Sue Thorn

I joined Adams Aviation as the Finance Manager after being made redundant from my Finance Director role at Basil Fry, this was initially on a six month contract but was moved to a fixed contract after that period.

I am responsible for the day to day running of the Accounts department and the Accounts team of three. Each month I produce the month end accounts and have meetings with the Group Finance department of the parent company to discuss the P&L results. I also reconcile the balance sheets and have assisted with the audit requirements for the year end.

I am also responsible for authorising all bank payments and working with the team on the day to day running of the finance department for the company.

Reason for leaving - When I took on this role I was aware that it would be much less pressured and demanding than my previous role but as time has gone on I have realised that I need to be more involved as I was in my previous Financial Controller & Finance Director roles and this role of Finance Manager is now not enough for me based on my previous experience.

Promoted from Financial Controller to Finance Director in July 2017, my Financial Controller duties remained the same and my team of four accounts assistants remained in place. My Financial Controller duties were as noted in the next section below.

To that role I added the responsibility of ensuring funds were available to repay the management buy-out loans, being part of the management board making decisions regarding all of the companies finances and completing all of the due diligence work prior to the sale of the company in February 2023.

Reason for Leaving - Post the sale of the company my FD role was made redundant and my finance team were incorporated into the finance services of the new company.

Employed to take over from the previous Financial Director when they retired my duties were very varied and due to the small size of the accounts team and a rapidly growing business were based on a very hands on approach. Managing a team of four account assistants, managing and stream-lining processes to make the systems more efficient and working closely with the companies Board of Directors and management team. Basil Fry is an insurance broker for a niche market of removal and self-storage operators and therefore putting client relationships at the forefront of day to day business including the finance team. My monthly duties in that role included payroll and pensions, reporting income and P&L figures to the board, producing insurance premium listing to insurers, paying insurer statements, daily banking and cash allocation and reconciliation of client and bank accounts, all aspects of accounting for the claims payments and excesses charged, posting and paying purchase ledger, credit control, dealing with the broking team on any queries or accounts questions, dealing with insurers on any statement queries. Preparing prepayments, accruals and balance sheet and fixed asset reconciliations. Working to strict deadlines from the insurers. Annual duties included working with the auditors to produce the year-end accounts and audit and working with the board on forecasts and projections.

The role advertised was to provide Management Accounts and reporting for the group, but the actual role varied from that and was more a case of clearing up the accounts from the company purchases and consolidating them into the group.

Reason for Leaving - I was looking for a role that added more commercial value so left after a few months when I had found a more suitable role with Basil Fry.

Reporting to the Financial Controller and Finance Director. Preparing & inputting journals for costs, accruals, prepayments to produce P&L accounts for several business units, this included staff costs, expenditure costs & capital expenditure in the month and year-to-date. Working with the budget holders each month on their capital expenditure and P&L results. Reporting figured to the FD and working with management on quarterly forecasts, yearly budget and monthly analysis of variances.

Reason for Leaving - Looking for a more varied role.

Reporting to the Financial Controller, working in a team of twelve. Collating and reporting weekly / monthly sales figures for two of the Countrywide subsidiaries, producing monthly sales packs and P&L's for the MD's and regional managers at company and branch level with tight deadlines. Journals, accruals, prepayments, balance sheet and fixed asset reconciliations. Bank reconciliations, inter-company accounts. dealing with clients and sales office staff. Ad-hoc projects as instructed by the Financial Controller.

Reason for Leaving - Redundancy as accounts teams were relocated in the country.

Raising monthly bills to be sent to clients, chasing overdue debts, petty cash & banking.

Reason for Leaving - To move into a Management Accountant role.

Working for the European computer software consultants division in a team of six. Dealing with all aspects of contractor time sheets and payments, entering journals, accruals, prepayments, purchase and sales ledger and producing manual P&L.

Reason for Leaving - Made redundant as the accounts team relocated.

Working with the Financial Controller on sales and purchase ledger, petty cash, accruals, prepayments and any ad-hoc duties as requested.

Reason for Leaving - To further my development and produce management accounts

Worked in the expenditure team where we received manual petty cash ledger receipts from ports all over the world.

These were analysed and a dual currency expenditure reconciliation for

each port was produced manually which was then sent to the management accounts team to produce monthly P&L's for each port.

Reason for Leaving - To get further experience as an accounts assistant.