Stanley Crook

Returned to North London Waste Authority after my secondment year at Enfield Council with improved skills and experience being heavily involved in various financial reporting tasks:

• Proactively and efficiently assisted the management accountant working on the management accounts, recording transactions downloaded from Oracle and costs relating to operations of waste management.
• Proactively requested to work on the Q4 forecast using previously acquired Excel skills to accurately amend the format as instructed.
• Efficiently used Excel to assist in creation of tables for the 26/27 section of the forecast with requested formulae, and input cost figures acquired from relevant budget holders.
• Proactively asked for the responsibility of preparing provisional forecast figures for various areas of waste management operations that would be presented to budget holders for feedback, basing the figures on historical data and actuals for the financial year.
• Took part in budget holder meetings to accurately collect tonnage figures and confirm the accuracy of previously forecasted figures.
• Successfully worked on the Menu Pricing to the instruction of the Head of Finance, accurately updating figures and correcting errors so that they would be reported to the Managing Director within the stated deadline.
• Proactively assisted the Head of Finance and the Management Accountant in preparing the Budget Report, efficiently updating figures from relevant spreadsheets, checking for and correcting errors and preparing tables to be included in the Budget Report.
• Assisted with the invoicing process to ensure that invoices are processed in a timely manner.
• Successfully assisted the Finance Analyst with the posting of journals in Oracle system.

This was my second year in the finance industry and I completed a rotation at Enfield Council, where I carried out complex tasks efficiently in several finance roles and departments:

Treasury Team (5 months):

• Gained a detailed understanding of the treasury management function in the London Borough of Enfield with specific focus on both long-term and short-term borrowing.
• Was responsible for the recording and processing of the daily expenditure using software systems such as SAP, Stripe, Bottomline PTX, Global Pay, World Pay and HSBCnet.
• Posted journals on SAP as part of the expenditure management process for approval by the Treasury manager.

As part of my placement in the Treasury Department I was heavily involved in a project that examined the borrowing costs as these were increasing and assist in their decrease. As part of this project I successfully fulfilled the following responsibilities:

• Help prepare and format the Excel spreadsheet containing invoice details that would be used for the project, having sole responsibility for successfully preparing the data for 7 areas of the Council.
• Use both SAP and ASH software systems to collect, extract and then present invoicing data to the relevant Heads of Service.
• Accurately analysed the collected data to quantify the delay in raising the invoices in question, using an estimated invoice raised date. The delays identified ranged between 5 days and 167 days.
• Liaised with various Enfield Council employees, including both Heads of Service and Finance Directors, setting up and taking the lead in meetings to make detailed inquiries regarding the invoicing delay.
• Challenging the responses received to obtain an accurate answer regarding the number of days in which the invoice raising process was delayed.
• Inputting the collected data into the Excel dataset to quantify the total cost of the delays, and using the provided formulas to calculate this cost.
• Presented the financial data to the Treasury Manager to be used for further action in re-designing the invoicing process to reduce total borrowing costs in then future.

Capital and Projects Team (7 months):

• Gained knowledge regarding the Capital side of financial management by initially shadowing senior colleagues in their day to day tasks.
• Worked on the Master Capital Programme that contained all financial data related to all the capital projects carried out by Enfield Council, inputting new data extracted from SAP.
• Took up the business partner role for minor areas covered by the programme to assist the senior finance business partner.
• Assisted in the preparation of service specific budget reports, that included the expenditure figures recorded in the Master Capital Programme which would be sent to budget holders prior to monthly budget review meetings.
• Communicated with budget holders to accurately identify problems with both the recorded budget figures and expected expenditure and communicated them to the Senior Finance Business Partner in a timely manner.
• Challenged expenditure commitments to collect detailed comments to identify problems that might impede project progress to accurately record the estimated future expenditure.
• Downloaded monthly transactions that were recorded in SAP and entered them into the Master Capital Programme following the established data format to ensure the data-set was up to date.
• Carried out substantive procedures on invoices over £100,000 to ensure that the correct purchase order was used and that they were charged to the appropriate cost centre.
• Assisted the Head of Finance in the review of the Q1 cabinet report preparation of the Q2 cabinet report by liaising with budget holders to collect detailed comments regarding the status of projects for the Environment and Communities area.
• Gained exposure to variance analysis.
• Improved Excel skills and became proficient with the SAP software system.

During my time in the Capital Team I was tasked with the financial aspect of two business cases for to construction projects where I reported directly to the Head of Finance who reviewed my work:

• I accurately completed feasibility study DP/1 forms for both projects having a provisional cost of £2.7 million and £1.5 million respectively, contacting Project Managers and Heads of Service to challenge the precision of the estimated costs.
• Efficiently completed 2 investment appraisal DP/2 forms including the NPV for both projects to the deadline required.
• Successfully made a recommendation based on previous historical data for similar construction projects to raise the contingency from 10% to 20%, which resulted in a final agreed contingency of 17%.
• Made a recommendation to change the wording used in the classification of costs that would help secure funding for the project.
• Accurately spotted an unnecessary cost that saved the project an estimated £30,000 that was successfully reinvested in other areas.
• Proofread the draft of both business cases giving specific importance to the financial sections to assure accuracy.

