Cynthia Watson

• Provide financial advice and guidance to senior leadership and budget holders
• Produce annual budgets, monthly management accounts and monthly forecasts to support strategic development along with business plans and risk registers
• Identify and advise on ways to reduce costs / improve efficiencies / policies
• Manage cash flow, ensure accurate financial data recording, meeting deadlines
• Review and reconcile Balance Sheet accounts, VAT returns
• Manage all Capital project administration from bids, accounting, reporting and audit trails
• Oversee compliance with financial regulations and manage a team of three
• Review, reconcile monthly payroll and responsible for Pension reporting and associated audits
• Any project work as directed

Achievements:-

• Advised and guided Executive Headteacher to achieve £400k savings due to reduced funding
• Reviewed the lettings policy and introduced policy that payment must be received prior to first session, this resulted in the aged debt reducing from 120+ days to 30 days
• Developed a staffing model to calculate different staffing scenarios quickly and the cost to employ, scenarios had to be entered by role into a system which was a time-consuming process, thus allowing decisions to be made quickly
• Streamlined processes by creating spreadsheets to calculate/analyse weekly ParentPay reports saving the team hours per week
• Developed management accounts report with detailed commentary and analysis by subject
• Developed a staffing model to calculate different staffing scenarios quickly and the cost to employ, scenarios had to be entered by role into a system which was a time-consuming process, thus allowing decisions to be made quickly
• Implemented a purchase ledger process with monthly statement reconciliations and was able to reclaim overpayments and re-establish good relations with suppliers

• Provide high quality financial advice and guidance to senior leadership and budget holders
• Produce annual budgets, monthly forecasts, business plans, reports, risk registers, monthly management accounts with commentary/variance analysis and returns to ensure strategic development of the Academy and long term sustainability as per Trust timetable
• Identify and advise on ways to reduce costs / improve efficiencies / policies
• Ensure all accounting records comply with Trust Financial Regulations and Scheme of Delegation and the month end processes to ensure accurate recording of financial data and deadlines are met
• Manage the Academy’s cash flow and minimise bad debts
• Review and reconcile Balance Sheet accounts and VAT returns
• Manage all Capital project administration from bids, accounting, reporting and audit trails
• Review and reconcile monthly payroll and responsible for Pension reporting and associated audits
• Any project work as directed
• Manage and develop a team of three people
• Achievements
• Reviewed the lettings policy and introduced policy that payment must be received prior to first session, this resulted in the aged debt reducing from 120+ days to 30 days
• Streamlined processes by creating spreadsheets to calculate/analyse weekly ParentPay reports saving the team hours per week
• Developed management accounts report with detailed commentary and analysis by subject
• Developed a staffing model to calculate different staffing scenarios quickly and the cost to employ, scenarios had to be entered by role into a system which was a time-consuming process, thus allowing decisions to be made quickly
• Implemented a purchase ledger process with monthly statement reconciliations and was able to reclaim overpayments and re-establish good relations with suppliers

• Supervise, coach and guide the finance teams in the facilitation of day-to-day operations, including financial review meetings, month end process, Fixed Assets, tracking financial data, invoicing, payroll, annual budgets and audits, understanding of open/closed book contracts etc. and ensure all deadlines are met and information is correct
• Review and reconcile Balance Sheet accounts
• Oversee and review monthly management accounts/annual budgets/quarterly forecasts with commentary/variance analysis and ensure are in line with group/customer expectations
• Understand customer commercial agreements and ensure agreed KPI’s are tracked
• Calculate re-tenders including load rates and full warehouse costings
• Maintain and develop customer relationships, deal with customer queries and information requests
• Identify system/procedure improvements
• Ensure weekly costings are produced and reviewed for my area
• Any project work as directed
• Manage and develop a team of six people
• Achievements
• Successfully transitioned the ambient transport network, 4 depots in total, from Culina to Great Bear
• Developed weekly P&L reporting for the ambient transport for each depot, previously reported as a whole as deemed impossible to split into individual depot P&L’s
• Instrumental in developing an EPO system thus removing the need to raise manual PO’s and saving printing/postage costs and admin time logging manual PO’s onto a spreadsheet
• Led team responsible for successful Haribo re-tender
• Implemented processes at a loss making site to provide management with crucial information to make informed decisions which resulted in the site becoming profitable

• Supervise, coach and guide the finance teams in the facilitation of day-to-day operations, including financial review meetings, month end process, Fixed Assets, tracking financial data, invoicing, payroll, annual budgets and audits, understanding of open/closed book contracts etc. and ensure all deadlines are met and information is correct
• Review and reconcile Balance Sheet accounts
• Oversee and review monthly management accounts/annual budgets/quarterly forecasts with commentary/variance analysis and ensure are in line with group/customer expectations
• Understand customer commercial agreements and ensure agreed KPI’s are tracked
• Calculate re-tenders including load rates and full warehouse costings
• Maintain and develop customer relationships, deal with customer queries and information requests
• Identify system/procedure improvements
• Ensure weekly costings are produced and reviewed for my area
• Any project work as directed
• Manage and develop a team of six people
• Achievements
• Successfully transitioned the ambient transport network, 4 depots in total, from Culina to Great Bear
• Developed weekly P&L reporting for the ambient transport for each depot, previously reported as a whole as deemed impossible to split into individual depot P&L’s
• Instrumental in developing an EPO system thus removing the need to raise manual PO’s and saving printing/postage costs and admin time logging manual PO’s onto a spreadsheet
• Led team responsible for successful Haribo re-tender
• Implemented processes at a loss making site to provide management with crucial information to make informed decisions which resulted in the site becoming profitable

