Abhishak Verma

Leading finance department for 3 divisions including property management, insurance and renewables energy with turnover of..... Providing strategic financial support to senior leadership including Finance Director, CEOs, CFO and assist them in decision making.

• Responsible for the timely and accurate production of the monthly/quarterly and six-monthly report packs to our lenders as per the loan facility arrangements including reforecast for the next 12 months.
• Responsibility for the integrity and proactive management of Group Company Balance sheets.
• Producing and reporting on weekly and monthly departmental statics for any other management purpose.
• Responsible for the year end / audit process for 30+ companies including the production of tax packs and financial statements.
• Responsible for identifying and reporting directly to management and relevant business managers the issues identified from the monthly management accounts which need further analysis, corrective action or could result in variances to the company’s annual targets.
• Ensure accounting policies and controls are continuously reviewed, maintained and policed.
• Responsible for treasury management and cashflow forecast to maximize the interest income and minimize interest charges at group level.
• Ensure compliance with UK tax/VAT/IPT in line with company and Group strategies.
• Responsible for the preparation of the annual budgets.
• Developed and implemented new financial and non-financial systems to support the Groups strategic objectives and also the continuous improvement of company processes. e.g. production of reporting suite from Sage 200, new cash flow model and new budgeting models.
• Assisting the CEO in cladding remediations projects including managing the cashflow, dealing with the project managers and government for the grant.
• Performing other financial and administrative ad hoc tasks as required by board.

Worked with 7 hotels provided effective financial leadership to a finance team, to enable strategic foresight into the business and provide knowledgeable and accurate information to colleagues and senior management.

• Overseeing all aspects of financial control in the business and ensuring compliance with the financial policies and regulations.
• Providing financial, commercial and strategic support to the business.
• Producing monthly management accounts with commentary against budget and forecast.
• Preparing month end board packs, budgets, forecasts & VAT returns.
• Developing, managing and motivating a team of 8 finance professionals.
• Reviewing new & existing business models and capital appropriation requests.
• Identify and develop controls and processes to ensure all risks and opportunities are highlighted.
• Reconciling balance sheets on monthly basis and investigating and explaining any variances.
• Reporting Performance Review and Cashflow to Bank on monthly basis as a part of loan covenant.
• Reconcile intercompany balances for the whole group.
• Calculating and verifying the Accruals, Prepayments and other journals required for the month end financial statements.
• Ensuring all the ledgers are accurately maintained including Fixed Asset Register.
• Implementing new accounting and PO software for the group.

Worked in an international chain handling various aspect in accounting department for two 4-star hotels (317 & 267 bedrooms), one service apartment (74 bedrooms) and assisting the company in launching another 1 new property in London market as service apartments.

• Preparing monthly management accounts by using the IFRS standard and submitting the month end pack to the Head Office in Hong Kong and USA.
• Reconciling balance sheets on monthly basis and investigating and explaining any variances.
• Reporting Performance Review and Cashflow to Bank and Head office on monthly basis as a part of loan covenant.
• Reconcile intercompany balance including the foreign currencies transactions.
• Calculating and verifying the Accruals, Prepayments and other journals required for the month end financial statements.
• Ensuring all the ledgers are accurately maintained including Fixed Asset Register by timely posting of receivable and payables.
• Liaise with external auditors for any queries and assisted the Area Finance Director to close the year end accounts.
• Reporting the monthly performance to the new owners on monthly basis for the disposed properties as operating managers and assisting their team on regular basis with any queries.
• Performing the internal financial analysis to analyses the performance of each department on regular basis and reporting to HODs in monthly meetings.
• Assisting the team and other teams where the assistance is needed and making sure the procedures and controls are in place.
• Assisting in putting the SOP in place as most of the team is fairly new post COVID-19 opening.

Success Examples – Project Accounting

• Monitored the progress of a new property against the budget, looked into variances and maintained all the records of all pre-opening expenses and CAPEX by classifying into relevant categories.
• Successfully implemented new PMS and Interface for the new ledgers and created new codes required by liaising with PMS and IT team.
• Setting up the balance sheet and other financial reports for the upcoming properties.
• Assisted the company in disposing 2 properties in London by reconciling all the balance sheet items at the cut-off point and handed over the balances to the new owners as a part of completion statement.

Worked with two 4-star properties of 138 & 85 bedrooms producing monthly financial statements in line with IFRS standards using Sage Line 50 and Excel. Provide ad hoc analysis and take on business projects as required.

• Reconciling and posting revenue on a day-to-day basis as well as investigating any discrepancies
• Posted purchase invoices, allocated payments and reconciled to supplier statements.
• Reconciled bank payments, credit card payments and petty cash expenses.
• Producing and submitting VAT returns and all other company audit requirements.
• Prepared and processed monthly payment runs for suppliers.
• Preparing weekly cash flow for 8 weeks and reporting to directors every week.
• Collated weekly and monthly data changes for payroll purposes and liaised with the external payroll provider to ensure its submission within the set deadlines.

Success Examples

• Improved the Company’s cash flow by keeping the debtors under 15 days.
• Key liaison in a £2m refurbishment project with senior management.
• Actively involved in the acquisition of an additional property to expand the hotel chain.
• Assisted in achieving consistent and excellent audit results.
• Responsible for preparing data in line with Covid-19 Job Retention Scheme.
• Involved in the re-budgeting and re-forecasting process due to Covid-19.