F,P&A Manager/Senior Analyst

Profile.

Education / Qualification

(2015 – 2017) CIMA (Chartered Institute of Management Accountants) Qualified   

(2005 – 2008) College: AAT Technician (Level 4) Pass, Computerised Accounts Level 2 Pass

(2001 – 2003) College (A levels): Law (A), English Language (B) and History (B)

(1996 – 2001) School (GCSE’s): 13 GCSEs including 5As in Mathematics, English Language, English Literature, French and Graphics

Systems used

Advanced Excel (Power Query, Microsoft Query), Power BI (DAX), Sage 50 (Admin), Multi-entity ERP systems, Treasury & Banking platforms, MTD VAT systems, Expenses management software.

About

Commercially focused FP&A professional with extensive experience operating in complex, multi-entity and PE-backed environments across manufacturing, legal services, fintech and financial services. Proven track record of owning group-level reporting, budgeting, forecasting and cashflow modelling, with particular strength in turning fragmented data into clear, decision-ready insight for senior leadership and boards.

Highly experienced in building, refining and automating financial models and reporting processes, including multi-currency consolidations, sales and margin analysis, cash collection forecasting and treasury automation. Recognised for challenging assumptions, improving forecast accuracy and introducing robust processes that enhance control, visibility and strategic planning.

A confident business partner to senior stakeholders across finance, sales and operations, with the ability to translate complex financial information into clear commercial narratives. Hands-on, detail-driven and comfortable operating in environments with legacy systems, transformation projects and evolving reporting requirements.

Career Summary.

• Ownership of group sales and margin reporting. I receive monthly submissions from 7 entities, cleanse the data and reconcile this back to the monthly management accounts. I query any discrepancies and resolve any issues, in 5 different currencies.  During my time I have also cleansed the last 2 years of data, reducing balancing adjustments to get to a more accurate reflection of the actual sales and margin including end to end margin using Power Query.
• Completion of the sales and margin budget.  This involved liaising with both finance staff and sales staff within each entity, using the sales and margin reporting to present a clear view of the past 2 years to enable a more accurate forward outlook. I challenged the sales team as to their predictions and then presented the budget to the senior management team.
• Month end reporting. I am responsible for the month end commentary for the sales and margin reporting for the group including full explanations of any variances to budget and re-forecast for board presentation.
• Development of group reporting. Currently, the entities are using different accounting systems, some of which are outdated and unsupported. I have helped to develop the consolidation of the accounts and monthly reports needed for various departments across the business.

• Preparation of the annual budget.  I worked with individual trading and overhead areas management to come up with an initial plan.  I then consolidated a group view before presenting to the board with variance analysis to previous years budgets and reforecasts and as well as actual results.
• Development of the existing budget model, including: building in supplier payment terms and debt collection profiles to more accurately forecast cashflows; better calculations of charges such as insurance and the annual SRA fee to provide more accurate cost estimates; development of funding including incorporation of unsecured loans and methods to update interest rates.
• Set up a half-yearly re-forecast process which involved a lighter touch process of the budget, again working with heads of the different parts of the business to obtain a latest view.
• Built a cash collection forecasting tool.  Previously, debts were forecasted as being collected in full the following month.  I analysed historical trends to look at how debtors are actually cleared and then incorporated this into a weekly cash collection forecast for the credit control team.  This also enabled better forecasting for the monthly funding required, significantly reducing the monthly interest charge paid.
• Establishment of a new risk & opportunities process with a centralised log and regular reviews to update.
• Automation of treasury process.  Previously the Treasury Manager would spend time manually coding bank statements, but I built a model enabling her to simply upload the daily bank statements and all the coding would be already done saving her time.
• Creation of a Car Finance Claims dashboard in Power BI.  This involved getting required datasets from various sources, adding additional formulas using DAX and creating tables and visuals to be used by the board.

UK loan broker, providing mortgages, secured loans, unsecured loans, bridging loans and equity release.  They partner with companies such as MoneySuperMarket, Experian and NerdWallet to provide the best product for their customers’ needs.  They are a fast-growing FinTech company

FP&A Analyst   (October 2022 – April 2024)

• Preparation of the annual budget.  This involved business partnering with the MD of each business along with other departments, the founding directors and MAB to create a fair and achievable budget.
• Creation of budget packs, giving heads of departments and businesses a clear view of their targets.  I then developed this to also include actual progress against the budget with variance analysis and visualisation through graphs and charts with regular updates to the budget holders.
• Monthly variance analysis between the budget and the management accounts.
• Development of a new quarterly rolling re-forecast file, making the re-forecast process quicker and more efficient.  This helped to review current progress against the budget and help identify risks and opportunities against the budget.
• Ad-hoc analysis as required, including product mix analysis, timing and seasonality of the pipeline and payroll analysis.

