Organisation: Victorian Chamber of Commerce and Industry
Job Title: Assistant Financial Accountant
Location: Victoria
CA/CPA Qualifications (or studying towards) with a minimum of 3 years’ experience in financial accounting
Possessing 14 years of accounting and finance experience, I have a proven record of delivering successful outcomes in this field. My current positon as Revenue Accountant for the Australian and New Zealand College of Anaesthetists (ANZCA) sees me managing the revenue streams of the organisation from thousands of membership accounts along with all other Accounts Receivable. In this role I am responsible for a diverse range of revenue-related financial duties including cash flow management, balance sheet reconciliation and bank reconciliation. Since commencing this position I have demonstrated my capacity to design and implement streamlined processes to improve the efficiency and accuracy of financial processing activities.
For the eight years prior to moving to my current role, held positions at CPA (Certified Practising Accountants) Australia, one of the world’s largest accounting bodies with a global membership of more than 150,000 members working in 120 countries around the world. In this large and complex organisation, the finance team of ten people was among the 450 staff employed by CPA Australia. Commencing as Senior Accounts Payable Administrator, I then obtained a promotion to the position of Assistant Accountant and also undertook a year-long secondment in the role of Financial Accountant. These opportunities for promotion and additional responsibility came as a result of my proven success in performing a range of accounting and finance responsibilities, as well as my demonstrated willingness to acquire new skills and seek opportunities for further development. With a strong record of achievements throughout my career, in my roles with CPA Australia I was instrumental in implementing an electronic filing system across the organisation and successfully undertook a project to streamline the fixed asset process for capital expenditure (CapEx) by the technology business unit, working with key stakeholders to introduce processes which have increased transparency and communication around progress of CapEx projects.
My experience to date has provided me with exposure to the full range of organisational accounting and financial functions. My responsibilities have included compilation of financial statements, including monthly profit and loss (P&L) statements, extensive liaison with key business stakeholders to review month-end results and variances, general ledger (GL) reconciliations and assisting in compiling annual report. I have also undertaken monthly reporting including business activity statements (BAS), WorkCover and payroll tax, maintenance of the fixed assets register, including reporting, analysis and reconciliations and monitoring of cash flow on a daily basis. With extensive practical accounting experience, I am currently studying towards formal CPA qualifications, which I expect to complete in 2017.
Knowledge of Accounting Standards
With a strong record of professional success, throughout my career I have demonstrated a sound knowledge of accounting and financial standards and processes, policies and procedures and the ability to interpret and apply legislation. My responsibilities and functions across my career have been broad, giving me an opportunity to develop knowledge of most aspects of accounting practice and exposure to financial management. With a sound understanding of accounting standards and best practice, I have been instrumental in contributing to various accounting and finance policies and procedures, ensuring they are regularly maintained, updated and distributed across the organisation.
In my previous role with CPA Australia, I was responsible for processing invoices relevant to the various business units across the organisation, including creation of invoices and distribution to relevant stakeholders. I played a significant role in ensuring all documentation was received from across the organisation in time for weekly invoice processing and was responsible for receipting monies received and producing a weekly accounts receivable report for line managers. I also prepared explanatory notes, for use in external Financial Statements, regarding statement items such as such as Provisions for Doubtful Debts, the Fixed Asset Table of tangible and intangible assets, and Lease and Other Commitments. These notes were prepared in accordance with Australian Accounting Standards that applied to their use in public financial reports, demonstrating my knowledge of these Standards and capacity to apply them in undertaking financial processing and reporting activities.
In a prior role as a Senior Accounts Payable Administrator, I was tasked with ensuring invoices were approved correctly according to financial delegation policies. I also facilitated training of others in the accounts payable process according to accounting standards and organisational requirements. Other functions I have successfully undertaken throughout my career include lodgement of business activity statements (BAS) and preparation of fringe benefits tax (FBT) statements, for which I have undertaken formal training. In my role as Assistant Account I was responsible for submitting the company’s payroll tax return each month across all states in Australia, and also perform the payroll and leave general ledger journals for CPA Australia’s New Zealand offices.
High level organisational and time management skills including a proven ability to meet deadlines
Demonstrating my capacity to organise and structure projects to tackle ongoing matters, in my previous role with CPA Australia I spent a period 12 months reconciling the sundry debtors of the organisation after a system failure had resulted in records being lost. This was an ongoing project which required me to develop a plan of action and implement available resources to solve a complex problem. By effectively managing my time and approaching this issue in a structured and organised way, I was able to provide a reconciliation in time to meet a deadline for audit.
