Principal R2R Controls Design Director — Journal Decision Traceability

The mandate

A finance service stores journal support and approval messages, but the retained record does not consistently explain why a particular accounting action was chosen. A correction can replace the visible support while leaving the original approval unexplained; a recurring journal can inherit an old rationale after its source condition changes. This consulting project will design a journal decision-traceability blueprint rather than operate the close. The four-month engagement starts on 26 October 2026 and ends with transferred artifacts accepted on 26 February 2027.

The blueprint must connect the originating event, source version, accounting rationale, approval authority and subsequent reversal or correction without erasing earlier decisions. It should distinguish a change in amount from a change in treatment and identify when an earlier approval no longer covers the proposed action. Accounting policy remains with the controller. The principal designs a practical evidence structure and worked decision paths under approved policy, including exceptions where the record is insufficient and an authorised professional judgement is still required.

Three milestones carry the fee: by 30 November 2026, a sampled decision-gap inventory and agreed journal-event model; by 15 January 2027, the blueprint, authority paths and unseen-case test pack; by 26 February 2027, reviewer-led pilot evidence and the maintained transfer package. Payments are 25%, 35% and 40% after the relevant artifact acceptance. Three weekly days are reserved for design and workshops. The sponsor supplies six reviewers, source owners and controls analysts, approved policies, redacted journal samples, access to existing evidence structures and timely decisions on unresolved authority questions.

The group controller and R2R services executive jointly accept the work. Their reviewers must trace unseen original, recurring, corrected and reversed journals, identify the approved decision and locate the source version without asking the principal for an oral explanation. Two pilot runs led by internal reviewers must produce consistent unresolved-case routes and preserve prior decisions when support changes. Acceptance concerns those reproducible tests, not a favourable audit opinion or a reduction in live close adjustments. Technology build, migration of historical archives, live journal approval and new accounting-policy formulation are excluded; additions require written scope, fee and calendar agreement before work begins.

What you will own

• Map sampled journal decisions into origin, source version, accounting rationale and authority gaps by the November milestone, distinguishing absent support from a documented judgement that remains valid under approved policy.
• Design an event-linked journal record that preserves original approval alongside later correction or reversal, ensuring changed support does not silently rewrite the reason for the earlier accounting action.
• Define authority paths for recurring and amended journals through controller-approved examples, identifying when a changed source condition requires fresh judgement rather than inheriting last month's review automatically.
• Build unseen-case tests covering source replacement, amount revision, treatment change and reversal linkage, with explicit expected evidence and unresolved routes that internal reviewers can reproduce independently.
• Facilitate reviewer workshops around the January blueprint, capturing different interpretations of approval scope and returning policy uncertainty to the controller instead of settling it through consultant preference.
• Run two internal-led pilot cycles through the agreed test pack, documenting whether reviewers locate the decision and retained source consistently without your personal explanation or intervention.
• Transfer the maintained blueprint, case library and ownership instructions at February acceptance, retaining a clear change route so later journal categories can be added without destroying historical decision traceability.

Candidate qualifications

• Present a journal-review or GL-governance example where a complete support pack did not explain the approved accounting decision. Show how you distinguished source facts, judgement and authority, including what happened when a journal was corrected or reversed. The principal role requires a practical design contribution that made later review possible, not simply a policy document declaring that every entry needs approval.
• Demonstrate 18–22 years in R2R or finance controls with senior-manager responsibility and substantial journal-entry review. CMA or equivalent applied accounting competence should underpin your grasp of rationale, reversal and recurring-entry risk. Project or improvement training is useful where it supports tested transfer. You must work within the controller's policy and be able to express an unresolved judgement without inventing an approval rule to complete the artifact.
• Explain a design acceptance test that internal accountants could repeat on cases they had not previously seen. Identify the input versions, expected evidence and reason a case would fail or require escalation. Experience with controlled shared-services, BFSI or manufacturing ledgers is relevant when it shows your ability to preserve decision history and usable reviewer paths across different source and journal categories.
• Commit three weekly days through the February transfer and show that you have handed a design to an internal owner who could maintain it. You should challenge inconsistent review habits respectfully, protect confidential ledger information and document policy questions separately from structural defects. Commercial discipline includes clear sponsor dependencies and written change control; acceptance must not depend on an audit result, a live close outcome or continued consultant participation.

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 14 October 2026. Mandate reference CVU-CON-2026-IND-167.