Rachel Ollier

Preparation of accounts to trial balance, including processing of all data in an accurate and timely manner to meet statutory deadlines. I am responsible for processing jobs completed in a verbal format from the engineer, into a digital format for record keeping and then generating a sales invoice with correct and accurate information before presentation to the customer. I designed the data log system, to ensure that information was easy and efficient to obtain from the engineer (verbal) and transfer that into a 'job sheet' which served both as current data for invoicing and current activity, together with historical data, in a format that was user friendly.

I am responsible for completion of insurance renewals, meeting annual deadlines for review and compliance with changes to hazardous equipment stored. This involves liaising with insurance brokers in a timely manner to ensure compliance is met at all times.

I was responsible for attendance and minute taking of evening council meetings held every month. This included preparation and distribution of the monthly agenda, which involved ensuring actions from the previous meeting were correctly documented, actioned and closed. Advise to the Chair and Councillors where appropriate on legal matters and code of conduct, which included NALC training and attending ChALC training during afternoons and evening to ensure I was trained in the correct procedures and legal parameters for compliance as a Clerk. An example would eb to remind councillors that 3 quotations had to be obtained for works, agreed at council meetings and then actioned accordingly. Minutes for meetings were distributed amongst Councillors and the website within the month, in accordance with regulations. Any amendments to minutes although rare, were taken on board by myself and actioned promptly. The Council had several stakeholders and any correspondence to the Council was directed to myself, through telephone or email, this was either discussed as appropriate with the Councillors or dealt with myself directly.

I was also the responsible finance officer, which involved maintaining and processing of financial documents for the annual audit, obtaining Council approval for payments and thus paying suppliers promptly. VAT returns were also required to be completed.

Preparation of management accounts for £32.5m business entity. I was responsible for the collation of financial information and accurately presented in management account format in accordance with deadlines set by the board, deadlines were demanding and required operating in a effective and communicative manner to ensure targets were met. The role required liaising with all members to the department to ensure records were accurately prepared for collation.

Preparation of project accounting for engineering projects. This specialist accounting required liaising with members of all departments to gain an insight into the current status of a long term project, to assess any potential risks to the profitability and success of a build. Monthly meeting were organised by myself to include lead engineers, the project manager and any other key members, setting an agenda where relevant and distributing ahead of schedule. I would minute any actions agreed and follow this up at future meetings to ensure accountability.

Minute taking from daily operational meetings. I was responsible for taking minutes for daily operational meetings and distributing copies by the end of the working day. This required good listening particularly when several team members speak simultaneously and deducing what information should be accurately recorded.

Description of Roles and Responsibilities: I was employed as the Landing Gears & Engineering Management Accountant and reported to the Financial Controller who headed up the team of five. Preparation of management accounts: Month end activities that I was responsible for include the (i) actual versus budget and actual versus foreast, (ii) variable cost per hour schedules and (iii) lead on preparing long term development contract sales and commentary. The month end results were then presented to the Financial Controller and Finance Director, for an interim review before sharing with the Board. Monthly meetings would take place including oral presentation of the reports to discuss ways of rectifying variances and maintaining profitability. Other duties from my previous role included (i) reconciliation of the sales, (ii) accruals and prepayments which included commissions (iii) updating organisation’s nominal ledger via journals. These were completed on an ad hoc basis where the Financial Analyst was unavailable. Product and service costing: In this role I am responsible for accounting support, guidance and advice to departments including manufacturing, logistics and engineering management. This includes working with other departments on budgets and new quotations that would see us learn from past contracts, in line with the findings from the post completion contract reports. Key management reporting activities including using the contract reviews to advise the Financial Controller on the contract margins and the provision requirements, which would be included in the management accounts. Project management: I am an active member of the new product development team and following the contract of a significant multi-million pound project, I was involved in structuring and preparing new reports that would assist the business and its leaders, these reports would include (i) explaining the current financial results of the new design in progress, (ii) identification of any foreseeable problems in the near future, (iii) make suggestions on how the current issues could be managed and approached. Planning, budgeting and forecasting: I am responsible for the preparation and collation of budgets and forecasts in conjunction with other functional heads that included turnover by contract by period, gross margins by contract by period and cost centres by period. Our business forecasting cycle saw us complete forecasts on a quarterly basis as well budgets on an annual basis. Audit I have been responsible for co-ordinating data collation of UK internal audit over 3 sites. This including liaising between the Financial Controller, external Auditors and other Finance colleagues to collate relevant and correct information for the purposes of Audit. Any queries were fed back through the correct channels and resolved quickly and efficiently. Any learnings were taken on board and a post audit internal review was held to improve future audits.

