Acora - Managed IT Services

Acora is a UK-based, award-winning, IT services and technology company with over 25 years’ experience offering a range of IT support and Microsoft-centric, business software and cloud solutions to help mid-market organisations modernise, transform and innovate their IT so they can compete and win in the digital economy. 

More than 300 clients trust us to take responsibility for part, or all, of their IT from solution design to support. Our vision is to provide the mid-market with an outstanding customer experience through innovation and great people and become the leading provider of IT services.

Financial Planning and Analysis Manager

Awaiting the start of my new role

After 4 years at Air Navigation Solutions Ltd, unfortunately my Project Accountant role was made redundant, (30th September 2022), following company changes and a department restructure.

After securing my new role mid October, I used this two-week opportunity prior to starting with my new company, to enhance my professional development and make valuable finance connections, expanding my finance knowledge with key finance influencers around the world.

Finance Business Partner | Project Accountant

Air Navigation Solutions Ltd.

New role established to build upon previous Finance Analyst position.

Responsibilities / Achievements:

Drove significant process improvements to streamline project finance process. 

Improved efficiency of procedures, visibility, and financial understanding across the business, highlighting risks and supporting future decision making.
•	Created Profit Margin financial model to calculate and consolidate project profitability. Calculated estimated costs to completion for each project and identified key monthly movements. 
•	Created standardised monthly rolling reforecast process to enhance variance analysis, financial understanding, and reflection of all projects.

Enhanced Financial Reporting:
•	Collaborated with Business Intelligence team to support creation of Power BI PMO dashboard. 
•	Instigated further improvements to automate, monitor monthly profitability movements, and share project financial data and insights with Senior Management and Directors at monthly Programme Board meeting.

Business Partnering:
•	Developed strong collaborative relationships with nonfinancial managers to provide financial support, challenge decisions, answer queries and share financial awareness and impact of decisions. 
•	Successfully coordinated regular update meetings with Project Managers and Head of PMO. This ensured completeness of project forecasts, accurate month end financial reporting, profitability, milestone reviews and calculation of revenue recognition.
•	Supported Head of Finance and Commercial Director in development of KPI reporting. Calculated and reviewed monthly movements in revenue, customer mix and profitability, to share in monthly Strategy Board meeting with Senior Management and Directors.
•	Supported Project Managers by calculating and reviewing internal margins for future bids, tenders, and business cases to support future decision making. 

Managed and directed Finance Analyst, demonstrating leadership skills; training, planning, and reviewing work.

Project Accountant

Took on a newly created role to build and develop financial models and processes that the business could use to regularly review project costs, revenue, and budgets. Worked with Senior Management Team, Project Managers and Operational Experts.

Responsibilities / Achievements:
•	Created efficient finance models and processes to assess the financial performance of each project.
•	Worked with Project Managers and Operational Experts to prepare 2019 midyear budget reforecast and 2020 budget.
•	Produced financial analysis for the Senior Management Team, including the Head of Finance, Head of Engineering, Head of HR and Commercial Director.
•	Created a process to calculate month end revenue recognition for each project.
•	Continuous process development to improve month end efficiency, adapting the finance models created as the role and business evolved.
•	Supported monthly statutory financial close for project accounting and worked with external Auditors at year end.

Finance Analyst

Took on a newly created role to work alongside the Senior Management Team and Managing Director to review and analyse key financial information for future decision making. 

Responsibilities / Achievements:
•	Produced Variance Analysis for the Managing Director: Reviewing actual costs against budgets and forecasts for the overall company against the long-term business plan.
•	Creating the 2019 Budget for the Managing Director to present at the Company Board meeting. This included analysing data and creating an effective presentation pack, illustrating key variances and bridges using tables and graphs.

LMG (lmgiq.com)

Took on a newly created role as the only finance employee based at Gatwick reporting to the Services Director and Credit Controller based at Head office (Thurrock). 

