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I am currently a senior finance manager in a fast paced organisation and looking for the next step up to progress my career – hopefully in Australia. My current role involves a good mix of financial reporting, business partnering, systems improvements, an offshoring project and training and mentoring on and offshore finance and non-finance people. I am fortunate enough to work in the media sector which I absolutely love, and a large portion of my time involves working with non-finance people.
Profile
I am currently a senior finance manager in a fast paced organisation and looking for the next step up to progress my career – hopefully in Australia. My current role involves a good mix of financial reporting, business partnering, systems improvements, an offshoring project and training and mentoring on and offshore finance and non-finance people. I am fortunate enough to work in the media sector which I absolutely love, and a large portion of my time involves working with non-finance people.
It is dynamic and fast paced, and working with passionate creatives who are proud of what they do it infectious. In an ideal world I would stay in media, which is a varied sector including:
– Television and production agencies
– Radio and music organisations
– Advertising, creative, design and marketing agencies
Qualifications
Post graduate finance degree (South Africa)
ACCA qualified (started December 2010 and completed in June 2011)
Languages
Languages: English and Afrikaans (Fluent in both) Currently learning Dutch and Spanish
IT Skills
Systems: Coda, Cognos, Essbase, Hyperion, Jasper Soft, JDE and Oracle. Microsoft excel and power point
Career Summary
TAG (Branding and adverting) – London (Part of Deutsche Post DHL)
October 2012 – Present:
Senior Finance Manager – Reporting to Finance Director (Turnover £190m)
Achievements:
• Tidy up ledger after a poorly planned changeover of reporting systems and data after acquisition
• Taking lead in implementation of new accounting package and reporting therefrom
• Designed training programme for off-shore process and providing training
• Provided financial training to business and account directors to encourage P&L ownership
Tasks:
• On a daily basis providing financial support to 4 diverse entities with numerous trading and overhead cost centres, including:
– Analysis of margins on jobs, both during production to encourage cost control and after completion to determine if the price quoted was sufficient and costs were controlled. Inefficiencies are highlighted through this.
– Regular view of WIP with account directors to reduce aged WIP and encourage billing to improve cash flow
– Having regular meetings with business directors to get an update on business trends, possible new business, staff updates, etc
The entities include:
– A fully functioning studio that also offers creative development, proofing, retouching and post-production services
– An agency offering integrated packaging and point-of-sale graphics solutions
– Global communication strategy agency
– Production agency specialising in publishing, advertising and digital editions
• On a monthly basis the preparation/review of 4 sets of management accounts and financial reporting packs, as well as their presentation at the board meetings. Being the key contact for queries on the results.
• Meeting DHL reporting requirements during and after month end and ensuring adherence to their policies. This includes submitting a mid-month forecast. As I have a good understanding of what each of my entities is working on, the outwork related to large jobs and staffing levels I am able to submit it with very little input from the business directors. This allows them to concentrate on revenue earning activities rather than spending time on mandatory financial submissions.
• Attending board meetings to discuss financial performance, new business and lost opportunities and its group impact and being financial rational between business directors and COO
• On a half year basis working with the business directors to prepare a forecast/plan for the next 2.5 years, with commentary to explain rational behind numbers as well as risks and opportunities. It is critical that business directors take ownership of their numbers, including forecasts and budgets; as such I work with them in detail through the numbers, what will be expected from the group and how best we can achieve them.
• On a yearly basis working with the business to prepare a detailed budget by cost centre, challenging numbers given to ensure there is sufficient challenge but not unrealistic estimates. Evaluating planned growth against the capex budget available.
• Setting sales targets for sales representatives, including factoring in an entity self-funded bonus element and the triggers for it to encourage growth. For example, new clients and growth in key clients.
• Conducting a clean-up after GL accounts after a messy acquisition and then setting up monthly financial reporting schedule, templates and reporting packs
• Working with international companies on loan accounts and reporting mismatches to prevent EBIT fines
• Streamlining international payroll charges to reduce amount of administration involved and improve information received
• Taking the lead in the implementation and testing of Essbase, championing it with others in the finance team and providing assistance in using it. Working with the finance support team to build financial reports that are in line with parent company requirements.
