Gautam Meher

Finance Manager at Future Pipe Industries June 2011 - Present Doha, Qatar


• Proficiently saved revenue for the company by successfully gaining deals with the banks to get best rate on foreign currencies exchange.
• Saved expenditure of the company by negotiating deals with the insurance company on premium and coverage.
• Transportation cost being one of the major costs in our industry, made an open competition among the Transporters on continuous basis to secure the best rate and guided & overlooking the transportation department to ensure it is running most efficiently and transparently.
• Conserving withholding tax on payment through proper understanding of tax laws and amount on royalty and management fees by correct analysis of licensing agreement.
• Regularly followed up and conducted meeting with the inter-department and customers resulted in collection and decreased outstanding receivable to the lowest level in the group.
• Played a key role in implementing several cost savings initiatives to evaluate, measure and analysis on purchases requests and quotation finalizations.

Key Responsibilities: • Drafting and supervising preparation of monthly / annual budgets and performing forecast as per sales and production, monitoring financial performance, facilitating performance improvement opportunities.
• Liaising with statutory auditors and internal auditors on the final audit report and implementing improvements measures.
• Interpreting financial reports, resolving accounting issues, providing monthly variance analyses, maintained monthly P&L forecasts and identified associated risks and opportunities.
• Liaising with banks and financial institutions to secure finance including loans and overdraft facilities, LC, LG and administering cash flow to meet short/long term organizational needs thus enforced an enhanced financial system to accurately capture financial transactions.
• Creating financial reports for forecasting, trading and results analysis, tracked budgetary vs actual performance attained and devising methods to negate deviation.
• Discussing business performance with the CFO and corporate senior management on monthly basis in relation to budget and that of last year and last month thereby discussing rooms for improvements in operation and timely submission of routine and non-routine MIS to management.

Group Finance Manager at Al Jassim Group August 2008 - June 2011 Doha, Qatar


• Played a key role in making and implementing policies for new restaurant investment.
• Launched notes to account for variances in the monthly P&L thus concentrated on necessary areas of improvement.
• Successfully saved cost and claimed accumulated rebate from a carbonated drink supplier which was left out otherwise.
• Achieved lower premium and extended coverage by negotiating with insurance companies and suppliers for improving credit terms.
• Efficiently cleared numerous pending backlogs and made several enhancements in inventory and fixed assets recording, reporting, conservation and provisioning.

Key Responsibilities: • Planned, organized and evaluated all accounting procedures and policies related to petty cash, non-routine expenses, capital expenditure and ensured transactions are efficient/effective, accounting is accurate and complete.
• Forecasted and monitored cash flow and arranged funds to meet the organization's short term and long term needs.
• Executed strategic/operational policies and internal controls, finance, accounting, billing, internal control and auditing procedures.
• Prepared monthly reconciliations, revenue accrual entries and policies for collection, customer credit approval and salesman bonus in adherence to organizational policies and procedures.
• Conducted feasibility studies with using tools like NPV, IRR, ROI and payback period with the business heads and evaluated Capex investment and revenues/profit projections with the senior management.
• Liaised with statutory auditors for discussing on the final audit reports of the units, timely completion and improvements in compliance with established audit processes for efficient working.
• Assisted the upper management with effective MIS, identified, analyzed and resolved accounting discrepancies and ascertained that all policies and procedures are aligned with the organizational goals.
• Drafted regular and non-routine MIS reports and made recommendations for senior management to improve organizational accounting/management practices, internal control systems and effective utilization of resources.
• Carried out external audit reviews, credit policies and governances, sales reporting and monthly/annual management reporting for enhanced profitability in the organization.

Manager - Accounts at Al Maya Group October 2005 - August 2008 Dubai, United Arab Emirates


• Proficiently lead a professional team of 40 accountants including 5 Chartered Accountants.

Key Responsibilities: • Developed and implemented financial policies, procedures and guidelines to ensure smooth cash flow, streamline budgets, implementing stringent procurement and expense guidelines.
• Examined and analyzed journal and ledger entries, bank statements, inventories, expenditures, and other accounting and financial records, documents and systems of the clients to ensure financial recording accuracy and compliance with established accounting standards.
• Spearheaded development and implementation of accounts consolidation, financial policies, systems and procedures/guidelines to ensure smooth cash flow and streamline budgets.
• Performed general accounting functions including operation of the general ledger system, journal entries, month end closing and other financial statements and was responsible of P&L, balance sheet, cash flows, ratio analysis, variance analysis, bank reporting and formats, finance planning and management, controlling and evaluating the finance department operations.
• Executed short and long-term customized comprehensive financial strategies to reach company goals thus enhancing user level experience in JDE in Finance modules - AR, AP, Inventory, FA, GL and Payroll.
• Liaised with statutory auditors for timely completion in compliance with established audit processes for efficient working.
• Scrutinized day to day operations of the accounting department, identifying, analyzing and resolving accounting discrepancies and ascertaining that all departmental policies and procedures are aligned with the organizational goals.

Audit Manager at Pannell Kerr Forster (PKF) Saudi Arabia (Chartered Accountants) March 1999 - August 2005
Dammam, Saudi Arabia


• Played a key role in arranging and instituting accurate accounting and book keeping system in small and medium sized companies.
• Appreciated by senior management for implementing consolidation of accounts of companies having various branches.
• Actively assisting clients in enhancing the internal control system and in the discovering and avoidance of frauds and commercial malpractices.
• Performed detailed study of contract thereby successfully generating additional revenue for the clients and increasing billing revenue.

Key Responsibilities: • Presented concise and clear audit report to the Audit Committee with complete analysis and conclusions for improvements to the company's policies, procedures, processes and highlighted any severe issue that required necessary attention.
• Conducted due-diligence, assessed the effectiveness of current working practices, updated executive and non-executive managers on risks identified and recommended requisite actions to be taken.
• Monitored the audit assignments executed by the audit staff and computed all the financial accounts and other operational data of client's business issues and provided "true & fair view" for the same.
• Established audit plans, objectives and scope of work in alignment with organizational goals; undertaking responsibility for the overall execution of projects through team management and final report delivery.
• Conducted internal audits/investigations in conformity with organizational policies and procedures along with made suggestions to enhance the audit process
• Deployed and supported the enhancement carried out by members of Internal Audit department, participated in the successful introduction of new audit tools and methodologies to execute audit engagements effectively and efficiently.
• Identified weaknesses in audit control system and executed requisite actions for improving the operational effectiveness of these systems.

Feb '98 - Mar '99: Audit Manager, M/S. S.K.Gupta and Company, Chartered Accountants, India.