Organisation: William Angliss Institute
Job Title: Assistant Financial Accountant
Word Limit: 2 pages
Location: Melbourne
A post-secondary qualification in accounting or finance and/or significant experience in a similar role
In addition to the completion of my Bachelor of Business Administration (Honours), I have also completed the Master of Applied Commerce (Accounting) at The University of Melbourne in 2009. I am currently studying towards the completion of my CPA accreditation, and expect to finish this year.
Experience in General Ledger reconciliations and analysis including experience in administration of capex and asset register
My experience in the administration of capex capital expenditure depreciation includes the development and set up of the fixed asset register during my role at Harris Cost Lawyers Pty Ltd. This included gathering of the relevant information, setting up and commencement of depreciation on behalf of the company. Whist working at Zinc Financial Group, I was responsible for the maintenance of the capital expenditure register for the whole of my employment there.
In every accounting role I have had, I have been responsible for processing practices around the general ledger, including entering data and information, reconciliation, and ensuring my work complied with organisational policy and procedure. Within G.A. Partners, I was responsible not only for the company’s general ledger tasks, but also for these tasks within clients’ companies in a broad range of industry areas, clearly demonstrating my skills in this area.
Experience in BAS returns and knowledge of GST requirements
My role within G.A. Partners as a Tax Accountant, involved responsibility for a large volume of bank reconciliations for a range of entities, including family trusts, super funds and small businesses, and processing of BAS returns and GST requirements. My extensive experience working in similar roles has demonstrated my ability to provide support in a financial capacity for Managers, as well as complex financial reporting and management of the fixed asset register during my role at Zinc Financial Group.
During my role at Zinc Financial Group, I provided taxation planning for clients, ensuring they were using the correct tax treatment, and often visited clients to work out of their premises to undertake taxation tasks.
Ability to configure and implement financial software, provide training and well-developed ability and experience in spreadsheet modelling
Within my role at Harris Cost Lawyers Pty Ltd, the software they were using as part of their Amicus suite was posing problems in terms of the large number of manual transactions necessary to enable successful accounting practice. This US based software was problematic in the GST requirements, and the company made a decision to switch to the MYOB software. My role was to transfer all of the data into the new MYOB systems, set up the accounting ledger for their whole business, and ensure the opening account balance was adjusted accordingly as required. This required me to configure and implement the financial software, and demonstrates my skills in this area.
During my current role at Westpac, I sat on the implementation team for a new computer system. My role has included the coaching and training of a number of staff at different levels in the use of the new system. In every role throughout my career, I have learnt and adapted my skills to new systems, and am confident of my abilities in this regard. Also within my current role, I have designed, developed and implemented a spreadsheet which extracts sales data from the financial system, and summarises this data using complex pivot tables and macros. This type of spreadsheet modelling has given management an excellent tool to base their sales and marketing decisions on.
My ability to use initiative has been proven in my current role, where I have assisted Financial Planners by developing extremely complex Excel spreadsheets using complex formulas and pivot tables to allow them to maintain reconciliation spreadsheets where they can find out complete revenue forecasts for the next period. These spreadsheets have significantly increased productivity within my department, and Planners can now get weekly reporting from this.
Ability to develop or improve finance processes, policies and procedures
Within Westpac, late last year we underwent a re-structure where all of the Financial Planners were split into a team away from the team of Financial Planning Assistants, of which I am a member. This change was significant for the way we, as Assistants, provide support to Planners, and I have been intrinsic in the process of assisting Planners to convert all of their projects and information online so that our team can better assist them. I have developed a range of new procedures and processes in the form of flow charts for the Planners to follow, and due to my own efficiency, these have been disseminated across the organisation for all to use. These procedures have been useful at a number of levels, including Financial Planners, Underwriters, external clients and super funds.
Excellent interpersonal and written communication skills
At Westpac, I have demonstrated my high level communication and interpersonal skills. I have the ability to adapt my communication style to suit my audience in verbal and written communication, demonstrated in my responsibility to correspond with Planners, clients, Bankers and Underwriters both via phone and face to face. Within my role, I write a range of reports for each and every client which are tailored according to their situation. To attain my Master of Applied Commerce (Accounting), I was required to submit a large amount of written assignments and reports, resulting in exceptional results, also demonstrating my written abilities.
During my undergraduate studies at Shanghai University, I worked for two years within the Student Administration Department assisting with enquiries, selection of courses and assisting Teachers and Lecturers with arrangements and examinations, further demonstrating the depth of my communication abilities. I am fluent in both English and Mandarin.
Demonstrated behaviours that align with the William Angliss Institute Values
Having familiarised myself with the William Angliss values of personal responsibility, inspiration, empowerment, community and expertise, I can see that I am a good fit for the organisation. I have undertaken a large amount of responsibility and demonstrated my expertise within my previous accounting and planning roles, including independent development and implementation of complex spreadsheets, new accounting systems, and process flow charts to assist organisations and individuals within.
In the process of coaching staff within Westpac during the re-structure last year, I would like to think I inspired and empowered staff members in their embracing of change within the organisation. I am also very keen to undertake a role within a university environment to make a change and provide a challenge outside of commercial and profit-driven