Throughout my career I have demonstrated my capacity to complete work to strict deadlines and manage my time effectively in high-pressured environments. One example of this from my time as Assistant Accountant at CPA Australia came when external audits were simultaneously being conducted at the Australian and Malaysian offices. On this occasion I was requested to complete reconciliation of the Australian sundry debtors account within a five-day time period – a difficult task given the state of the sundry debtors list outlined above. At the same time, I was called upon to perform reconciliations for the Malaysian office where auditors required the information with a two-day deadline. This too was a complex exercise, as the Malaysian office operates very much on manual processes and there were over 4,000 transactions requiring reconciliation. The successful delivery of both of these reconciliations within such short overlapping timeframes required me to manage my time effectively and work efficiently to provide the required outcomes.
Accustomed to working under strict time pressures, at CPA Australia I worked to strict timeframes for the completion of certain tasks, including a tree-day turnaround time to complete reconciliation at month-end in order to allow governance reports to be completed as required. Meeting this very short timeframe required me to be extremely organised and plan and manage my time in the lead up to, as well as during, the end-of-month period. I am familiar with the demands of working with a membership-based organisation where subscription or membership periods create peak times of intense demand on accounting resources. As an organised and methodical person, I forecast and plan for such periods of peak demand so that I can manage my time effectively to complete all required actions by the necessary deadlines.
Good analytical skills
My strong analytical and problem solving skills were demonstrated during my tenure as Assistant Accountant with CPA Australia, where I spent 12 months reconciling the sundry debtors of the organisation. A complex problem was created when in 2013, following a four-year building process a new customer relationship management (CRM) system was implemented by the organisation. In the previous system, a number of reports were used to reconcile the sundry debtors list. It emerged that in the introduction of the new CRM, a number of reports were lost which meant there was limited available information on sundry debtors. Staff movements in the financial team meant that this problem went unaddressed for some time, which only exacerbated the problem. Due to my reputation for my ability to analyse problems, develop solutions and undertake complex tasks, it was requested that I tackle this problem and find a way to perform a reconciliation of the sundry debtor’s accounts.
There was no straightforward solution to this problem, and I needed to first analyse the issue to identify the best avenues to pursue to provide the tools needed for success. Because no report existed under the new CRM which could provide the information I needed, I worked closely with the technology unit to locate the required information, generate reports and analyse key data. This was an extremely time consuming process which required a great deal of trial and checking to ensure that the correct data was being pulled from our system to generate the report I would require. This again required application of my analytical skills, as I checked the product of trial reports to determine whether they would provide the information I needed to move on to the next phase of the solution. Once this process was successfully completed and I had the correct data, I was then able to work with key business unit stakeholders in recovering sundry debt. I was ultimately able to provide a reconciliation upon request in time for audit. My success in undertaking this process was demonstrated clearly through implementing changes and improvements to processes within the Finance and Member Administration teams for debt collection which resulted in 85% reduction in sundry debtors within three months.
excellent communication skills and attention to detail
Over the course of my professional career I have demonstrated outstanding communication skills, both written and oral, with highly developed listening skills and the ability to appropriately respond to stakeholders, management and team members. With the capacity to adapt my communication style and messages to suit my audience, I focus on delivering a high standard of customer service in my role. I do this by providing a professional approach to each interaction using my superior interpersonal and engagement skills. As a naturally social person, I am a skilled communicator and I endeavour to build and maintain positive relationships in my professional dealings. I am able to convey complex financial and accounting information in a readily understandable way that meets the needs of the recipient. When dealing with people who do not have an accounting background or knowledge I thoroughly explain the complex information I am providing in a clear and concise manner and ask questions to ensure that I am being understood.
Many of the tasks I have undertaken on a daily basis rely on a high level of attention to detail and the ability to ensure precision and accuracy in my work. This includes my work with fixed assets registers, balance sheet reconciliations, raising and receipting of debtor invoices, processing and payment of creditor invoices, bank reconciliations, end-of-month journals, month-end variance analysis, and reconciling corporate credit cards. My attention to detail has been relied upon in my work on figures that are fed into external financial statements for annual reports.
