Qualified Commercial Accountant

Education/Qualification

• FCCA
• National College of Ireland – CIPD Diploma in Human Resource Management (Assoc CIPD)
• Anglia Ruskin University – BA (Hons) Business Degree
• Wilson’s Hospital School

Systems used

• Excel including Pivots / Sums / Lookups
• SAP
• Oracle
• Tableau
• HFM
• SmartView
• Concur
• TM1
• PowerBI
• Google Sheets
• Word / Outlook / PowerPoint

Career Summary

Most Recent Employer – Media Company

Position – Finance Cost Analyst – Contract

Dates – August 2023 – February 2024

• Sole role reporting to the Head of FP&A
• Delivered high quality financial analysis and decision support including planning, budgeting and forecasting to all senior stakeholders
• Included delivering KPI reporting, month end management and ad-hoc analysis
• Ensured Data and Interactive costs were accurately reported, and variances to budget and forecasts were captured and fully understood
• Development of budgets, forecasts, and plans with relevant stakeholders across the organisation
• Prepared and provided packs/reports to deliver analysis and discuss with the business and decision support team
• Gathered and interpreted cost data to analyse business performance, performed scenario analysis
• Reviewed payroll reconciliations and staff trackers
• Reviewed journals monthly for posting to relevant business areas
• Reviewed Management accounts with variance analysis
• Maintained the Central Services recharge model (Management and Tax) and was a main point of contact for divisional, group, audit queries
• Focused on data quality and accuracy ensuring analysis provided to the decision support team and business partners was of the highest standard
• Reviewed balance sheet reconciliations
• Understood incorrect data and feedback to the appropriate teams, working together to improve data quality and accuracy
• Captured risks and opportunities to improve gross profit for the business
• Updated process flows, operating manuals, training guides, and standard operating procedures as needed
• Supported with any ad-hoc data analysis requests e.g. investment appraisals
• Drove continuous improvement initiatives and measure and realised sustainable benefits

Previous Employer – Construction (global t/o circa £200m)

Position – Senior Project Accountant / Senior Analyst

Dates – November 2020 – June 2023

• Key contact for projects across Construction Business Unit for Heads of Departments, Senior Project Managers, Commercial Managers, Finance Managers, and other stakeholders daily
• Responsible for completing of budgets, forecasting, phasing of projects
• Dealt with system issues on Oracle and PBF; monthly project reviews with profit and loss analysis, overhead and bid costs review, revenue analysis, invoicing issues
• Reviewed monthly project close for the Project Ledger and General Ledger
• Reviewed monthly management reports for Business Unit and analysis including planning budgeting forecasting, Business Unit reporting, commercial assessments, and operational reports, ensuring reconciliation and accurate variance analysis
• Detailed variance analysis against profit plan, budget, and business plan FY23-FY28
• Updated across system TM1 and individual projects for review with senior stakeholders
• UAT testing lead and overall accountability and support for system cloud migration for the UK region for project accounting, across Oracle updates and integration new expense system Concur
• Prepared economic and sales forecasts and period journal adjustments, collating and analysing information
• Conducted research pertaining to the application of appropriate data and processing methods and analysis, recording, and reporting of financial information to support informed decision making
• Ensured applicable management accounting documentation and supporting procedures exist and are up to date
• Prepared various financial accounting and reporting tasks to ensure accurate and timely reporting
• Prepared financial statements and reports to accurately to reflect the company’s financial results and ensure compliance with applicable regulatory standards
• Exercised independent judgement within defined practices and procedures, applied intermediate level of subject matter knowledge to solve problems
• Mentored and supported the junior colleagues to support delivery of day-to-day activities
• Balance sheet reconciliation review addressed issues and accuracy
• Worked with external accounting provider in India to maintain consistency across retained and outsourced finance processes
• Supported the business and reviewed external accounting providers day to day, month end, year-end work completed
• Drove and ensured compliance to financial accounting and reporting policies, procedures and contractual commitments under financing and proactively identified and raised non-compliant issues
• Ensured applicable financial accounting and reporting documentation and supporting procedures existed and were up to date
• Project member for UK region for the newly set up Data Analytics – Centre of Excellence (COE)
• Established and maintained effective working relationships with internal and external stakeholders to increase networks and allowed for exchange of information
• Worked closely with various stakeholders to understand data content and support reporting requirements
• Chaired regular meetings with various stakeholders to maintain data capture and reported
• Worked with any external and Internal auditor queries

