Multi-Framework Close and VAT Reconciliation Consultant

The mandate

The close process does not reliably explain how local statutory balances become international management reporting, particularly where VAT and service-contract adjustments intersect. The consultant will create a Multi-Framework Close and VAT Reconciliation Pack: controlled schedules, evidence requirements and reviewer decisions that make the bridge reproducible. The task is accounting operating design, not a general tax optimisation engagement.

The consultant commits three days weekly from 19 October 2026 for a four-month close-design and validation term. Mumbai workshops will identify the selected entity and reporting interfaces; remote work builds and tests schedules using controlled extracts. The perimeter is agreed before data collection, with explicit separation between Indian indirect-tax balances and overseas VAT regimes that require local policy-owner interpretation.

Milestone one, due 18 November 2026, contains the reporting-basis map, VAT balance inventory and signed reconciliation tolerances. By 18 January 2027, milestone two supplies tested close templates, exception classifications and a pilot framework bridge. Milestone three on 18 February 2027 is an accepted live-cycle pack, two trained reviewer replays and the transfer of open tax-policy issues to named owners.

The head of financial control and tax compliance owner jointly accept the work. Framework adjustments must have a traceable policy basis, VAT amounts must reconcile to ledger and supporting returns or transaction records, and unexplained netting must not conceal gross exceptions. Retained reviewers must reproduce the bridge and identify which differences require accounting correction versus specialist tax interpretation. The project cannot claim statutory assurance simply because its reconciliations are complete.

The sponsor supplies finance extracts, reporting policies, tax records and reviewer time, with access governed by confidentiality controls. The consultant does not submit VAT returns, defend assessments or issue cross-border legal opinions. Adding jurisdictions, historical periods or filing remediation requires a change order. Acceptance of the pack and internal replay closes the engagement, while any separately documented compliance matters remain with appointed tax and statutory owners.

What you will own

• Map local and international reporting bases, identifying adjustments whose source and approval are obscured, assigning reviewers and evidence requirements before the pilot close begins.
• Inventory VAT-related balances by jurisdiction, period and transaction evidence, preserving gross differences before netting and identifying items requiring specialist jurisdictional interpretation by tax owners.
• Construct reconciliation schedules distinguishing timing, accounting error, return mismatch and unresolved policy interpretation, with separate correction responsibilities and evidence tests for each exception class.
• Build a framework-adjustment journal trail linking calculations, policy references, reviewers and reporting destinations, enabling retained controllers to reject unsupported adjustments before consolidation submission.
• Pilot close execution and record where data, judgement or reviewer capacity prevents reproducibility, correcting the design or obtaining a documented sponsor-approved limitation before acceptance.
• Transfer the final pack, exception ownership and refresher instructions through witnessed retained-reviewer replays, using changed source records to test comprehension rather than memorised example completion.

Candidate qualifications

• Demonstrate eighteen or more years in accounting, reporting and audit coordination with substantive services-sector controllership experience. Provide a multi-framework close bridge you authored or redesigned, the most difficult adjustment and how reviewers verified its basis. Candidates should show operating ownership rather than only familiarity with international accounting terminology.
• Bring a recognised accounting qualification and practical command of Ind AS, IFRS or US GAAP interfaces appropriate to prior work. Explain a difference that required a documented accounting policy judgement rather than a balancing entry, and show how you preserved local statutory integrity while meeting group reporting requirements.
• Evidence VAT or indirect-tax reconciliation experience spanning transaction records, ledger balances and compliance schedules. Describe how you separated timing differences from potentially incorrect treatment, how specialist tax advice entered the process and why you refused unsupported netting. Knowledge of several regimes is useful, but no candidate is expected to replace jurisdiction-qualified tax advisers.
• Show delivery of accepted finance operating artifacts under fixed milestones, including defined tolerances, secured source data and retained-user training. Explain how you handled missing records or late policy decisions without misrepresenting completeness. The consultant must keep filing responsibility and statutory assurance outside the agreed accounting-design scope while leaving clear ownership of residual issues.

Application

Applications for this mandate are received in one way only: through the India Board Terminal's application process. It is automated end to end. Your Executive Passport travels to the mandate holder in its confidential form, your answers to the three questions below are read before anything else in your file, and every stage that follows is recorded on your applications page.

There is no address to write to and no intermediary to call. The mandate holder reads what the Terminal delivers and nothing else, which is what keeps the process the same for every applicant and keeps your name out of it until you release it. Applications close on 10 October 2026. Mandate reference PCT-CON-2026-IND-44.