• Setting up the financial reporting of 6 joint ventures. Monitoring the amount spent on pitch costs incurred on their behalf vs current and expected returns.
• Preparing business cases for large investments that require board approval. Compiling scenarios and challenging the business directors to get the most robust estimate. Highlighting possible board concerns and synergies. Tracking returns/growth vs spend once the investment is in operation.
• Profit improvement planning and working with the entities to determine if there are ways they could work smarter to save time, admin and reduce errors
• Identifying business risks and ways to mitigate them in short and long term, such as the closing of a joint venture which had a revenue, margin and bad debt impact.
• Working with the AR/debtors team to reduce the balances and improve cash flow. I set up meetings between the AR leads and business directors to start communication and ensure the AR team were communicating with the correct people at the clients and what both could do encourage timely receipts. I asked for weekly AR commentary to be provided so that I can identify possible bad debt provision adjustments before they occur and take action as well as assist with cash flow forecasting.
• Working with the AP team to tidy-up intercompany balances, putting basic requirements in place to easily match amounts off and encouraging a system/report to flag up mismatches on a monthly basis. I worked with both the on and off-shore teams to work through the back log of payments due that had accumulated from the acquisition, to try and reduce costly urgent payment requests and disgruntled suppliers.
• Working with the auditors, preparing an audit file and being their point of contact for questions.
• Mentoring, training and managing the work load of four direct reports and four shared reports onshore.
• Training four shared operational reports on basic financial skills, such as approvals of payments and consequences of errors, setting up new cost centres and who to contact for basic financial related queries.
• Designing training program to move work offshore and providing training in person and via webex. Working with offshore finance team on a daily basis as they are responsible for the bulk of general ledger entries, and the AR and AP functions. I ensure their tasks are aligned to my priorities, try and anticipate possible issues before month end and monitor their work load. I am a point of contact to assist with queries ranging from general ledger allocations, AR receipts to be allocated; journal uploads errors and urgent manual payment queries.
• I have seven direct offshore reports that I need to ensure are competently trained and can share tasks to ensure back-ups are available when needed.
ITV (Television and programming) – London
July 2011 – July 2012
Contract: Finance Manager – Reporting to Financial Controller and Finance Director (Divisional turnover £25m)
Achievements:
• Transition of month end work from London to Manchester team
• Working on design and implementation of a new financial reporting platform
• Reducing month end reporting to provide value added information
Tasks:
• On a monthly basis:
– Preparation of month end accounts and detailed variance analysis
– Review of balance sheet reconciliations and workings prepared by Manchester team. Identifying and explaining errors in calculations and what to look for in trends
– Monthly reforecast preparation, including discussions with the sales and production team to ensure production spend appears realistic with sales and market expectations
– Meeting with credit manager to discuss current credit limits, trading activity, payments/non-payments and market information, and then update balance sheet provisions
– Reviewing marketing spend and joining marketing meetings to query the spend in relation to budget, prior year and the sales teams predictions compared to independent market predictions
– Fulfilling corporate reporting requirements, assisting in group queries and preparation of ad hoc documents required
• On a quarterly basis providing profitability analysis of investments in titles to acquisitions team for board review, taking into account any advances that need to be repaid before a profit can be realised
• On a yearly basis involved in a detailed P&L budget preparation and submission. Working with the sales, marketing and production departments to ensure the budget was realistic based on market trends. Working with non-finance departments in preparing more realistic budgets taking into current marketing conditions, trading history of the past few years and factors such as catalogues being another year older
• Mentoring, training and managing the work load of four direct reports, two in London and two in Manchester
• On a daily basis for transition of work:
– Handover of more routine tasks to Manchester office including training them and reviewing their work
– Review of month end accounting tasks such as journal postings and communicating changes to the business support services team (bookkeepers/accountants)
– Migration of financial data onto new system and reconciliation between the two systems. Providing detailed feedback and suggestions on the new system so far.