Previous Employer – Railway

Position – Finance Business Partner – Capital & Major Projects

Dates – March 2020 – August 2020

• Main contact for Fixed Assets and ongoing capital and major projects with daily interaction across the company for issues arising daily not limited to monthly detailed variance analysis of actuals to budget and forecast, tracking of expenditure across fixed assets with analysis
• Financial management of capital assets and to provide financial assurance to the Finance of Major Projects
• Reviewed all capital expenditure approval forms (CEAF) from the business (via portal) ensuring all criteria are met for authorization
• Maintained and monitored the system of controls, procedures, and Capex portal for the recording of Fixed Assets
• Tracked the compilation of project costs into Fixed Asset accounts and closed out those accounts once the related projects had been completed
• Conducted a post completion review
• Specialist approver for POs raised to assets
• Recorded Fixed Asset acquisitions and dispositions in the accounting system
• Reconciled the balance in the Fixed Asset Subsidiary Ledger to the summary-level account in the General Ledger and calculated depreciation for all Fixed Assets
• Tracked company expenditures for Fixed Assets in comparison to the capital budget and management authorisations
• Completed and submitted Group CAPEX schedules
• Prepared audit schedules relating to Fixed Assets and assisted the auditors in their activities
• Ensured the correct accounting treatment for third party funding, DfT capital funding and Capital grants
• Prepared periodic rolling CAPEX forecasts, including sensitivity analysis, risks, and potential opportunities
• Provided operational reporting for each business unit including P&L, Headcount, Risk and Opportunities and Management Initiatives
• Supported the business evaluations of MP initiatives alongside programme management teams
• Challenged the delivery of the programme and scoped requirements to ensure efficiencies were achieved on cost and on time
• Raised accruals, prepayments and processed the period end journals into SAP
• Preparation and full variance analysis at period end
• Contribution to business improvement activities and supported the business in managing change where necessary including rollout of new systems, processes, and procurement strategies
• Actively contributed towards business case analysis and the management / improvement of non-financial / commercial issues on an ad-hoc basis
• Provided operational reporting, variance analysis, cash flow, and accurate budgeting / forecasting advice
• Built relationships with project managers on all projects working on budgets and forecasts

Previous Employer – Investment Management

Position – Various Roles

Dates – March 2014 – October 2019

Position – Financial Accountant

Dates – April 2016- October 2019

• Responsible for the preparation of the UK Expense and Revenue accounting and ensuring all month end deliverables were accurately accounted for
• Assisted in the preparation of the financial statements and statutory accounts for all entities US GAAP, Irish & UK GAAP – ensuring adherence and compliance with Invesco policies and controls
• Reviewed and prepared management accounts for several entities monthly, posted month end journals, accruals, prepayments, and reconciliation of any variances
• Intercompany reconciliations and corresponding journals for month end
• Completion of budgets for several entities and checked in line with expectations with reasons for variances
• P&L and Balance sheet analysis line by line check with relevant variance analysis for movements in line with budget along with balance sheet preparation and monthly reconciliation
• Assisted in the production of financial reporting packs to the Group Company including tax packs and analyst packs and ad hoc reporting requirements
• Assisted in the Audit process for year end and audits throughout the year and consulted with the auditors for all schedules needed for external and Internal Audits
• Completed payroll and relevant reconciliations with variance analysis
• Consulted with HR to ensure payroll completed correctly and within guidelines
• Assisted in the Audit process for year end and audits throughout the year and consulted with the auditors for all schedules needed for external and Internal Audits
• Review and completion of regulatory reports for Central Bank FINREP
• Updated and maintained procedure documents as necessary to maintain a rigid internal control environment

Position – Corporate Accountant

Dates – March 2014- September 2015

• Prepared Monthly Audit Packs with Working Papers for various entities
• Extracted data from Oracle and input into HFM system monthly
• New system integration from current system to Oracle HFM
• Monthly quarterly consolidations
• Prepared and reviewed monthly account reconciliations
• Executed monthly close process assignments in accordance with defined schedule and deliverables
• Assisted with analysing financial statements monthly and reported on variances
• Assisted in monitoring and execution of internal controls and risk mitigation
• Performed variance analysis and ensured the validity of financial records through identifying, investigating, and resolving issues
• Prepared balance sheet reconciliations
• Prepared journal entries with adequate supporting documentation
• Assisted with annual audit work papers, providing detail when requested by external auditors