile asset registers related to equipment relocation, including updates for transfers, disposals, and write-offs tied specifically to the closure.
• Accurately code and monitor all costs associated with asset transfers, disposal, shutdown activities, and labor allocations in compliance with GAAP and ASC 420 considerations.
• Support operational cutoffs and closure-related financial tracking to provide a clean transition of assets and liabilities.
  
  

Financial Controls & Operational Visibility

• Maintain a detailed, Excel-based weekly cost tracking file that integrates SAP/ERP data, purchase orders, invoices, and asset register movements.
• Extract, reconcile, and analyze SAP (or Oracle) reports related to POs, GR/IR, cost centers, and assets; you will investigate discrepancies and clarify unusual items with stakeholders.
• Analyze labor reporting and production volumes to ensure alignment with cost expectations and identify out-of-control cost centers.
• Provide critical visibility into expenses that could otherwise be misclassified (e.g., closure costs incorrectly coded to repairs & maintenance) to support financial clarity during a sensitive period.
• Perform ad hoc analysis on closure cost scenarios—such as timing, vendor options, and contract exits—to support decision-making for the Controller or CFO.
  
  

Cross-Functional Partnership & Leadership Reporting

• Serve as the on-site plant finance partner to plant leadership, engineering, maintenance, procurement, and corporate finance.
• Partner with the Controller to produce concise weekly summaries of closure costs, variances vs. plan, and emerging risks for review by finance leadership and the CFO.
• Coordinate with operations and procurement to understand upcoming closure activities, ensuring associated costs are anticipated and correctly captured in the tracking model.
• Navigate sensitive employee environments with strong emotional intelligence, professionalism, and composure while engaging proactively with personnel to clarify spend.
  
  

What Qualifications You Will Need

• Bachelor’s degree in Accounting or Finance and 3–5 years of cost accounting experience within a manufacturing, plant, or food production environment ($100M - $400M company revenue; $15M - $30M plant revenue preferred).
• Plant Closure Expertise (Highly Preferred): Specialized experience managing plant shutdowns with a focus on ASC 420 (liabilities, termination benefits, contract exits) and the ability to strictly segregate restructuring costs from standard operational "tail" expenses.
• Proficiency in asset & inventory governance: fixed asset verification, impairment testing, and "buy-to-zero" inventory management, including the proper accounting treatment for asset disposal versus relocation and interplant transfers.
• Strong proficiency in SAP S/4HANA (preferred) or comparable systems such as Oracle or JD Edwards.
• Advanced skills in building and maintaining complex tracking models using lookups, pivot tables, and data filters.
• Deep understanding of procurement controllership and the purchase order lifecycle, with specific experience managing the resolution of open commitments and non-operational costs during a wind-down period.
• Ability to operate independently with high emotional intelligence and professionalism in a sensitive, transitioning manufacturing environment.
  
  

About Our Client

Our client is a leading North American contract manufacturing partner serving prominent food and consumer packaged goods brands. With more than 15 years of industry experience, the company has built a reputation for operational excellence, quality, and scalable growth. Today, it operates a broad network of manufacturing facilities across the continent, producing a diverse portfolio of food products enjoyed by millions of consumers. Our client partners with established brands across multiple categories, including snacks, baked goods, nutritional products, fresh offerings, and frozen items. Its commitment to continuous improvement, innovation, and customer partnership has positioned it as one of the fastest-growing platforms within the sector.