Organisation: City of Greater Dandenong
Job Title: Assistant Financial Accountant
Word Limit: Maximum of 5 pages for all 11 Criteria
Location: Springvale Municipal Offices
A tertiary qualification in accounting with professional qualifications (ACA, CPA or equivalent), or progressing towards one
In addition to my Bachelor Degree in Commerce, I have completed a number of subjects to gain Associate CPA accreditation. These subjects include: Taxation Law, Business Law, Financial Accounting, Theory of Accounting, Organisational Finance, Economics for Business, System Management Overview, and Quantitative Methods. I have another 6 subjects to complete to gain my full CPA accreditation.
Demonstrated thorough knowledge of General Accounting practices, policies and procedures, Local Government Act and Australian Accounting Standards
During both my studies and my current role as Assistant Accountant, I have developed and maintained an excellent knowledge of general accounting practices and procedures, and demonstrate this on a daily basis. As per my resume, my role includes a broad range of accounting tasks and I have been successful in upholding these, and also the implementation of new systems and procedures. In addition, as an associate CPA, I receive up to date information from Certified Practicing Accountants, which contains vast amounts of information around the Australian Accounting Standards. I have learned and developed my skills in this area through working for and with the school’s Accountant.
My awareness of changes within Australian and Victorian legislation around taxation means I am aware of issues such as the update of Fringe Benefits Tax around work-related vehicle use from 16 July 2013, as well as other issues such as the 2010 changes to our reporting to the Department of Education, Employment and Workplace Relations around a new chart of accounts for non-government schools to follow when submitting financial statements under the Schools Assistance Act 2008.
As a constituent of the Greater Dandenong Council area, I actually ran for council last year, and although I was unsuccessful, I maintain an excellent knowledge of the Local Government Act, as well as many of the directions and budget decisions that council are making. These decisions are based around elections, planning and building, community services, parking, roads, transport, library, improvement projects, family and children’s services and property values, among others.
Demonstrated thorough knowledge of General Accounting principles and practices, gained in an organisation with diverse operations and strict reporting deadlines
At Minaret College, we work under a recurrent funding model which comes with a range of strict reporting deadlines with DEEWR attached to our grants. There are a range of grants which need to be monitored from both state and federal governments, as well as, in recent years, some funding for new buildings on site. These grants need to be budgeted and monitored around expenditure against budget, and then reported on at the end of each year or project to ensure the money has been spent as agreed. My role is to monitor this expenditure using my accounting knowledge, as well as prepare and lodge reports at the end of the year.
Although our school’s operations are not as diverse as the council operations, I have been involved with the myriad of projects undertaken within the school, which would align with council’s role in administering and monitoring funds, especially in Roads, Community Facilities and Open Space, three of the highlighted areas within your capital works program for the 2013/14 financial year. I am particularly pleased to see council funding a new state of the art library for the community.
Demonstrated expertise in accounting applications and Microsoft products
I have an excellent working knowledge of a number of accounting applications, including SAS Finance, Quickbooks, Tally, MYOB, Marg, Busy, Pay2K and Pay3K, and have had some exposure to Computron, Sage Micropay, Timberline and Chris.
In addition, I have advanced skills in the use of Microsoft Excel and consistently use this in my current role to produce reports, to export information from our systems into Excel, to set up spreadsheets with complex formulas, and produce graphical and project reports which are routinely presented to our College Board and external statutory bodies.
Within my current role, I have also been charged with training and mentoring our new payroll staff member who had little or no knowledge of the system. Using my computer, financial and payroll knowledge, I successfully trained the employee in all facets of the system, and in doing so have become an expert within this system.
Demonstrated aptitude for detail, particularly in relation to statutory obligations of council such as the year end accounts
Within my current role, I have responsibility for many of the statutory obligations, including preparation of annual reporting, end of year accounts and financial questionnaire for Consumer Affairs Victoria, VRQA, the Department of Education and Independent Schools Victoria. I understand that Council will also have a range of these obligations, as well as the additional obligations of things like the Fire Service Property Levy Act 2013 in passing on the levy to the state government, and similar statutory requirements.
My aptitude for detail has been demonstrated in my current role, where I have sole responsibility for cross checking our online bank accounts for payments and credits, as well as checking reports and budgets to ensure accurate reporting of our current position. I have responsibility for inputting information for superannuation contributions online, and am trusted to ensure this information is correct.
Demonstrated organisational skills and abilities to develop and maintain efficient and effective office systems as well as manage one’s own workload within accepted timelines with minimal supervision
When I began working at Minaret College, I was employed as an Office Administrator and demonstrated my abilities to set up and maintain effective office systems. Due to my organisational skills and abilities, I have worked my way to becoming Assistant Accountant, with the authority to supervise staff and train new staff in these processes and office systems.
