What makes accounting for a manufacturing business different?
Yorkshire’s full of great manufacturers – and they all want one thing: accountants who get it.
But what makes accounting for a manufacturing business different? The truth is, there are a lot of nuances.
It’s Physical
- You’re dealing with real things, raw materials, machines, parts, people. When something goes wrong, it doesn’t just show up as a variance a week later, you can hear about it the same day.
It’s Operational
- You end up learning how the business runs.
- How production links to supply chain, how downtime affects margin, and how stock flow impacts working capital.
- You’re talking to logistics, stores, engineering – there’s few sectors where accountants are quite so “under the hood”.
It’s Technical too
- Standard costing, WIP accounting, overhead recovery – there’s a lot of technicalities and reports which you might not be used to if you are unfamiliar to the sector.
- You’re constantly analysing gross margin, breaking down variances, spotting inefficiencies and helping the team get costs back on track, and the detail matters.
Capex and asset control
- Manufacturing is usually asset heavy. New machinery, plant upgrades, production line extensions – all of that comes through finance. Through tracking spend, managing depreciation and reviewing ROI you’re helping the business make decisions on where to invest next.
There’s often a global element
- Manufacturing businesses regularly import components, build a product, and sell it overseas, which means FX exposure, duty, freight, import and export regulations and all sorts of complexity that other sectors which import (such as retail) might only scratch the surface of.
It’s not for everyone – but it has its benefits
There are expectations that would make a Gen Z accountant used to working for tech firms’ shudder (Early starts, 100% office-based culture). But it’s an in-demand skill set, business owners and senior leadership teams in the sector want to hire accountants who understand their business, so if you master all the above you shouldn’t find it too hard to secure your next role.
