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RH
Robert Half
Cost Accountant
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Based on California data
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What they do
A Cost Accountant analyzes the cost of company products or services, determines factors affecting costs, and makes recommendations for managing costs. Analyzes financial processes within a company or organization and develops internal cost reporting and accounting systems.
$91,680 / year median in California
-5% projected decline
Job Description
We are looking for a Cost Accountant to join our team in City of Industry, California and provide financial insight that supports sound manufacturing and commercial decisions. This position plays a key role in monitoring product and job costs, maintaining reliable inventory accounting, and helping business leaders understand margin performance across operations. The ideal candidate brings a solid foundation in cost accounting, hands-on experience in a manufacturing setting, and the ability to work closely with cross-functional teams to improve accuracy, controls, and profitability.
Responsibilities:
- Manage product and job costing records in Epicor Kinetic, including standard costs, cost structures, bills of material, routings, labor assumptions, and overhead allocations.
- Evaluate differences between expected and actual costs across materials, labor, freight, subcontracting, tariffs, and other manufacturing inputs, then identify drivers and recommend corrective actions.
- Review job activity, completion status, estimated total costs, and exception items to ensure financial results are recorded accurately and on time.
- Partner with Operations and Engineering to confirm the accuracy of labor standards, yields, scrap assumptions, cycle times, and manufacturing routings used in costing.
- Support financial evaluation for new products, design updates, sourcing alternatives, make-versus-buy decisions, and customer pricing considerations.
- Reconcile inventory, work-in-process, accrued receipts, purchase price variance, subcontract activity, and related manufacturing balances to the general ledger.
- Participate in month-end close by preparing journal entries, accruals, reconciliations, variance reporting, and profitability analysis for management review.
- Monitor inventory controls through cycle counts, physical inventory support, review of adjustments, and analysis of obsolete stock, rework, scrap, and transaction exceptions.
- Collaborate with plant and business stakeholders to turn cost and margin data into recommendations that improve pricing, sourcing, efficiency, and overall profitability.
- Assist with reporting enhancements, audit support, documentation of controls, and process standardization efforts across locations, including broader organizational and master-data improvement initiatives.