Transfer pricing jobs focus on the internal movement of goods between multiple departments within a company. Jobs include the director, which is an upper management position; operations manager, who is responsible for moving goods through the company; pricing analyst, who reviews the transfer prices charged; and cost accountant, who reviews financial information and records it into the company’s general ledger. These positions work with intercompany relations, as the positions and tasks do not typically involve external activities such as customer retention or marketing.
Large organizations and publicly held companies are primary users of transfer pricing and transfer pricing jobs. The purpose of this activity is to cost products based on physical goods produced or altered in a company’s production process. For example, a company that makes saxophones will have a few different types of production procedures, such as cutting, molding, installation and refining. Each process results in costs directly attributed to transforming raw materials into usable parts that will result in a finished good. The costs of these individual processes are then transferred to the next department, which results in a total product cost.
The director of transfer pricing in a company prepares overarching policies for this business function. Among the transfer pricing jobs, this is commonly the highest level within a company. Multiple departments or production processes require the management of prices charge to each department. Directors will work with other senior level executives to ensure the company’s products are accurately costed. This makes the company’s products more competitively priced in the economic world.
An operations manager typically reports to the transfer pricing director, although this may be secondary to the direction of a chief operations officer. An operations manager is responsible for the actual transfer of the physical products from one department to the next. This individual is also responsible for approving the costs applied to goods produced. Operations managers may also be responsible for finding low cost materials or alternate vendors to supply the company with needed resources for the production process.
Transfer pricing jobs will also include transfer pricing analysts. This position is responsible for reviewing intercompany transfers and analyzing the costs transferred from one department to the next. Analysts will also make recommendations for improving the company’s transfer pricing process and planning changes as different goods enter the company’s production line. Price transfer analysts will also work closely with the company’s accounting department. The accounting department may include cost accounting positions that work in conjunction with the transfer pricing jobs. Although not as technical, they do provide an analysis on the flow of goods and costs within a company.