Senior Finance Manager

Education/Qualification

• Currently studying towards CIMA Professional Qualification (intended completion 2024 – working through Finance Leadership Programme and on final level)
• Xero Advisor Certification / Xero Payroll Certification / Xero Migration Certification
• CIPD HR Fundamentals / CIPD People Management
• 2019 Post Graduate Certificate in Finance and Strategy – Manchester Metropolitan University
• 2014 – BA Hons Professional Certificate in Accounting – The Open University

Systems used

• Excel including Lookups / Pivots / Sums / Macros
• VBA
• Google AS
• PowerBI
• Xero
• SAP
• NetSuite
• People HR part of Access (payroll) / Charlie HR (linked to Xero)
• Approval Max (PO automation)
• Harvest (Time and Attendance)
• Data Molino (link to NetSuite / QuickBooks / Xero) for AP function
• Various Expenses Softwares
• Word / Outlook / PowerPoint

Career Summary

Most Recent Employer – Training Provider

Position – Senior Finance Manager

Dates – July 2023 – March 2024

A £10m turnover, owner-managed company offering logistics, construction, and employability skills, funded by a variety of government organisations

• Reported to the CEO and supported the organisation through the next stages of growth and preparation for first external audit
• Supervised a team of Accounts Assistants including training and upskilling
• Implemented App Max for better safeguarding of expenditure and approvals
• Updated the expenses processes by implementation of Soldo pre-paid expenses card – setting times and controls
  • Introduced profit and cost centre reporting
  • Responsible for First budget setting and implementation of a purchasing system to maximise control
  • Provision of costing analysis for a successful government contract bid

Previous Employer – Consultancy   

Position – Director / Consultant

Dates – November 2022 – Present

• Interim finance roles working in FinTech and telecoms /Alt Net sectors – has undertaken a wide range of projects relevant to change and implementation for improvement of processes and procedures
• Planning and implementing financial control frameworks appropriate to the stage of development and growth of the client / company
• Supporting the implementation of NetSuite ERP systems, with focus on inventory management
• Responsible for project work to maximise automation, for accurate and timely reporting to key stakeholders
• Responsible for building various financial models for better and improved financial management
• Creating and building financial models for both forecasting and pricing strategies
• Offering financial control assurance to companies following investment from Private Equity and Venture Capitalists
• Drafting relevant policies and finance manuals
• First budget setting and cost centre creation

Previous Employer – Technology Company  

Position – Head of Finance

Dates – July 2021 – October 2022

A newly listed biotechnology research company, developing prescription medication from cannabinoids and cannabinoid derivatives – (pre revenue £16.5m in shares sales and investment)

• Designed and led on the successful implementation of Work Breakdown Structure aligning Project Team and Finance data and providing greater Board assurance on cost management and forecasting – using Excel in depth to create the Terminal and subsequent Smart Sheets
• Remodelled financial control framework, significantly mitigating key corporate risks
• Reported to the Chief Finance Officer and was responsible for all areas of financial planning, management and reporting including budgeting, cost modelling, taxes, and R&D tax credits
• Managed year end consolidation and reporting process, and regular attendee at Board and Audit Committee, and managed relationships with auditors and other key partners – instructed Finance Team on processes and procedures
• Managed office partners and permanent move to remote working, consulting with key external partners, and generating £250k p.a. saving
• Increased R&D Tax Credit income by over 20% through improved cost tracking

Previous Employer – Engineering Company

Position – Senior Compliance / Reporting Accountant

Dates – July 2019 – October 2021

Project based international engineering company (turnover £30 m) working on oil and gas pipelines .

• Reported to the Financial Controller and responsibilities included advising proposals team on compliance costs and tax analysis of potential projects, managing a budget of £500k, and preparing payroll taxes, VAT, CIT returns, financial statements for external audit in various countries
• Used SAP to prepare and instigate Blackline reporting processes
• Designed and implemented Personnel tracking as a new control process for payroll, facilitating audit and tax information
• Sourced key advisers, forming and managing the relationships and overseeing annual supplier reviews
• Collaborated with international advisers to respond to tax authority enquiries and statutory audits
• Through detailed analysis, identified a $1.1m saving and tax benefits by a potential legal restructure of international affiliates
• Generated a £500k saving on Legal and Professional fees in the first year
• €500k tax audit decision successfully appealed with detailed defense
• Dealt with five years of historic statutory audit issues, bringing Nigerian operations fully legally compliant for the first time

Previous Employer – Supplier

Position – Senior Finance Manager – Interim

Dates – February 2019 – July 2019 

Private Equity backed national care supplies company (primarily B2B), acquired in August 2018 which had £20m t/o (primarily B2C via eCommerce)

• Reported to the Head of Finance
• Designed and successfully implemented a new consolidated Management Accounts reporting process for the new group
• Oversaw the successful migration of the acquired company’s stock, finance systems and team into the new group on a consistent and legally compliant basis
• Implemented risk-based, cost-effective processes to facilitate the company integration and changes to the business models
• Responsible for consulting with HMRC on historic VAT and PAYE issues
• Prepared year-end balance sheet of acquired company for consolidation under new accounting policies and managed first external audit of new subsidiary financial accounts
• Recovered >50% of historic doubtful debt

Previous Employer – Management Consultancy

Position – Senior Finance & Operations Manager – Interim

Dates – June 2018 – February 2019

Privately owned, London based management consultancy [£5m turnover] focused on Technology Strategy in large multinational organizations.

• Reported to the Board and was responsible for management accounts, board reporting, cost modelling, revenue stream analysis and treasury management
• Implemented various operational and financial software solutions
• Significantly improved the OPEX/CAPEX modelling functionality within the Project Management Software enabling more informed board decisions on key investments and potential new revenue streams / created a User Manual
• Managed payroll and pensions and FTE utilization planning
• Implemented a cost-effective full month end process preparing monthly Management Accounts to provide critical board assurance and address investor fiscal management concerns
• Set up Harvest Time and Attendance system and linked to Xero file
• Managed the consultation process for redundancies of staff, consulting with legal and HR advisors, and reporting to CEO directly whilst ensuring full legal compliance

Previous Employer – Media Company

Position – Finance Operations Manager

Dates – June 2015 – June 2018 

A privately owned rapidly growing international digital media company with offices in UK, Australia, and Ireland with £7m turnover

• Reported to the Finance Director and Managing Director
• Operating in a fast-paced sector, the business adapted business models to meet the challenges of the market, whilst expanding territories
• Built a robust and agile delivery reconciliation system to reduce reconciliation by sixteen working days, able to adapt to the changing product set and pricing models, to generate transparent reports for all volume deals
• Setting up a database of Sales Pipeline data with the accounts data, allowing daily updated reports of potential sales and assumed profitability
• This data could also automate the sales booking system
• Responsibilities included financial modelling, budgets, fiscal management, management accounts and financial control framework
• Managed transfer from cash accounting to accrual VAT schemes as the company grew and consulted with external stakeholders to build transparent multi-currency profit sharing systems
• Recovered >80% of historic debt through improved PO reconciliation
• Setup subsidiaries in Australia and Ireland and drafted transfer pricing agreements
• Implemented a month end reporting process and management accounts to provide board assurance on fiscal management and key corporate risks
• Successful partnering with Commercial Board to help them understand profitability in volume sales deals

Position – Owner and Director

Dates – 2013 – 2019