Inventory Accounting Lead

Job Description

Job Description

Title: Inventory Accounting Lead

Reports to:  VP Finance

Location: Bentonville, Arkansas – Onsite 

Employment: Full-time, Exempt

About the Role 

Rafar Group Companies is seeking a hands-on Inventory Lead to maintain accurate inventory quantities, costs, and financial records across multiple companies and brands. You will oversee inventory from goods in transit through on-hand balances and cost of goods sold, while supervising one Inventory Support team member.

You will work with Accounting, AP, Logistics, Sourcing, and warehouse partners to connect physical inventory activity to financial records. You will identify missing costs, cutoff issues, and valuation risks early, explain their financial impact, and drive resolution before month-end. Accounting policy and material valuation decisions remain subject to review by the Senior Accounting Manager and VP of Finance

Key Responsibilities

• Reconcile inventory quantities and movements by item and location across accounting systems, warehouse and third-party logistics records, and shipment data. Investigate receipt, transfer, return, shipment, and adjustment differences, including negative quantities and duplicate or unmatched transactions.
• Prepare monthly first-in, first-out (FIFO) on-hand valuation and in-transit schedules under approved accounting policies. Validate receipt layers, quantities, ownership, cutoff, and container status to prevent omissions or double counting.
• Reconcile product costs, freight, duties, tariffs, and other approved landed costs to receipts and inventory. Match broker activity and CBP Form 7501 entry summaries to shipments, investigate missing documentation or allocation differences, and coordinate cost accruals with AP and Accounting.
• Tie inventory valuations and subledgers to the general ledger. Prepare supported accruals, reclassifications, and adjustment recommendations for approval, and investigate cost-of-goods-sold and margin exceptions.
• Review inventory aging, sales velocity, and recoverability throughout the month. Identify slow-moving, excess, obsolete, damaged, discontinued, or otherwise at-risk inventory, and work with commercial and operational teams on sell-through, markdown, or disposition plans.
• Maintain reserve calculations and roll forwards under approved policy. Document assumptions, recommend additions, releases, and write-offs for approval, and reconcile approved reserves to the general ledger.
• Coordinate physical-count and cycle-count support with Operations. Investigate variances and document approved adjustments while warehouse teams retain responsibility for physical inventory operations.
• Maintain audit-ready support for quantities, valuation, landed costs, cutoff, in-transit balances, reserves, and count results. Coordinate audit requests through the Senior Accounting Manager and track findings through resolution.
• Assign priorities to the Inventory Support team member, provide training and feedback, review their work, and maintain procedures and backup coverage while remaining actively involved in inventory accounting and exception resolution.
• Learn the inventory and accounting systems, including Exenta, NetSuite, and Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central, along with warehouse feeds and reporting tools. Improve receipt matching, cost allocation, reconciliations, and valuation workflows by using existing capabilities and recommending practical enhancements.
• Identify opportunities to automate recurring work and use approved AI tools for document extraction, matching, reconciliation, and exception reporting. Validate outputs against supporting records, protect confidential information, and maintain accounting controls, approvals, and an audit trail.
• Own weekly EOS scorecard updates for assigned inventory measures. Validate the data, compare results with agreed targets, and bring exceptions, valuation risks, corrective actions, and progress on prior commitments to team meetings.

Qualifications

• 8+ years of inventory accounting, costing, or related accounting operations experience, including hands-on reconciliations and month-end close. Experience in wholesale apparel or consumer products is preferred.
• Experience with FIFO valuation, landed costs, in-transit inventory, cost of goods sold, inventory reserves, and receipt and shipment cutoff.
• Ability to connect item-level and warehouse activity to financial records, investigate differences, and maintain audit-ready support.
• Strong Excel, reconciliation, and data analysis skills, with the ability to improve manual processes through connected systems and repeatable reporting.
• Experience training or supervising a support team member, coordinating with operational teams, and explaining inventory and cost issues clearly.
• Experience with imported inventory, customs documentation, multi-entity accounting, or third-party warehouses is a plus.
• Experience with Exenta, Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central, NetSuite, or a similar system is preferred. Familiarity with reporting, automation, or AI tools is helpful.

 

About Rafar Group Companies

Rafar Group Companies is the parent organization behind Gelmart Industries, Rafar Brands, Fullstride, and Rafar Manufacturing. Our businesses span intimate apparel wholesale, brands, and manufacturing. This role supports Gelmart's wholesale business within Rafar's broader finance organization.

Our core values are Be Adaptable, Have High Standards, Play for Each Other, and Focus on the Outcome . We use EOS, the Entrepreneurial Operating System, to set quarterly priorities, review performance, and resolve issues in regular team meetings. We look for people who take ownership, collaborate across teams, raise issues early, and follow through on commitments.

The Rafar Group is an Equal Opportunity Employer. We are committed to providing equal employment opportunities to all employees and applicants without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, age, national origin, disability, genetic information, marital status, citizenship, veteran status, or any other characteristic protected by federal, state, or local law.