• Produce weekly costings/monthly management accounts, 11 cost centres across 3 large depots, for warehouse and transport activities, a mixture of open and closed book contracts with variance analysis
• Lead weekly costing review meetings
• Ensure all activity types are captured and recharged to tariff based closed book customers
• Produce annual budgets/forecasts and annual audit analysis
• Identify and track cost saving opportunities / customer gain share benefits / losses
• Produce monthly customer review packs and attend/minute customer review meetings, maintain and develop relationships, and present to GB board
• Train and develop non-finance people’s understanding of finance
• Manage and develop a team of four people
• Achievements
• Member of team responsible for winning warehouse contracts for Premier Foods, Mondelez in Oldbury and the re-tender of Mondelez in Skelmersdale which moved from Open Book to Closed Book
• Successful implementation of Mondelez Transport contract, PZ Cussons warehouse and transport contract and the contracts listed above
• Developed weekly transport reporting to provide analysis, KPI’s etc.
• Identified that re-work requirements for new products for a closed book customer were not being recovered and was able to recover the costs
• Successfully passed multiple customer audits

• Produce weekly costings/monthly management accounts, 11 cost centres across 3 large depots, for warehouse and transport activities, a mixture of open and closed book contracts with variance analysis
• Lead weekly costing review meetings
• Ensure all activity types are captured and recharged to tariff based closed book customers
• Produce annual budgets/forecasts and annual audit analysis
• Identify and track cost saving opportunities / customer gain share benefits / losses
• Produce monthly customer review packs and attend/minute customer review meetings, maintain and develop relationships, and present to GB board
• Train and develop non-finance people’s understanding of finance
• Manage and develop a team of four people
• Achievements
• Member of team responsible for winning warehouse contracts for Premier Foods, Mondelez in Oldbury and the re-tender of Mondelez in Skelmersdale which moved from Open Book to Closed Book
• Successful implementation of Mondelez Transport contract, PZ Cussons warehouse and transport contract and the contracts listed above
• Developed weekly transport reporting to provide analysis, KPI’s etc.
• Identified that re-work requirements for new products for a closed book customer were not being recovered and was able to recover the costs
• Successfully passed multiple customer audits

• Produce weekly costings and monthly management accounts for multiple small depots
• Develop and produce weekly/monthly KPI’s and reporting
• Collate weekly volume information
• Produce annual budgets and audit analysis
• Ensure warehouse weekly paid staff were paid correctly
• Develop relationships with depots and their understanding of financial information
• Attend internal finance reviews
• Achievements
• Developed a spreadsheet to record all warehouse staff hours by activity which:
• Calculated KPI’s by shift, aiding management decisions, providing data previously unknown
• Calculated the weekly payroll cost to be processed by Payroll department, previously used signing in/out sheets
• Improved accuracy of payroll and reduced admin time
• Successful new warehouse contract start up for Mondelez (previously known as Cadbury’s) in Skelmersdale

• Responsible for the Compass open book contract
• Produce the weekly P&L including KPI’s and reports for customer reporting
• Maintain client’s database for weekly sales, cost of sales, volumes and rebates
• Produce monthly management accounts and reports
• Provide a full range of budgeting, financial services and produce reports to internal/external customers
• Calculate annual budgets
• Maintain and develop Client relationship as relations were quite tense
• Achievements
• Implemented formulae to reduce amount of duplicate data entering and reduce number of errors
• Introduced a new format for reporting meat sales which resulted in customer agreeing to charges from monthly to weekly and improving cashflow
• Improved relationships with the on-site customer

• Company Secretarial duties and manage all aspects of the Finance Department i.e. Purchase/Sales ledger, Cash Book, Payroll, Fixed Assets, quarterly VAT returns, etc.
• Produce Annual Accounts and annual budgets
• Monitor income, expenditure and capital costs, produce monthly management / financial accounts for all departments and projects, variance analysis and forecasts to a strict timetable
• Produce service and project costings
• Provide training on financial issues to both finance and non-finance staff members
• Management and development of two members of staff
• Achievements
• Introduced spreadsheets to easily account for revenue and expenditure to the numerous projects
• Wrote procedure notes for all areas of the Finance Department
• Developed a new chart of accounts to account for the Charity requirements
• All external audits passed with no issues or recommendations

• Financial Systems Management Accountant
• Assistant Management Accountant
• Management Accountant Assistant (6 Month Contract)
• Achievements
• Financial Systems Management Accountant Jan 1996 – Apr 1998
• Assistant Management Accountant Jan 1994 – Dec 1995
• Management Accountant Assistant (6 Month Contract) Nov 1993 – Jan 1994