Responsible for the day to day management of the Gatwick Airport Limited financial account as well as other LMG Clients based at Gatwick Airport.

Responsibilities / Achievements:
•	Worked independently to provide finance support to company Directors and Senior Managers in both Operations and Finance.
•	Produced and presented up to date Management information for review at monthly finance meetings held at Head office with company Directors and Senior Managers.
•	Forecasting – Created and maintained a monthly forecast to review all jobs with LMG Project Managers and forecasted when work was expected to take place.
•	Calculated and reported on project profitability - Tracked and analysed costs on a weekly and monthly basis to ensure all costs were accurately assigned to jobs.
•	Worked with LMG and Client Project Managers to monitor and analyse working levels and job completion, produced month end WIP reports and processed sales and cost accruals. Shortly after joining LMG I was able to improve the efficiency of reviewing the 200+ jobs in progress and reduce the monthly WIP during the companies peak growth period at Gatwick.
•	Billing – Created and submitted partial and final invoices using Excel and Sage.
•	Credit Control – Used Sage to monitor and manage outstanding invoices, resolved queries between Project Managers and Clients to obtain payment.  
•	Analysed monthly overheads. 
•	Central point of contact (both internally and externally) for all finance related tasks and enquiries relating to Gatwick Airport.

CR Bard

• Managed month end accounting work for the Dublin ITC Balance sheet and Profit and
Loss accounts.
• Ownership of key balance sheet accounts, processing all monthly journals and
completing monthly reconciliation’s.
• Significantly developed the month end process to streamline tasks and efficiently
coordinate and prioritise work with colleagues based in the UK and Belgium, to ensure
efficient month end close in accordance with US corporate deadlines. 
• Assisted with monthly forecasting
• Prepared and developed the monthly Reporting Pack for review with European Finance
Controller 
• Coordinated quarterly Sarbanes-Oxley testing for the team, (Dublin ITC and employees
based in EDC, Belgium) for management review within the key deadlines.
• Responsible for maintaining European royalties, (monthly and quarterly BI (Business
Intelligence) reporting, month end accounting, investigating variances, quarterly US
division updates and Sarbanes-Oxley controls).
• Responsible for royalty process improvements. Initiated, developed, tested, documented
and implemented new software with IT to move the royalties from the existing slow and
inefficient programme onto the JDE accounting software to improve efficiency, user
friendliness and analysis of royalties for Senior Management, quarterly Sarbanes-Oxley
testing and external auditor’s review.
• Managed year-end workflow to ensure all additional year-end reporting deadlines were
met, for example 10K reporting for consolidation by the European Finance department
and Corporate review.
• Prepared monthly VAT return, Intrastat and EC Sales List for submission to Belgium
authorities.
• Monthly Hyperion and Smartview reporting for European Consolidation.
• Quarterly Corptax submission as requested by Corporate.
• Responsible for revaluing general ledger balances for assets and liabilities denominated
in foreign currencies.
• Assisted external auditors with the annual audit, providing explanations and
documentation as required.

European Finance Analyst

• Responsible for meeting departmental goals and completing the monthly management
accounts within strict deadlines.
• Responsible for processing month end journals and reconciling general ledger month
end sales and balance sheet account’s with commentary.
• Created a new process for monthly reporting of commercial expenses, OPEX (operating
expenditure), to distribute reports directly from the BI (Business Intelligence) Finance
Datamart system to allow efficient monthly analysis of costs vs. budget, investigated
variances and answered queries with individual business units and employees.
• Ensured Sarbanes-Oxley tests were completed for a variety of financial processes within
the UK finance department.
• Provided in-house expertise in the use of BI (Business Intelligence) to assist with sales
analysis and forecasting. Provided BI training for sales Managers, Reps and office staff.
• Maintained the fixed asset register – accurate review of AFE’s (Authorisation for
Expenditure forms) and processing additions and disposals.
• Maintained UK budget ledger accounts.
• Prepared and developed inventory management pack for review with the UK Financial
Controller, Customer Services Manager and UK Finance Manager. 
• Produced monthly schedules to analyse balance sheet values for the Divisional
department, where data was consolidated and reported to corporate in America.
• Monthly maintenance and review of the company headcount analysis.
• Provided adhoc financial analysis and project work as requested by UK Financial
Controller and UK Finance Manager.