Description of Roles and Responsibilities: I was employed as the Finance Analyst on the Landing Gears and Engineering divisions and reported to the Site Accountant who headed up a team of three. Management reporting for decision making: I monitored actual costs to budgets set within the business. This included liaising with Programme Managers to monitor plan, actual, forecast and variances on individual contracts. Preparation of monthly trading schedules was a routine task firstly for the review by the Site Controller, detailing the profitability of each contract which was then incorporated in the monthly management pack for directors. Further financial status reporting was also completed by myself, for reporting to the Managing Director, Finance Director and Programme Managers. I was also responsible for preparing and presentation of ad hoc internal reports that were used for internal purposes and assisted other functional heads with decision making. I assisted with the process review that enabled our finance team to produce a full set of monthly management accounts within four working days. I also introduced and prepared key business reports, the results were collated into the management reporting pack this included: - Sales and Margin reports detailing month and year to date performance by summary product group, product and customer for both turnover and gross margin. - Detailed overhead analysis of actual versus budget Preparation of management accounts: I was responsible for the preparation of the Engineering and Landing Gear accounts to the Site Controller on a monthly basis which included (i) accruals and prepayments which included commissions (ii) updating organisation’s nominal ledger via journals. This task was done routinely on a monthly basis and included the full preparation and review of the trial balance along with regular reconciliations of all key balance sheet accounts such as (i) provision levels, (ii) debtor control accounts, (iii) creditor control accounts, (iv) bank reconciliations (v) development contracts. Monthly reconciliations of PAYE and N.I. submissions were also a regular activity. I also prepared the yearend accounts for the Site Controller and included comparisons to previous year’s results and variance analysis schedules. I converted sales and standard margin reports to run from the previous Microsoft Access reports to run with a Qlikview format, which significantly reduced the time taken in producing the accounts and improved accuracy. Reporting I was responsible during a period of 2 months for the preparation and distribution of minutes of daily production meetings. This required quick and accurate note taking, collating data and updating a schedule of succinct relevant points and actions for distribution to the relevant colleagues (including Board level).

I was employed as a Finance Assistant in a stand-alone role and reported to one of two General Directors.

Role

Report monthly management accounts directly to the general Directors. This includes preparing accounts to trial balance including journal adjustments, accruals and prepayments, depreciation, closing stock adjustments, cost centre recharges and reviewing the nominal ledger and fixed asset register. I then compile this data into the management accounts and assess budgeted and actual performance.

Assist with preparation of annual budgets and forecasts. This includes analysing previous year’s budget and actuals and any underlying trends to prepare the forthcoming year. The budget and performance is then presented to the Parent Company on a quarterly basis where I can be invited to provide commentary on this.

Prepare monthly payroll using Sage payroll software. This includes assessing the laboratory performance for the company bonus scheme and administering the company pension scheme.

Design and prepare ad hoc reports for the Senior Management Team and other Departments including sales and purchasing. This includes analysis of slow moving stock, cost centre performance.

Liaise with the Auditors during the audit and year end accounts preparation. This includes preparing the company R&D Tax credits claim for the tax computation.

Day to day accounts preparation including prepare VAT Returns and Intrastat, timesheet management, bank reconciliations and liaising with customers and suppliers on a professional basis.

Deal with all incoming and outgoing post, banking, public and customer enquiries and also representing the company with banking and utility companies