Organisation: Government of Western Australia
Job Title: Senior Financial Analyst
Word Limit: Agreed on 4 pages with client
Location: East Perth
Substantial experience in analysing and reporting financial and budgetary information; apply forecasting and modelling techniques; and implementing performance improvement strategies
Within my role as Management Accountant for the Department of Regional Development and Lands, I was responsible for producing a broad range of monthly and quarterly financial reports for both the division and the projects. These included Actual vs Budget scenarios as well as forecasting formulas to determine expected expenditure in the future. Similarly, during my tenure with CY O’Connor Education Research Development and Employment (ERADE) Village, my role included the employment of financial modelling and scenario analysis for a large land development project that they were implementing, including developing and implementing the entire budget for this project. I was required to forecast expenditure for each stage of the project, culminating in the calculation of the net cash flow value. These figures were then used to calculate the internal rate of return and a range of other viability determinants. In addition, my role used scenario planning to determine cash flow and revenue production for the entire life of the project using financial modelling techniques and financial performance improvement strategies.
When I commenced my role at CY O’Connor, it became quickly clear that their financial management processes were in crisis and the bookkeeper was clearly out of their depth of knowledge trying to maintain them. I set myself the task of planning the improvement of the financial management and to improve the bookkeeper’s performance at the same time. This involved a range of mentoring and coaching sessions where I updated the bookkeeper’s knowledge, skills and performance as a whole. These sessions and overall support of my colleague were a large determining factor in the improvement seen in the financial management over the next year.
Substantial contemporary knowledge of financial management processes, policy and legislation
CY O’Connor Education Research Development and Employment (ERADE) Village was a diverse business, including real estate development, beef farming, hotel and restaurant and a liquor shop. This was a not-for-profit foundation which had a diversity of business areas. My role as Site Management Accountant included the financial, tax and management accounting for the multi-stage development project, the cattle breeding and beef farming area, the restaurant and hotel, a not-for-profit research laboratory, self-managed super funds and foreign currency accounts. This significantly diverse role has given me a broad appreciation for a number of industries and the requirements of financial management within them.
Specifically, I prepared and monitored budgets for each area, developed and monitored a weekly rolling budget for the restaurant and hotel, as well as general budgets for the other areas of the company. The rolling budget for the restaurant and hotel was based on the previous four weeks of sales, taking into account upcoming events and activities as well. I was required to lodge the BAS returns as well as management of payroll taxation and prepare reports and financial summaries for presentation at the Board meetings. This included the outline of any anomalies or issues which needed to be discussed or decided upon. Having 40 – 50 employees, this medium sized organisation was extraordinarily diverse and a challenge in terms of financial management.
My knowledge and understanding of policy and legislation is best demonstrated through my current role, where I have responsibilities around GST and general Taxation legislation as well as facilitating the assessment of construction contracts and tenders in line with current Departmental policy. This particular policy dictates requirements of construction companies in tendering for Government work and I have demonstrated my ability to work within this policy on numerous occasions.
Excellent conceptual and analytical skills, with a proven ability to understand complex financial issues and identify innovative solutions to them
Within my current role as Business Analyst – Risk in the Department of Finance, Building Management and Works, my responsibilities require me to undertake business risk analyses and reporting of private construction companies at the pre-qualification and tender stage, and analyse, assess and evaluate proposals based on their potential risk factor. This requires a significant amount of analytical and conceptual thinking and practice. Essentially, I analyse the financial statements of construction companies to determine whether they are suitable contractors for Government in terms of risk. This analysis includes gathering information about the company’s financial status, current workload, assets and liabilities and assessing them for an overall rating of low, medium or high risk. Within this process, I analyse their financial statements, but also amend them to reflect the project to which they are applying and discount any assets which don’t meet the requirements for equity or stability purposes.
To analyse the company’s cash flow, I take the financial statements for the last three years and project that into the future, based on average revenue including a growth factor. This amount can then be used to determine how much work the company can take on at the present time. If the tender they are applying for is more than this amount, the company would then be asked to provide more information about how they would finance the project.
I use the current projects that a company is working on to determine a monthly figure for each project and add together any multiple projects to determine contract value capacity for the next 12 months. Again, if the current workload is more than the assessed workload, the question needs to be asked about how they are going to manage, should their tender application be successful. If the company is rated as medium or high risk, they would be asked to put up a guarantor for their application, or explain how they would deal with the extra workload. This high level overall determination of risk demonstrates my expertise in the analysis of financial statements within commercial and Government operations.