UK Finance Analyst

Palmers Turfcare Ltd

·	Responsible for analysing labour, telephone and fuel expenses, exporting data from IT system Gold into Excel for analysis in employee and management meetings.

·	Updated the purchase ledger, accurately allocating nominal codes with suppliers.

·	Maintained the daily banking system and reconciliation’s. 

·	Responsible for creating sales invoices for customers and finance companies as requested by the Directors and Salesmen and sending out monthly statements for customers.

·	Maintained the aged debtors list, creating and prioritising debt-chasing letters for customers.

·	Created a petty cash system to maintain two separate floats for the showroom till and employee expense claims.

·	Frequent telephone communication with customers, updating and maintaining their computer records.

Accounts Assistant

Ogilvie Booth Coles Ltd, Chartered Accountants and Business Advisors

(Third year University Placement)

·	Used Sage software packages to update clients’ sales, purchase and nominal ledger accounts.

·	Worked under pressure to meet strict weekly and monthly payroll deadlines for clients of varying sizes ranging from 6 to 250 employees.

·	Assisted my team on problem solving and the accurate completion of client VAT returns and year-end accounts within the right time and budget.

·	Responsible for working effectively individually, being a frequent point of contact between the clients and my supervisor, arranging when data can be collected for accounts production and answering client queries.

·	Provided training for clients on how to use Sage Accounts software to update their daily bookkeeping. 

·	Travelled and worked on clients’ sites to create monthly management accounts, perform company audits and make their monthly BACS payments.

·	Performed client bank reconciliation’s.

·	Developed and maintained an efficient and organised filing system for each client.

Hi,

I am a reliable, hard-working accounting professional with excellent attention to detail and organisational skills.

I am analytical and solutions-focused, with strong communication skills, and the ability to work efficiently both independently and as part of a team. 

I enjoy finding innovative, creative solutions to streamline processes and providing valuable financial insights to Senior Managers and Directors. I also enjoy collaborating across departments, sharing skills, expertise and learning from others.

I have extensive experience of:

•	Working independently to analyse data and produce detailed management information for Directors and Senior Management to support key business decision making.

•	Ownership of project finance process – Creating and developing all project accounting and financial reporting processes within ANSL.

•	Creating financial models and developing processes to monitor and assess the financial performance and profitability of projects.

•	Analysing and investigating variances between actual, budget and forecast.

•	Building strong collaborative relationships with key business units, including Finance, Commercial, Project Management Office, Operational Experts and Business Development. 

•	Business partnering with nonfinancial managers to develop financial processes, provide financial support, challenge decisions, answer queries, share financial awareness and impact of decisions. 

•	Supporting Project Managers by calculating and reviewing internal margins for future bids to support future decision making.

•	Supporting Head of Finance and Commercial Director in development of KPI reporting. Calculating, and reviewing movements in company revenue, customer mix and profitability.

•	Completing ad hoc projects and continuously driving process developments to streamline and automate key monthly tasks and utilise Power BI dashboards.

Taplio

Katharine Maulkin ACMA, CGMA's Linkedin Analytics

Katharine Maulkin ACMA, CGMA

Want to drive more opportunities from LinkedIn?

Taplio

.css-1jgreyo{background-image:linear-gradient(284deg, rgba(39,43,72,1) 0%, rgba(33,47,183,1) 100%);color:transparent;-webkit-background-clip:text;background-clip:text;}Katharine Maulkin ACMA, CGMA's Linkedin Analytics

Katharine Maulkin ACMA, CGMA

Want to drive more opportunities from LinkedIn?

Katharine Maulkin ACMA, CGMA's Linkedin Analytics