Financial Administrator (Group)

About the role

LIONLEAD Real Estate is a multi-entity property group operating across sales, rentals and property management on the Atlantic Seaboard, with branches under a group structure. We're appointing a Group Financial Administrator to take ownership of day-to-day finance across our entities, working under the oversight of the founder and our external accountants and auditors.

This is a hands-on, full-cycle finance role — not a pure data-capture position. You'll be the person who keeps the group's books accurate, current and audit-ready across multiple companies, including the bookkeeping discipline required for property trust accounting.

Reports to: Founder / Managing Director, with external accountants and auditors providing review and sign-off.
Location: Cape Town (111 Waterkant Street, De Waterkant). In-office.
Start date: As soon as possible.

What you'll own

Accounts payable & receivable
• Capture and process supplier invoices, staff claims and expenses across all group entities
• Raise sales and commission invoices and manage debtor follow-ups
• Maintain clean, correctly coded transactions in line with the group chart of accounts

Banking & reconciliations
• Daily and weekly bank reconciliations across all group bank accounts
• Reconcile inter-company transactions between entities
• Prepare payment batches for authorisation (you prepare; you do not hold sole payment-authorisation rights)

Payroll
• Run monthly payroll in SimplePay, including new starters, terminations and statutory deductions
• Reconcile payroll to the general ledger and ensure PAYE, UIF and SDL submissions are prepared on time

Property trust & rentals finance
• Maintain rental and trust-account bookkeeping records in coordination with WeConnectU as the lease system of record
• Reconcile trust-account movements and flag exceptions for review
• Support the trust-account audit process required under property-practitioner regulations

Multi-entity bookkeeping & month-end
• Maintain full-cycle books for each group entity (LIONLEAD Real Estate, Tiger Finance, Flipfund and future entities)
• Prepare monthly management figures and reconciliations for review by the external accountants and the MD
• Keep VAT records accurate and submission-ready, and prepare supporting schedules

Compliance & audit support
• Maintain orderly, complete records so external accountants and auditors can work efficiently
• Prepare year-end and audit packs under the accountants' direction
• Keep statutory deadlines (VAT, payroll taxes, returns) tracked and met

Systems
• Xero — group accounting (source of truth)
• SimplePay — payroll
• WeConnectU — rentals, lease and trust data
• Bank platforms for reconciliations and payment preparation

Essential
• A relevant bookkeeping or accounting qualification (ICB, diploma or equivalent) and proven full-cycle experience
• Demonstrated experience reconciling bank accounts and preparing books to trial-balance / management-accounts stage
• Hands-on Xero experience
• Strong attention to detail and the discipline to keep multiple entities clean simultaneously
• Ability to work independently with light supervision, and to flag issues early rather than hide them

Strong advantage
• Experience in a property, estate agency or rentals environment
• Exposure to trust accounting and the related audit requirements
• SimplePay payroll experience
• Multi-entity or group bookkeeping experience

Who fits
You're organised, trustworthy and self-directed — comfortable being the most senior finance person in the room day-to-day, while knowing when to escalate to the accountants or the MD. You take ownership of accuracy and deadlines without being chased.