Project Management Accountant   (March 2021 – October 2022)

• Creation of Lead Entry P&L’s which track a lead from entry point rather than completion as per the management accounts.  Due to these reports, areas of concern are now highlighted sooner, they aid with assessing various lead sources and I built in KPIs to aid analysis along with helping with the budget and forecasting process.  This project also involved working with the BI team to build the datasets needed to extract the data required.
• Built new Query based P&L review files for the management accounts team, enabling them to instantly refresh the accounts saving time and providing more focus.
• Creation a group consolidation file which can be instantly refreshed making the group consolidation process easier and more efficient.  As a result, the group consolidation can now be competed monthly.
• Ad-hoc analysis as required including payroll analysis, academy success rates and marketing analysis.
• Introduced Microsoft Query into the business to aid with reporting and analysis.
• Changed Protect revenue to be recognised by On Risk date rather than cash received date.  This involved working alongside the Head of Protect to ensure understanding the workstream before implementing changes.
• Established a new payment run process where payment files are generated from Sage and uploaded into the banking software, rather than being entered manually as they were previously.  This saved time and reduced errors of incorrect details being entered.
• Established the MTD process for the group, which also involved changing the way transactions are now posted into the system and building reconciliation files for use in the preparation of the returns.  Through this work, the company is now fully MTD compliant.
• Member of a working group with several other departments to set up a new company within the group which would replace an existing company.  I took the lead from a finance perspective which involved considering the impact of this and ensuring the transition would be as seamless as possible.
• Managed Sage50 from an administrator capacity including setting up the new companies of Fluent Bridging and Fluent Mortgages Horwich, introduced user permissions into Sage to ensure there was segregation of duties within the team and rolled the system at the year end. 

• Sole responsibility for the full preparation of the monthly accounts of the company with presentation to the MD.
• Business partnering with the Sales Director to establish the sales forecast by period and product.  I then used this along with the Bills of Materials to calculate the budget for the year along with material and labour requirements.
• In-depth analysis of nominal codes, with particular focus on key areas to assist with cost reductions during a challenging period for the company due to Covid.
• Management of the company’s stock valuations, regularly checking and updating stock prices and comparing system balances to the monthly stock counts.  This also included investigating any deviances.
• Completed all the bank entries and bank reconciliations.
• Prepared and submitted all the necessary HMRC requirements for EC Sales, Intrastat and VAT Returns.
• Lead in the audit process, providing all necessary evidence required and resolving any queries.

• Full accounting responsibility for 14 companies.  Preparation of monthly management accounts, including full analysis of all revenue, costs and overheads, journal posting, accruals and prepayments commentary for senior management and variance analysis.
• Monthly review of Balance Sheet for same companies.
• Management of 1 purchase ledger clerk and 1 credit controller including recruitment.
• Cash flow management including cash book preparation, analysis and posting.
• Sales reconciliation between invoices raised, revenue control and cash received.
• Budget preparation.

Management Accountant   (November 2016 – January 2019)

• Team leader for the Central Finance team of 3 members of staff.
• Preparation of the balance sheet risk review and presentation to both parents of the JV.
• Production of budgets and forecast for the central overheads, liaising with operational managers.
• Completion of the Extended Trial Balance and submitting month end actuals vs budgeted figures to both parent companies. 
• Completion of the complex sales reconciliation, ensuring all invoices have made it through all our systems from their various sources and all align.
• Lead in the cash flow forecasts, updating actuals on a weekly basis and reviewing the forecast as well as looking for differences from the budgeted figures and completing variance analysis as well as submitting cash submissions to both parent companies.
• Review of the overhead costs and completed the balance sheet reconciliation sign off each month.
• Incrementation of the accounting systems at month end ready for the new periods and ensuring that all systems are fully reconciled as part of the month end process, as well as being responsible for the more complex general ledger accounts such as WIP and EPF (Early Payment Facility/Invoice Discounting) for our subcontractors.
• Management Accountant duties involving month end preparation of accruals & adjustments for the central finance team budget, working alongside & supervising finance assistants.  Looking at trends and underlying issues in costs versus Budget.

Assistant Accountant   (May 2014 – November 2016)

• Performing a central overhead review each month end, reviewing costs and ensuring correct allocation of costs.