Company is a £15m t/o group of executive recruitment companies based in Leeds and Strasbourg. They deal primarily with management and senior roles in a variety of markets. The role is as group FC for 5 companies and manages a team of 6 in the UK and 2 in France. The role was initially challenging due to difficulties faced by replacing an underperforming incumbent, which had eradicated team morale and had left the accounts in a seriously problematic state.

o Group management accounts, consolidations including overseas subsidiaries and branches
o Budgeting, forecasting, and cash flows
o Re-working all procedures and policies, introduction of team sessions, training, and mentoring
o Customer and supplier management
o Bank and stakeholder relationship building
o Re-building of accounts models and ledgers, as well as reporting and KPI solutions

Financial Reporting & Control Manager, DWP (contract)
Apr 2006 - Jun 2006

The BT role is supporting a team within their Openreach division, and has comprised two main functions. Firstly to cover a role whilst permanent recruitment was taking place, and more recently to take on project work relating to systems and financial understanding in preparation for an outsourcing deal that commences in summer 2007. Key points from the contract are as follows.

o Month-end reporting and analysis for £120m annual spend business units
o In-month project work to document financial process and gain understanding of underlying trends for managers
o Ad-hoc investigations and subsequent work to counter at-source errors where necessary
o Team representative on systems user group
o Organisation of team events and meetings, including getting 7 accountants to climb up a 175 foot microwave tower
o Automation of spreadsheets in preparation for outsourcing
o Re-building cross-team confidence and relationships

Revenue growth consultancy to blue chip clients in the UK, Europe, and North America. The company employs around 25 staff in the London office. I took sole charge of the finance function after the CFO left the company, and also have limited exposure to client projects where time allows.

o Creation and implementation of financial controls and procedures
o Financial management and consolidation of group accounts
o Monthly management accounts reports and analysis, and associated management information and KPI measures
o Budgeting and forecasting for group companies, on annual and rolling basis including P&L and cash flows

Non-finance responsibilities include

o IT management and day-to-day maintenance, plus long term strategy
o Property, insurances, staff benefits, payroll
o Negotiation of contracts and supplier relationships
o Assistant company secretary

During my time here I have also worked as an FSA Compliance Officer and Money Laundering Reporting Officer for two companies – Edengene Finance Ltd and AngelBourse Ltd.

CBI is an IT project management consultancy who assist large companies in relocations and refurbishments. The company works mainly in the UK but has undertaken projects globally. The company employs around 50 staff with a turnover of £6m. This autonomous role was newly created and involved :-

o Management of procedures and frameworks
o Implementation of new accounts software
o Balance sheet management and P&L reporting

Specific achievements included :-

o Reduced debtors from £2.5m to £0.5m, taking average age of debt from 70 days to under 30 through a policy of timely invoicing and client relationship management
o Supervision and development of timesheet database, along with resource management and project profitability
o Implementation of numerous Excel based models for non-finance managers to assist in project planning

Was a subsidiary of FTSE 100 company ABF. The core business was flour milling as part of the supply chain for the parent’s bakeries division as well as external customers. The management accounts team was around 10 strong in a company of over 400 employees. Turnover exceeded £250m per annum. My main responsibilities comprised :-

o Quarterly budgets and forecasts, consolidating the individual plans of multiple revenue-generating sites
o Analysis and commentary on market conditions, raw material trends, and competitors
o Liaison with other departments regarding revenue and costs, and ensuring managers received timely and accurate information
o Management of financial issues for one of the regional transport divisions

Was the parent company to Redbus Film Distribution and Films2, an internet project for online distribution of video-on-demand. The group expanded rapidly during my employment from 12 staff to over 50.

o Budgeting, forecasting, cash flow management, management accounts, group consolidation
o Project profitability assessments, designed spreadsheet model to simplify this procedure
o Assisting CFO in corporate financial strategy

Main contributions during this time :-

o Recruited and supervised the finance department of 3 staff
o Preparation of group for IPO
o Implementation of Sun Systems software, and previously Sage Line 50 to replace spreadsheet-based accounts
o Creation of systems, controls, procedures and reporting structures

Is involved in both film production and distribution in the UK and has financed a number of films. The company employed around 80 staff with a turnover in excess of £25m.

o Responsibility of all day-to-day financial issues and management accounting
o Analysing budgets for proposed film productions and calculating expected returns on investments
o Treasury and cash flow
o Authorising the financial aspects of legal contracts for distribution rights
o Development and management of royalty reporting including testing of bespoke software

Frontline is the consumer distribution division for EMAP magazines, and also perform marketing and logistics for the BBC and other publishers. The management accounts team numbered just over 10 staff, some of who were seconded to individual publisher teams and others in a central corporate role. The company had over 200 employees and a turnover of over £250m.



Management Accountant
o Cost accountant, responsible for 25 internal departments and a cost base of £13m.
o Creation of budgets and quarterly forecasts for overheads
o Production of monthly reports for internal control and parent company consolidations
o Weekly reviews with budget holders
o Involved in recruitment of assistant accountants

Commercial Accountant
o Liaison with marketing director to assess weekly sales volumes against budget
o Analysis of market conditions and industry developments
o Variance analysis

Finance Analyst
o Reconciliations
o Departmental sales and marketing reports

Main achievements at EMAP :-

o Promoted quickly to management accountant, given responsibility for a marketing team whilst part-qualified (the role was pitched at qualified accountant level)
o Selected to represent management accountants in project to select and implement a new accounts package
o Deputised for senior accountant during extended leave and took on full responsibility for their role
o Managed relations with non-finance staff to ensure budgets were not exceeded
o Won team player award whilst covering a vacancy that arose in logistics department
o Reduced rechargeable expense queries from 90 to 6 within two months, and decreased average debtor days for invoices from 45 days to 12.