This was my first year in the finance industry and was exposed to and completed the following tasks:

• Was responsible for the Accounts payable for the organisation after the purchase order manager left.
• Raised and manged purchase orders for all departments in the organisation, liaising with budget holders and Heads of Service to ensure that a swift invoicing process was in place.
• Processed capital and revenue invoices, using the Oracle software system, for all departments in the organization, communicating with budget holders for approval. The value for the invoices ranged from £40 to £30,000,000.
• Accurately completed CHAPS forms for overseas payments ranging between 20 and 25 million euros.
• Liaised with budget holders to understand and solve problems that existed regarding invoicing to ensure that invoices were paid according to the payment terms provided by suppliers.
• Proactively resolved budget holder queries regarding purchase orders, supplier set-up or invoice payment.
• Cleared the backlog of unpaid invoices liaising with both suppliers and approving managers to ensure that the backlog problem was solved as efficiently as possible in a timely manner.
• Liaised with suppliers to resolve queries regarding invoices and purchase orders to resolve issues and disputes effectively.
• Reviewed the supplier set-up process on a daily basis to identify issues and worked to solve them accurately and efficiently.
• Reviewed the monetary accuracy of the received timesheets in a timely manner for the capital projects undertaken by the organisation and liaised with the relevant project manager and budget holder for approval.
• Throughout my first year in the organisation I was exposed to the budget management and forecasting processes for Q3.
• Reviewed, with supervision, the accounts of a small charity to accurately determine if the organization met the necessary criteria to receive a grant for a recycling workshop program.
• Assisted the management accountant with tasks related to the management accounts and the forecast, gaining an understanding of financial analysis and improving my Excel skills related to finance in the process.
• Shadowed the senior finance business partner during her budget holder meetings with the Strategy and Services team to gain detailed business insight and understand the best practice for the business partnering role.
• Assisted the management accountant in the preparation of the Social Value analysis spreadsheet that would be presented to the Communications team.
• After 9 months I trained the new staff member that would take over the purchase order manager role, effectively explaining how to use the Oracle finance software system and the entire invoicing process, ensuring that invoices would be paid according to the payment terms provided by the supplier.
• Gained experience, skills and knowledge surrounding financial analysis and management improving my ability to efficiently complete tasks independently.
• Gained knowledge and improved my skills regarding Excel applied to the finance sector.
• Developed an understanding of the Oracle finance software system and used it in my day to day task efficiently.

• Responsible for the full 360 recruitment cycle.
• Searched for and identified potential candidates for specific roles.
• Completed full pre-screen of candidates to achieve a perfect understanding of their situation and requirements for the position they were after.
• Built a strong pipeline of candidates that were ready to be put forward for the available vacancies.
• Managed candidates by keeping in close contact with them so that we were aware of any changes to their situation and deliver the best possible service in order to increase the existing candidate pipeline through referrals.
• Carried out Business Development with NHS Trusts and Private Clients.
• Built a client portfolio from scratch, mainly consisting of NHS Trusts in the North of England and Scotland, improving the presence of the business in the region.
• Regularly made contact with clients in order to acquire new vacancies through both warm and cold calling, acquiring excellent communication skills.
• Managed accounts of existing and new clients to keep track of their needs and requirements so that we knew how we could best solve their staffing problems.
• Responsible for writing job advertisements for the active vacancies that were being worked on in order to attract candidates that met the specific requirements of the role.
• Multi-tasked duties throughout the day to deal with a heavy workload under pressure.
• Organized and managed time accordingly, prioritizing tasks and duties so that they would all be resolved in a timely manner.
• Would regularly carry out admin tasks, increasing my organization skills to make sure that every document that I was responsible for was in order.
• Became an expert with the CRM system that we used for candidates an clients.
• Worked effectively as part of the recruitment team, helping other consultants to solve whichever problems appeared, building a strong teamwork environment.
• Adhered to the sales strategy that was put in place by management.
• Actively discovered methods that proved successful and relayed them to management so that they were included in the best demonstrated practice.

• Welcomed guests and clients in upbeat and friendly manner.
• Demonstrated open communication and collaborated with various teams.
• Greeted customers promptly and professionally, providing friendly, knowledgeable assistance.
• Worked on multiple administrative tasks concurrently.
• Liaised with staff and external representatives at multiple levels.
• Completed assigned work within deadlines and to company standards.
• Optimised organisational workflow by flexibly catering to current business needs.
• Responded to telephone enquiries from clients, vendors and members of public.
• Improved productivity by coordinating itineraries and scheduling appointments.