Excellent verbal and written communication skills with a proven ability to present complex information clearly, concisely and effectively in discussion and written reports
During my tenure at CY O’Connor, I presented on numerous occasions to the Board of the not-for-profit entity, presenting financial modelling and management to the members. The members of the board were in some cases particularly non-financially aware individuals who I needed to explain terms such as Internal rate of return and return on investment to. I would use a large variety of presentation ideas ranging from text reports to graphs and visuals to represent the information they needed to be aware of. This variety seems to facilitate excellent communication with the Board members and was appreciated by all members.
I am able to tailor my communication skills to my audience and am required to do this during my current role where I have dealt with many external stakeholders, including construction companies, Directors and Accounting professionals among others. I provide a large amount of information in written form either via reports or emails and have a clear and concise writing style, highlighting the most important parts of the reports or emails appropriately. Within this role, when I am communicating with unsuccessful tenderers, I need to be able to represent the decision of the organisation in clear terms, which can be easily understood, both giving the unsuccessful company feedback and also assisting them in improving their position for their next attempt. My written communication skills are also used to communicate via email and official letter, whilst also being used to report on my analysis of the different tendering organisations and outcomes.
Excellent interpersonal skills, with a proven ability to develop and maintain productive working relationships and negotiate effectively with stakeholders at all levels
As mentioned in the previous criteria, I have extensive experience in working productively with external stakeholders at all levels, including construction companies, Directors, Government entities and accounting professionals. In relation to construction companies who are unsuccessful in the tendering process, I need to communicate and negotiate our position with them to ensure they are not put off due to losing one tender. It is important for us and for our tendering team to maintain excellent relationships with both successful and unsuccessful companies.
Internally, I am aware of many relationships I have fostered over time and maintain these relationships through ensuring my requests of others are reasonable and timely and I remain polite and efficient. In my current role, I have Project Managers requesting me to perform risk analyses on different companies in relation to their projects. On some occasions, their preferred tenderer, or the one with the lowest price, or even the current incumbent company does not always pass the test for financial security and therefore cannot be successful. In this instance, I keep the project manager informed throughout the assessment process to ensure they understand where things are at and why we have made the decision to exclude them from the tender process. Often, this means giving the project manager a choice of either waiting for the company to provide a guarantor for the project or engaging the next best choice of tenderer.
Demonstrated ability to work effectively in a team environment
Within my current role in the Department of Finance – Building Management and Works, there are three Business Analysts in my team and we share an email inbox to which project managers send their risk assessment requests. As with the inbox, we share the workload within our small team and help one another if we are overwhelmed with work. When a job comes in, it is given a colour to indicate with Business Analyst is facilitating that job and this ensures everyone is aware of whose job is whose. This team of three Business Analysts service another team of 20 – 30 business analysts at any one time, meaning we have to communicate and work collaboratively in order to get the workload completed.
When I began work in this team, there was a significant tension between the project manager team and the business analyst team. This tension was as a result of the business analyst team sometimes rejecting tenderers which were favoured by project managers. To combat this issue, our team have been diligent in a number of strategies including providing advice and assistance to unsuccessful tenderers, ensuring they understand what they need to do next time and ensuring relationships, even with unsuccessful tenderers are maintained to make life easier for the project management team.
Demonstrated experience in using software applications (such as Microsoft Excel) for complex data analysis and financial modelling
I have excellent and advanced skills in the use of MS Excel and use it each and every day within my current role. Within the program, I can develop and use advanced features such as pivot tables and Vlookup functions as well as Power Pivot tables introduced in the 2013 version of the application. I use Excel to import data from financial management software in order to clean up and present reports and also to run analysis from. In addition, I can programme macros within Excel to assist with automating recurrent processes easily.
As well as Excel, I have strong skills in MS Visio, MS Project, MS Word, Access and PowerPoint as well as Oracle financials and SAP. My attached resume contains a full list of my technical computer-based skills.
Current knowledge of legislative obligations for Equal Opportunity, Disability services and Occupational Safety and Health, and how these impact on employment and service delivery
Having worked within Government departments for a number of years, I have a strong understanding of both the APS Code of Conduct as well as legislative obligations, including equal opportunity and OHS. Within my current and previous roles, I have worked with and developed productive relationships with a broad diversity of colleagues and stakeholders, including a large range of industries and positions. I am a good corporate citizen and find that the values of the Australian Government align well with my own values and morals.
DESIREABLE
Tertiary Qualifications in a relevant discipline
Originally studying a Bachelor of Business Science in Quantitative Management, I have since completed both a Master of Professional Accounting at Edith Cowan University and the Master of Financial Mathematics through the University of Western Australia.
CPA eligibility or progress towards membership of CPA Australia
I am currently an Associate Member of CPA Australia and am currently undertaking studies to gain full accreditation by the end of 2016.