Within my current role, I have a large number of autonomous tasks for which I am given authority to complete, as well as roles where I need to work with the team to ensure completion. My autonomous roles include online banking, superannuation payments, and numerous other duties for which I am responsible. As a member of the team reviewing the school’s registration, I played a major role preparing the documents, compiling and refining. Upon inspection of the documents by VRQA Inspectors, they highly appreciated my presentation and took the file back to their office to display to other schools as an example.
I have been part of the ISO9002 team in documenting and implementing ISO9002 certification standard, and have learnt the whole process throughout this exercise. As with most of the things I do, this was required to be completed in a timely manner and was completed successfully. These examples clearly demonstrate my ability to handle a given workload within accepted timelines with minimal supervision.
Demonstrated excellent written and verbal communication skills, along with experience supporting and/or acting in supervisory or team leader roles
During my current role, I have demonstrated my written and verbal communication skills whilst liaising and corresponding with a number of different external bodies, including the Bank Relationship Manager, the State Revenue Office, Solicitors, Contractors, College Board Members, and the Department of Education, among many others. Often, especially with banks and statutory authorities, I need to provide all of my requests in writing. As an example, when one of the school’s many term deposits expires, my wish to have it reinvested has to be received by the bank in writing and on letterhead, otherwise they will not action the request. Similarly, when I request our exemptions from Payroll Tax from the State Revenue Office, these need to be sent in writing for actioning and records.
With other tasks, I use email often, as well as communication via phone and face to face with colleagues, parents and management of the school. On some occasions I have had to remain assertive with colleagues if they ask me for information on someone else’s earnings or requesting their partner’s pay slips, when I am not allowed to give them out. I am able to communicate well enough to say no to these requests, without offending or being too harsh on people.
On occasions during the absence of Business Manager, I have been asked by the Director to supervise and support the administration staff in accomplishing their routine tasks, handling cash at the reception and taking a leading role in administration professional development. I have taken on this role with confidence in my supervisory skills and have also taken it upon myself to train and mentor the new payroll staff member, as mentioned earlier.
Demonstrated ability working autonomously as well as contributing to business unit goals as a member of a cohesive and efficient team
Prior to the college employing a staff member to run the payroll, this was part of my role and in this I was completely autonomous, being the only one who knew how to do so. More recently however, I have formed an intrinsic part of the finance team and we often work together to achieve our deadlines. For example, during the month, I have to ensure that all of the adjustments, payments and credits have been processed in the system to allow the financial accounts to be run on time at the end of the month. If I was to be running late in this, then the reports would not be a true indication of our financial position and I would not be performing my job properly.
In line with this, if one staff member is behind on their tasks that need to be completed, I will often step in to help that staff member to ensure our records are accurate and up to date before the end of month reporting. Similarly, I will perform the banking and receipting of cash if the appropriate person is away, and they, in turn help me out if I need them too.
Demonstrated effective planning and project management skills
One of my achievements within my current role has been to successfully plan and implement the Asset Management Register for the school from the ground up. This project required a large amount of effective project planning, and included a flow chart and report which I presented to management to ensure their understanding of the importance of having this system working.
In addition, I have planned and managed the addition of a number of construction projects within the school site, including new buildings and facilities at our newly established Officer campus. These projects were funded by the state government, and my role included the submission of progress reports to government and planning applications to Council, supporting documents for variations to contract, processing invoices, and coordination between contractors and consultants; all to ensure these projects were completed on time and within budget.
Demonstrated ability to prioritise competing demands, handle multiple tasks and meet deadlines to agreed service standards
During my current role, I have a large amount of tasks to keep track of, and I do so by keeping a running list of tasks that remain outstanding and those completed. Tasks which are not completed can be carried forward to the next day, and this ensures all of my tasks are completed on time. In maintaining the list in this way, it becomes easier to then prioritise unexpected or non-standard jobs and see where I can fit them in. This means I can give a good indication about when they will be completed.
If there are multiple tasks at a time, and at the same deadline, I normally seek help from other team members or seek advice from the Manager. However, I have not come across this situation much due to my ability to remain organised and work efficiently.
Deadlines are a large part of my role and, as mentioned earlier, include a range of reports and figures which have to be supplied to a variety of statutory bodies and Departments. In addition there are tasks such as BAS, PAYG, Payroll, State and Commonwealth Grant Applications, Financial Questionnaires, Annual Reports and more that are all deadline driven tasks.
Demonstrated ability to maintain confidentiality on sensitive issues
Working in finance is always a confidential area. In my current role, I work in finance, including payroll, both of which are very sensitive areas. As mentioned earlier, at times my colleagues try to get some information about other employees’ salaries or revenue of the school from government grants. I handle these issues in a very diplomatic way without leaking any information. After trying a couple of times, they do not come to me anymore.
When working on any numbers and figures, I always lock my computer screen if I am away from my desk. I always try to maintain privacy in relation to fee payments by families and different issues for them, as well as ensuring I don’t leave any personal information lying around on photocopiers and the like. Finally, I change my passwords once a month to ensure high security