In an example that demonstrates both my ability to communicate effectively and my attention to detail, as Assistant Accountant I was required for the first time to compile the necessary information for CPA Australia’s yearly insurance policy renewal. One of these six policies was the organisation’s travel insurance policy. In the past, the staff providing information to the insurance broker had provided rough estimates of the organisation’s travel activity, rather than any concrete data. I recognised that this may not have led to the optimum policy pricing and conditions being secured and determined to secure more accurate data for this year’s submission. To this end, I liaised extensively with CPA Australia’s travel provider and successfully obtained detailed data on items such as the number of trips taken, destinations travelled to, number of individual travellers and total number of nights away. The level of detail I provided was such that our insurance underwriters were able to issue a policy without needing to request any further information, and I could be confident that my precision and accuracy had secured the most appropriate policy for CPA Australia’s needs at the best price.
Demonstrated experience with financial systems, e.g. Microsoft Dynamics GP
In my work I facilitate all accounting and finance tasks through my comprehensive information technology (IT) skills and capabilities. Throughout my career I have developed skills across a variety of accounting-based systems and have developed processes for system use as well as provided training to others. With nine years of experience in the use of Microsoft Dynamics GP, I am extremely proficient in its functions. In my role at CPA Australia as Assistant Accountant, I utilised Microsoft Dynamics GP for all accounts payable functions, debtors, fixed assets and journal entries. In the reporting field I use it to extract data and create trial balances; utilising the Integration Manager I upload journals in to Microsoft Dynamics GP. In addition, I used the Workplace add-on to raise purchase orders, and also used Cognos to undertake forecasting, produce P&L reports and to produce complex management accounting reports as required. My work at CPA Australia also involves the use of a Customer Relationship Management (CRM) system which ‘communicated’ with Microsoft Dynamics GP via application of the Scribe transcription program.
In my current role as a Revenue Accountant with ANZCA, my knowledge of Microsoft Dynamics GP has been expanded as I have learned to use new functions that are suitable to my current workplace’s requirements, while I have been able to upskill my fellow team members by training them in functions that I have previously used which they were not familiar with. My extensive experience with Microsoft Dynamics GP means that I have seen several versions and upgrades; with an aptitude for technology I have been quick to adapt to and make best use of new functions available with successive versions of the program.
Comfortable and confident in the use of technology, I am quick to adapt to new software packages and programs. While I have had the benefit of formal training in the use of some programs, I also possess an aptitude for technology which allows me to pick up new skills with minimal instruction or teach myself to use new programs. With a broad base of accounting and financial experience, I rapidly adapt to the use of new programs to complete accounting tasks.
Intermediate Microsoft Office, especially Excel, and database knowledge
As an advanced user of Microsoft (MS) Office software, I utilise Word, Excel and Outlook regularly in my work. On a day-to-day basis I use MS Word to produce overdue notice letters; MS Outlook Calendar to schedule meetings and email to send correspondence, and the Internet for research purposes. In my work I use MS Excel to an advanced level on a regular basis; I am proficient in the use of pivot tables and VLOOKUP. I regularly use Excel to develop and update spreadsheets, and am able to prepare graphs and tables of data to communicate complex financial information in a clear way.
Currently I am employed as the Revenue Accountant at ANZCA, a professional association with over 5,000 Fellows and 2,000 trainees. These members each pay an annual fee to maintain current membership, and I am responsible for managing receipt of revenue from these membership fees along with all other accounts receivable. I work extensively with the organisation’s membership management database, iMIS Database, to track and record revenue activities relating to membership categories and individual members. The information collated in this database is then fed in to the financial management system (Microsoft Dynamics GP).
As Assistant Accountant at CPA Australia, I worked with an even larger membership group. With 150,000 members, the volume of transactions for which I was responsible at CPA Australia was high. Towards the end of each calendar year, subscription renewal notices were sent to each of these members requesting payment for the new subscription year commencing from the 1st of January. Subsequent to this, student payments for the CPA program open on the 9th of January. These events generate an extremely high number of bank deposits within a short timeframe. In order to ensure that any discrepancies are quickly caught and resolved, I needed to closely monitor both the database and financial systems to monitor incoming transactions and conduct regular bank reconciliations.
The financial aspects of CPA Australia’s operations are managed through Microsoft Dynamics GP (Great Plains) and Customer Relationship Management (CRM) software, which are linked through a program known as Scribe. On occasion a transcription error occurred between these two operating systems; in this case my role required me to efficiently identify and resolve the error. This task was complicated through not only the high volume of transactions, but also the international nature of the organisation. With members in 120 countries all making payments in the same short time window, I needed to identify where in the world the problem has originated. This required extensive familiarity with both the financial and database systems in order to track and resolve errors.
