About this role
Cost Accounting ManagerLocation: Water St. Facility, Summerside, PEReports to: Chief Financial OfficerScope: Multi-site manufacturing operations across Prince Edward IslandCompensation: $ 85,000 - $95,000 per year, based on qualifications and experienceAbout ADLAmalgamated Dairies Limited (ADL) is a farmer-owned dairy cooperative headquartered in Prince Edward Island. Established in 1953, ADL processes more than 120 million litres of milk annually across five manufacturing facilities and employs over 350 staff members. We produce a range of dairy products, including milk, cheese, cream, butter, and canned milk, for our own brands and partner labels.As a farmer-owned cooperative, understanding our production costs and using resources efficiently is important to the long-term sustainability of our business and the value we provide to our members.
The OpportunityWe are looking for an experienced, hands-on Cost Accounting Manager to lead product and plant costing across ADL's manufacturing operations.A key priority is building a structured, reliable costing framework from our existing Excel-based and manual processes, giving Finance, Operations and leadership accurate and consistent cost information across our facilities. This is a role for someone who enjoys working directly with manufacturing operations, understanding what drives production costs, and turning financial analysis into practical improvements.
- You will partner closely with Plant Management and lead a team of three responsible for inventory, milk reporting, and maintenance and capital accounting.
- Key ResponsibilitiesBuild the Costing Framework (First 12-18 months)Assess existing costing tools and data sources across ADL's plants and develop an improvement roadmap, including preparing for a future ERP or costing-system implementation.
- Establish a documented standard costing methodology and costing models by plant, product and SKU (materials, packaging, labor, overhead, BOMs, yields and routings), replacing individual spreadsheets with controlled processes.
- Work with Operations to establish reliable data collection for production volumes, yields, downtime, labor hours and utilities.
- Develop and document overhead allocation methods for plant costs, including utilities, clean-in-place (CIP), maintenance, quality assurance, and cheese storage and aging.
- Ongoing Costing, Inventory & CapitalLead month-end costing, including inventory valuation, cost of goods sold, journal entries and reconciliations; maintain standard costs in line with ADL policy and ASPE; and support year-end audits.
- Oversee inventory counts and reconcile raw materials, work-in-process, aging cheese, and finished goods to financial records.
- Analyze cost variances (price, usage, yield, labor, overhead and purchase price) and work with Plant Management and Purchasing on corrective actions.
- Measure and report production losses, waste, shrink and product write-offs, and support Operations in reducing avoidable costs.
- Manage costing and cost allocation for by-products, including whey and cream, and calculate and maintain transfer prices between divisions in line with approved methodology.
- Oversee maintenance cost tracking by plant, line and asset (aligned with eMoint work orders) and capital expenditure accounting, including capitalization, assets under construction and depreciation.
- Milk Reporting & ComplianceOversee monthly milk utilization (MUV) reporting, reconciling milk receipts, components, classifications, production and inventory with product costing and inventory records.
- Lead preparation for Canadian Dairy Commission (CDC) audits, responses and follow-up.Business Partnering & ReportingProvide product and plant margin analysis, costing reports and performance indicators to Sales, Operations, executive management and the Board, including cost information for customer profitability analysis.
- Support pricing, quotations, new product development, make-versus-buy decisions and capital project evaluations thr