Organisation: Roads and Maritime Services
Job Title: Accountant
Location: Sydney
In addition to my successful completion of the Bachelor of Business Management at Lincoln
University in New Zealand, I am also a current Certified Practising Accountant within Australia.
Demonstrated experience working at a supervisory level in a complex financial management
environment
Within my current role at Infosys Portland, I am responsible for the management and supervision
of an Assistant Accountant within my office and also two offshore team members located in India.
The environment we work together in is a particularly complex one with numerous staff members
sitting overseas, with different systems, but all having to work together to achieve the best result
for the company. My role deals a lot with people from India, including a monitoring and checking
role to ensure we all understand our processes and procedures.
Part of my role is to set up meetings every afternoon to talk to those staff members located
elsewhere and often to brief them about how things are run within our company in Australia, and
also Australian taxation law including GST. At one point, the organisation implemented a new
system for the accounts payable function, however this was not set up properly for the Australian
legal accounting environment and needed to be constantly worked around to get results; this has
been successfully achieved through meeting and talking over the phone consistently.
I have implemented a number of strategies to decrease the complexity of work across the
different systems and countries, including ensuring each team understands the others’ system
requirements and how they work. This provides them with an understanding of how the data and
information will be used in the other persons system. In addition, I have ensured and continue to
remind the team in India that Australian invoices need to contain the GST element, which they
don’t have there. This has been challenging to gain understanding about and I have spent a large
amount of time explaining the GST and taxation process to other staff both within and outside
Australia.
As the staff member who also runs the payroll system, I have implemented some further
strategies to simplify the process as well. This has included setting up a generic ‘helpdesk’ style
email address, where employees can email their issues and they will be dealt with by someone.
This has resulted in a more efficient service, and has also reduced the number of emails and phone
calls the CFO has been sent around payroll issues. The other beauty of this system is that
numerous people can access it, so there is always someone there to deal with the issue.
As a leader, I take a positive attitude to my work and in my management of others. The
organisation I work for currently was bought by another around three years ago and is currently
undergoing huge changes and challenges within the finance department and beyond. I am proud
of my ability to remain a positive and productive member of the team during this challenging time.
Experience in delivery of current and predictive analysis and reporting across a range of financial
management functions
My experience within my current role has demonstrated my ability to deliver on both current and
future analysis through financial management functions and reporting. I am current responsible
for a large range of reporting functions, including monthly P&L statements, Annual budget
preparation, Monthly internal reporting for the local management team and quarterly
management reports for overseas reporting purposes. In addition I am responsible for the
management, posting, tracking, review and reporting of monthly project results and forecasts.
During the Queensland Government Sourcing project, I was responsible for the financial set up
and reporting against 17 categories and consistently met with the Senior Category Manager to
update the budget and determine project spending to date. I was charged with ensuring there
were no overruns within the project and gave strategic advice to project managers on how to run
under budget and recover funds from the client if required.
Other projects which I have been working with have had up to 100 staff members and millions of
dollars to ensure is managed correctly. I strive to ensure my data is accurate and expenses are
tracked responsibly. Within these projects, I am responsible to calculate the gross margin for each
client and for each project. Along with month-end reporting, middle month reporting, requiring
forecasting to the end of the month and end of quarter reporting, I have a large amount of
experience across a broad range of financial management functions.
Demonstrated success participating or leading a variety of finance projects and meeting tight
timelines
My current employer, Infosys Portland is a large consulting company with large numbers of
projects being worked on at any given time. Part of my role in the organisation is to perform the
payroll function for all full time and permanent employees, and also contractors. In addition, my
role includes invoicing contracted payments to clients and ensuring we are receiving payment in a
timely fashion. To enable those invoices to be sent out on time, staff need to submit to me their
timesheets, so I can allocate their time to individual projects as required. This significant role has
to be completed each and every month by the 5 th of that month. This only gives me 5 days to
ensure everyone’s timesheets are in and accurate, and invoices are produced and disseminated.
Since working at Infosys, I have met and exceeded this deadline each and every month, employing
a reminder system for staff who are yet to submit their timesheets on the system.
Outside of payroll, my role has numerous and varied timelines to meet, most of which relate to
monthly, quarterly or yearly reporting and updating of the general ledger to facilitate the
reporting process. Importantly, I also have a middle of the month reporting function where I run
reports on budget and expenses for each and every project, and use this to forecast expenditure
to the end of the month. This hands on, real time reporting is something I enjoy and feel is directly
relevant to project success.
