About this role
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Position
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Financial Accountant
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Date
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September 2025
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Reports to
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Finance Manager
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Position location
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Brisbane, QLD — with periodic travel to Darwin, NT and field operations
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Direct reports
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No reports
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Approx. travel
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<5%
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Company Overview
Daly Waters is a leading upstream company focused on the Beetaloo Sub-basin, backed by Formentera Partners, an Austin, Texas based energy private equity firm. Daly Waters entered the Beetaloo Basin in 2022 through a 50/50 joint venture with Tamboran Resources (NYSE: TBN). Formentera Partners is an independent energy private equity platform managing four funds (>US$2.5B). Formentera’s expansive development and production experience across all major US shale basins is leveraged to deliver reliable, efficient, and technically driven operations to optimize value and performance across diverse assets.
Daly Waters is poised to take over operatorship of some of the most prospective acreage within the Beetaloo and has an exciting growth trajectory for 2026 and beyond.
Position Overview
The Financial Accountant is a core member of the DWE Finance team, reporting to the Senior Financial Accountant (SFA) and taking ownership of the day-to-day accounting function across DWE's 13 legal entities. This role sits at the operational heart of Finance — responsible for month-end close, accounts payable, bank reconciliations, regulatory compliance, and fixed asset management — freeing the SFA to focus on technical accounting, financial reporting, and investor-facing outputs.
The Financial Accountant joins DWE at the operatorship commencement stage. The role grows with the Company through to FID and beyond, with genuine career progression into a Senior Financial Accountant and ultimately Financial Controller / Head of Finance as DWE scales. From day one, the incumbent is expected to take full ownership of their outputs — not to be supervised through them.
DWE is an ideal place to build an accounting career in upstream oil and gas. You will work on real accounting problems across 13 legal entities, multiple exploration permits, and a live joint venture — with a level of autonomy and visibility that a comparable role in a large corporate would not provide. In return, DWE expects a 'can do, don't mind doing' attitude — the routine bank reconciliation receives the same attention as the complex accounting judgement.
Position Job Duties
Financial Close and Month-End
- Prepare and post month-end journals including accruals, prepayments, depreciation charges, and intercompany eliminations across all DWE entities.
- Maintain period-close checklists and track completion of all reconciliations against the agreed close timetable.
- Reconcile all assigned balance sheet accounts within agreed timelines; escalate aged or unexplained items to the SFA without waiting for review to surface them.
- Investigate unusual transactions or movements and obtain adequate explanation before the close is finalised.
- Continuously improve close documentation and process notes so that close procedures are repeatable and auditable.
Accounts Payable and Payment Processing
- Process supplier invoices promptly, performing three-way matching (purchase order, goods receipt, invoice) and obtaining required approvals per DWE's Delegation of Authority matrix.
- Prepare weekly and fortnightly payment runs for SFA review; ensure no payments are processed without appropriate approval documentation on file.
- Maintain aged payables with no unexplained items beyond 60 days; escalate disputed or aged invoices to the relevant operational lead for resolution.
- Manage the DWE vendor master file — new vendor onboarding, ABN verification, banking detail changes — with appropriate controls and segregation to prevent fraud.
- Prepare regular supplier statement reconciliations for key vendors and resolve discrepancies before month-end.
Bank Reconciliation and Cash Management
- Reconcile all DWE bank accounts (operating, exploration, and JV) on a daily/weekly basis.
- Investigate and clear all unreconciled items before month-end close; do not carry reconciling items forward without SFA approval and a documented explanation.
- Maintain a daily cash position summary across all accounts for Finance Manager review.
- Process and allocate incoming receipts and outgoing payments accurately and on a timely basis.
Regulatory and Statutory Compliance
- Prepare and lodge NTGS production levies, ATO BAS and IAS returns, and ASIC annual statements under SFA supervision.
- Maintain a compliance lodgement calendar to ensure no deadline is missed across any of the 13 DWE entities.
- Prepare payroll tax reconciliations and supporting workpapers for SFA review and external adviser submission.
- Maintain accurate source data and reconciliation workpapers for all compliance lodgements; ensure information provided to advisers is complete and reconciled before submission.
Fixed Assets, AFE and Project Accounting
- Maintain the fixed asset register across all DWE entities, ensuring acquisitions, disposals, and depreciation are recorded accurately and on a timely basis.
- Code all capital and operating expenditure to the correct AFE, asset class, cost centre, and entity; raise queries with the operational team where classification is unclear.
- Prepare monthly AFE actual-versus-budget variance analysis and highlight movements exceeding agreed thresholds to the SFA.
- Maintain AFE commitment and accrual schedules, working with operational and commercial teams to ensure all committed but unprocessed expenditure is captured at month-end.
- Apply the DWE capitalisation policy consistently and flag any judgement items to the SFA for documented review and approval.
JV Accounting Support
- Maintain JV sub-ledger entries to ensure all expenditure is accurately coded by entity, JV interest, and AFE.
- Prepare data schedules and reconciliation workpapers to support the SFA-managed JV partner billing, cash call, and cost statement processes.
- Reconcile JV accounts to SFA-approved billing statements; investigate and resolve discrepancies before distribution to partners.
- Maintain supporting documentation for all JV transactions at an audit-ready standard at all times, not just at year-end.
- Assist the SFA in responding to JV partner data queries where the underlying transaction data is within the Financial Accountant's area of responsibility.
Audit Readiness and Record Keeping
- Maintain all accounting records and supporting documentation on a current basis to audit-ready standard — as an ongoing discipline, not as a year-end remediation exercise.
- Prepare audit PBC schedules and workpapers as directed by the SFA; respond to auditor queries with accurate and well-referenced documentation.
- Escalate any discrepancies or documentation gaps identified during audit preparation to the SFA immediately rather than attempting to resolve them unilaterally.
- Implement process improvements identified through audit or internal review to prevent recurrence.
Systems, Processes and Documentation
- Develop and maintain proficiency in DWE's ERP and supporting financial systems as they are implemented and expanded.
- Maintain current process documentation for all recurring Finance tasks within scope; documentation must be usable by a replacement without handover.
- Identify inefficient or manual processes and raise improvement proposals to the SFA with a suggested solution, not just the problem.
- Support ERP implementation activities as directed, including data entry, reconciliation of migrated balances, and testing of system workflows.
Essential Skills and Experience
Essential
- Bachelor degree in Accounting, Finance, Commerce, or related discipline.
- CA ANZ or CPA qualified, or in final stages of qualification (active study required).
- 3–5 years of accounting experience, with demonstrated ownership of month-end close, AP, and bank reconciliations.
- Proven ability to manage competing deadlines and maintain accurate records without close supervision.
- Working knowledge of at least one ERP or accounting system (SAP, NetSuite, MYOB, Xero, or similar).
- Strong Excel skills — pivot tables, VLOOKUP/XLOOKUP, reconciliation modelling.
Highly Regarded
- Experience in resources, mining, or upstream oil and gas.
- Exposure to joint venture accounting, cost-recovery billing, or AFE administration.
- Familiarity with AASB 6 (exploration and evaluation assets) or AASB 116 (PP&E).
- Experience supporting an external audit — PBC preparation and query resolution.
- Experience in a lean or high-growth team where personal initiative and role breadth were requiredDWE employment may require background checks and/or other testing.
Daly Waters Energy is an equal opportunity employer. We welcome applications from all backgrounds and do not discriminate on the basis of race, colour, religion, sex, age, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, disability, or any other attribute protected under applicable Australian law.
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