What I offer
Fractional Chief Financial Officer (CFO)
I can work as an Finance Director either on an interim or part time basis. In that role I will identify and solve problems and help exploit opportunities.
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Mentoring
I can work with an aspiring Finance Director to provide guidance and share my skills and experience.
Having developed and managed finance teams I can help individual team members grow in their roles.
Finance Department Structuring
I can review the present workings of a finance department and provide advice as to how efficiencies may be obtained. Change management can be carried out in a caring way to achieve positive results. I have been able to do this several times.
Review Internal Controls
I can investigate procedures within a business and make recommendations to improve internal controls and avoid common pitfalls that can occur.
Experiences
New ERP System
Worked extensively on the introduction of Microsoft Dynamic 365 Finance and Operations ERP system for Interior Products Group Limited. I have been actively involved in broadening the use of the extensive facilities available within the system enabling opportunities for increased efficiencies.
Energy Saving
To ensure that the company was not exposed to the huge increases in energy costs I worked with Eco Logic to be able to fix Gas and Electric prices with the energy provider Engie in the summer of 2021. This has led to savings of around £50,000 a month and will continue until 2029.
Invoice Posting Automation
Each month end there were delays while many invoices had to be posted. The manual system was creating stress. To alleviate this I introduced Palette Software to read invoices using AI to learn the layout of invoices which were matched to purchase orders and posted or be emailed for approval.
Cashflow Management
I have actively managed the cashflow of the John Morris Holdings Limited group, with quite accurate forward projections but tending to be conservative. Following increases in interest rates I worked with Barclays Bank to secure attractive deposit rates (0.05% below base) for funds on 32 day notice.
Insurance Negotiations
Managed the insurance process ensuring that there was adequate cover which proved particularly fortuitous when a major fire occurred resulting in a c£1m claim.
Balance Sheet Engineering
Organised the restructuring of a company's balance sheet by negotiating the terms of borrowing from Natwest Bank over a much longer timescale, resulting in very strong net current assets.
This resulted in the company’s credit rating improving dramatically thus being able to get better credit terms.
Towards Net Zero
I have been developing the baseline to monitor changes in emissions. Got scope 1 and 2 sorted. I'm now working my way through which of the 15 categories of Scope 3 are relevant and how the data can be collected.
Leadership/Mentoring
My leadership skills have been honed over many years while in senior management roles, my approach is to have mutual trust. A leader must be approachable and be able to recognise and provide appropriate training needs and act as a coach/mentor to those who wish to fulfil their potential.
Problem Solving
I have had to identify problems and provide solutions . On one project I worked on I identified that the main problem for the business was the CEO. I discussed this with him, he agreed and resigned. On receipt of this solution the principal shareholder he was greatly relieved and very grateful.
