Accounts Payable Specialist

ZEISS in India

ZEISS in India is headquartered in Bengaluru and present in the fields of Industrial Quality Solutions, Research Microscopy Solutions, Medical Technology, Vision Care and Sports & Cine Optics.

ZEISS India has 3 production facilities, R&D center, Global IT services and about 40 Sales & Service offices in almost all Tier I and Tier II cities in India. With 2200+ employees and continued investments over 25 years in India, ZEISS’ success story in India is continuing at a rapid pace.

Further information at ZEISS India .

Purpose of the Role The Analyst owns the end-to-end execution of ZEISS India's international vendor payments and intercompany settlements: from invoice validation and tax/regulatory clearance through banking execution, reconciliation and closure of regulatory reporting. Beyond flawless execution, the role is expected to benchmark ZEISS India's cross-border payment process against world-class practice and drive measurable improvement in cycle time, straight-through processing, cost per transaction and compliance robustness. This is a hands-on role with a visible improvement mandate. The successful candidate will spend roughly 60–65% of their time on disciplined transaction execution and control, and 35–40% on process improvement, automation, stakeholder alignment and compliance strengthening. 3. Key Responsibilities 3.1 International (Cross-Border) Vendor Payment Processing • Execute the full cycle of foreign currency payments to global vendors — import of goods, import of services, royalties, licence fees, professional and technical fees, reimbursements, freight and logistics, and advance remittances. • Validate invoices against purchase orders, goods receipts and service entry sheets (three-way / two-way match), including verification of Incoterms, currency, payment terms, bank details and supporting documentation (Bill of Entry, Bill of Lading, contracts, SOWs, tax residency certificates, Form 10F, No-PE declarations). Page 1 ZEISS India — Job Description: Analyst, International & Intercompany Payments • Prepare, review and release payment proposals and payment runs across multiple currencies, banks and payment instruments (wire / telegraphic transfer, SWIFT, SEPA, ACH, cross-border cards where applicable). • Determine and apply the correct value dates, FX conversion basis, correspondent bank charge instructions (OUR / SHA / BEN) and payment references so that vendors can reconcile receipts without follow-up. • Manage payment rejections, returns, amendments, recalls, tracers and SWIFT gpi enquiries with banks and beneficiaries; drive root-cause closure rather than one-off fixes. • Own vendor payment queries end-to-end: acknowledge, investigate, resolve and communicate — with clear commitment dates and no unanswered ageing items. 3.2 Intercompany Payments and Settlement • Process intercompany payables to ZEISS affiliates in line with Group intercompany, transfer pricing and treasury policies, including netting, in-house cash / in-house bank settlement, and central payment factory routing where applicable. • Perform intercompany reconciliation: match open items against affiliate confirmations, investigate and clear mismatches, disputed items and ageing balances ahead of month-end and quarter-end deadlines. • Coordinate with affiliate finance teams and Group Treasury on settlement calendars, netting cycles, cut-offs and currency of settlement; escalate breaks that threaten Group consolidation timelines. • Ensure intercompany transactions carry correct documentation, agreements, and withholding tax treatment, and that intercompany balances tie out cleanly for statutory audit and transfer pricing documentation. 3.3 Banking Operations and Treasury Interface • Operate bank portals and host-to-host / SWIFT connectivity for payment initiation, authorisation workflow, status tracking and confirmation retrieval. • Prepare and submit banking documentation for outward remittances — Form A1 / A2 equivalents, purpose codes, invoice and contract sets, tax certificates — and follow through to bank clearance and closure. • Support daily cash positioning inputs by providing accurate, timely payment forecasts to Treasury; flag large-value or unusual remittances in advance. • Perform bank statement reconciliation for payment clearing accounts (electronic bank statement processing), clear open items and resolve unapplied or unidentified entries within agreed timelines. • Track and challenge bank charges, FX spreads and correspondent deductions; provide data to Treasury for banking partner reviews and pricing negotiations. • Support FX exposure management by supplying reliable payables exposure data by currency and expected settlement date. 3.4 Regulatory Compliance, Tax and Governance (India) • Ensure every outward remittance complies with the Foreign Exchange Management Act (FEMA), RBI Master Directions on Import of Goods and Services and Miscellaneous Remittances, and prescribed purpose codes. • Own the withholding tax workflow on foreign payments: Section 195 determination, DTAA benefit application, collection and validity checking of Tax Residency Certificates, Form 10F and beneficial ownership / No-PE declarations; coordinate Form 15CA and Form 15CB (CA certification) issuance and filing. • Ensure correct GST treatment on imports and import of services, including reverse charge mechanism liability, IGST on imports, and input tax credit eligibility documentation. • Monitor and close entries in IDPMS / EDPMS and outstanding Bill of Entry positions; ensure advance remittances are regularised within regulatory timelines and that no item ages into a compliance breach. • Maintain audit-ready documentation packs for every remittance and support statutory audit, internal audit, tax assessments, transfer pricing reviews and Group internal control testing. • Operate and evidence internal controls over payments: segregation of duties, maker-checker, delegation of authority limits, dual authorisation and payment release controls. • Apply and strengthen fraud-prevention controls — independent call-back verification of vendor bank detail changes, protection against business email compromise, sanctions and denied-party screening, and duplicate or ghost-vendor detection. Page 2 ZEISS India — Job Description: Analyst, International & Intercompany Payments 3.5 SAP S/4HANA and Systems • Execute the payables and payment cycle in SAP S/4HANA — invoice verification (MIRO), vendor and GL postings, payment proposals and runs (F110), payment media and bank file generation (DMEE / DMEEX), Bank Communication Management, and electronic bank statement clearing. • Work with master data and procurement teams on vendor master integrity: bank details, tax registrations, withholding tax codes, payment terms, blocked and duplicate vendor management. • Use and improve supporting platforms — invoice capture / OCR and workflow (e.g. OpenText VIM or equivalent), procurement and expense systems (e.g. SAP Ariba, Concur), treasury and reporting tools. • Partner with Finance Systems / IT on defect resolution, testing, and enhancement requests; participate as a business tester in upgrades, release cycles and new rollouts, including preparation of test scripts and sign-off documentation. • Build and maintain accurate payment and ageing reporting from SAP and BI tools; automate recurring reporting wherever a manual report is being rebuilt each cycle. 3.6 Continuous Improvement and Benchmarking • Map the current international and intercompany payment process end-to-end, quantify handoffs, rework loops, touch points and cycle time, and maintain the process documentation as a living asset (SOPs, process maps, control matrices, desktop procedures). • Benchmark ZEISS India's payment process against external best practice — peer multinationals, shared service and GBS benchmarks, banking partner practice, and published process benchmarks (e.g. APQC-type metrics) — and translate find