High level project management skills and experience in project evaluation and modification to
meet evolving business needs
Within my current role as Accountant, I have worked across many projects the organisation is
running, with the responsibility of reviewing the legal and financial contracts on behalf of the
organisation. In addition, I need to ensure that project schedules and payments associated with
them are facilitated and paid at each stage of the project according to the contract. These
schedules can vary a lot between different projects, meeting the needs of each party for each
project.
On one occasion, the large Caltex client of the organisation wanted to perform some of their
financial operations within our offshore Pune team to cut costs for their organisation. This is
something that is offered to clients and involves my ability to meet these needs and ensure that is
reflected in their contract and payment schedules. When organising these non-standard type
arrangements, a clause needs to be added to their contract about sharing their information
offshore to ensure they are well serviced by the offshore team adequately.
Other aspects of project management and modifications I am involved with are:
– Reporting and sharing of information around salary versus charge rates to clients to ensure
the most efficient scenario is being performed
– Ensuring accurate rates are quoted to clients and project managers
– Monitor rates to ensure capped rates are not exceeded
One aspect of my role that has evolved is the introduction of a new Rockfast payroll system,
replacing the older MYOB system, where I am the only person within the organisation who has a
strong knowledge of the system. To ensure the system is used correctly, I have run numerous
inductions for staff members, both new and old, so that they can effectively use and manage their
time through the system. I am in the process of documenting a procedure for staff to follow.
Proven experience in developing concise, ‘plain english’ financial policies, guidelines and
business rules and facilitating effective implementation strategies across an organisation
Due to our organisation having both Australian and offshore offices, some of the working
conditions guidelines and payroll benefits need to be explained to those who may not understand.
Using simple language and easy to grasp concepts, I have, on many occasions explained things
such as superannuation and the PAYG system to workers in India, who had no idea what it was. In
addition, the new COO within our organisation is not financially literate. I have spent considerable
time explaining the profit and loss and balance statements to the COO and that revenue to
calculated from invoices sent to clients. To further his understanding, I explained that accrued
revenue might be because the contract was not signed in time to pay in the previous cycle and
next month there will be two payments go out from this project.
As mentioned previously, I have recently drafted a policy and procedure for the use of the new
payroll system within Infosys called Rockfast. This new procedure will be an easy to follow
document for staff to follow when applying online for leave or amending their pay for any reason,
including annual leave, long service leave, paid parental leave among other requirements.
As well as my COO, I have an Accounting Assistant who has lots of knowledge, but is not
accounting trained and therefore often has queries and sometimes makes errors which I need to
fix and then explain for the next time.
Excellent communication skills and ability to deal with people at all levels
I have strong communication skills and within the accounting department, often deal with a broad
range of other departments, dealing with their financial issues. I communicate consistently with
my team as well as with the COO, CEO, CFO and also with junior level staff in a coaching and
mentoring capacity.
On occasion, I need to think of different ways to explain the same concept, especially if the
offshore team are having trouble understanding. In attempting one day to explain leave accrual to
my Indian counterparts, I could tell they didn’t understand the way I was trying to explain it,
especially when trying to explain that in this company you could take up to 5 days in the negative
for your leave. After thinking about it, I changed my tact and explained it, relating it to a credit
card. Essentially, I explained that they could take the leave, and then 3 months later when they
had the leave, it got paid back, similarly to a credit card where you can still buy the item, but can
pay for it later when you have the money. This explanation was much more successful and
ensuring understanding.
Within my role, I am required to deal with the Australian Taxation Office on many occasions, often
clarifying the situation for staff overseas in relation to taxation. In addition, I have communicated
with the New Zealand Taxation office, and worked closely with RALCORP, advising them on their
requirements for being audited each year.
Demonstrated experience in building and maintaining partnerships with internal and external
customers
My experience with customers is generally with clients where we are undertaking projects for
them. I am often the point of contact for clients if they have any issues with payments received as
part of the projects, or if they feel they have been incorrectly billed by us. I have the ability to both
foster and maintain working relationships with clients in this situation, even if they are upset or
agitated when they first call. On most occasions I can clarify or fix their issue very quickly and without any drama.
This makes the client pleased and lets them know they can call me next time
and the problem will be fixed. In addition within my role I deal with entities such as the ATO,
Woolworths, Caltex and Ausprey as large clients, along with many smaller clients. I like to build a
rapport with key contacts within these organisations to make sure enquiries are dealt with quickly
the next time.
Internally, I have fostered strong working relationships with client engagement managers and
project managers to ensure signed contracts are sent in to finance and as a result, clients are billed
correctly. In addition, I foster relationships with Directors and Managers of many areas, assisting
them with enquiries, setting up new accounts and projects and giving advice on process or policy
and financial management.