Karen Millen – London
May 2010 – March 2011
Contract: International Finance Manager – Reporting to Head of International Operations
(Division turnover of £80m of the company’s £175m)
Achievements:
• Set up the financial reporting side of the international business
• Training regional directors on the P&L, cost drivers and margins and encourage them to take ownership of their P&L’s
Tasks:
• On a monthly basis:
– Preparation/review of month end results, board pack and detailed variance analysis
– Review of transactions posted by two bookkeepers and monitoring their work loads
– Balance sheet and cash flow forecast review
– Intensive payroll analysis and staff hours vs store performance
• On a quarterly basis:
– Preparing detailed forecasts highlighting risks and opportunities, trends vs budget
– Hosting business review with European regional directors to assist them understand their regional performance of sales and margin and understanding their growth split between LFL and non-LFL stores
• Mentoring, training and managing the work load of three direct reports, one in London and two in Oxford (finance back office)
• Preparation of budget and 3 and 5 years plans for Europe, the USA and Australian markets
• Capex appraisals for new store proposals and refits of existing stores. Tracking capex spends to budget and warning of possible overspends. Working with various teams to ensure budget, deadline and stock requirements were met Tracking results after opening/refit vs capex submission
• On a daily basis:
– Providing financial support to European, Australian and US regional managers
– Working with non-finance departments to better understand and control costs, eg. visual merchandising team
Jarden Consumer Solutions (FMCG) – London
November 2009 – May 2010
Contract: Accountant – Reporting to Financial Controller (Divisional turnover £120m of US listed company)
Achievements:
• Developing 12 month cash flow projections
• Track returns from new products to determine their profitability compared to original estimates
• Calculating client profitability, taking into account their returns policy
Tasks:
• On a monthly basis:
– Preparation of month end reporting pack including detailed variance analysis for submission to US head office
– Monthly analysis of gross and direct margins and returns for supply chain team
• Preparation of monthly reforecast after discussions with the sales, marketing and supply chain teams
• Mentoring, training and managing the work load of one direct report
• Produced and updated 12 month cash flow forecasts in £, US $ and €
• Preparing capex appraisals for possible new products and analysing different scenarios for production and shipping costs
• Analysis of new products against forecast and actual
Levi Strauss: EMEA Head Quarters – Brussels
February 2009 – July 2009
Contract: Financial Analyst – Reporting to FP&A EMEA Director (Global turnover of over $4300m)
Achievements:
• Russia was a new market for the company, who I had to train and assist with reporting requirements and submissions
• Worked on a project to alignment the balance sheet figures between Hyperion and Essbase for each country
Tasks:
• On a monthly basis:
– Review of 3 European region results and assist in preparation of consolidated management reports for European board and US head office. Understanding variance and YTD results on YTG budget. Re-forecasting based on latest YTD results.
– Hold monthly financial review meetings and prepare financial reports and reforecasting for licensing, IT and HR teams
– Working with transfer pricing and tax departments to prepare EBT reports for US and provisional tax figures for accounting department
– Preparation of KPI reports – sales (brands, type, selling price, country), costs, headcount, type of store
• Working with countries on improving their submission process and reducing time and complexity of submission.
• Set up Russian finance reporting processes and assisted local team to fall in line with rest of EMEA. This involved setting up their access to the financial systems, explaining what data had to be loaded when and how as well as commentary required and other monthly submissions.
• Review of confidential information such as restructuring for reporting purposes
• Control of capex spending per company and Sarbanes-Oxley requirements
• Adhoc:
– Completing bench marking exercises and 5 year statistical tool to determine performance
– Working on project with US IT head to reduce telecommunication costs world wide
KPMG – Johannesburg
Involved in financial services division, specialising in investment and retirement funds
July 2007 – December 2008
Senior Auditor – Reporting to Partners and Senior managers
• Preparation of work schedule for new clerks indicating order audit work should be completed in and calculation of allocated time for audit sections. This improved the clerks productivity and overall recoveries on jobs
• Investment and retirement funds (DB and DC funds)
• Liaising with clients, monitoring budget and deadline requirement
• Training, supervising and reviewing work of clerks (Approximately 10 to 15 due to complexity of audits)
JS Brewin and Co
A partner managed firm, specialising in completion of financial audits and preparation of financial statements of turnovers approximating between £2000 and £14.4m/
July 2004 – June 2007
Senior Auditor – Reporting to Partner and Manager
• Audit of financial statements
• Accounts (Full BS and P/L) and financial statements preparation (including cash flow and disclosure notes)
• Tax calculations and completion of tax returns
• Training, supervising and reviewing work of clerks
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