Finance Manager
Euro Gulf Techno Services L.L.C
Total years of experience :30 years, 7 Months
Roles & Responsibilities.
• Overall in-charge of Financial & Administration Management covering managing Banking Relations, cash flow, Accounts Receivable and Accounts Payable, Payroll, ERP system, fixed assets, monthly Management reporting, working capital management, negotiations with Banks, Suppliers and other service providers. VAT accounting & reporting, Liaise with external Auditors, evaluation of Projects’ progress with special emphasis on cost control & cost reduction.
• Responsible for complete financial management and day-to-day responsibility for planning, implementing, managing, and controlling all financial related activities- accounting, finance, forecasting, income statement and cash flow projections for UAE office while overseeing the functions of Qatar, Oman & KSA offices.
• Evaluate Fixed Asset purchase and investment proposals before and recommend the best option in line with Company goals & strategy.
• Annual Revenue and Capital budget preparation in line with the Management's short term and long term business plans
• Ensure credibility of Financial Group by providing timely and accurate analysis of budgets, financial trends and forecasts.
• Manage strict compliance to UAE VAT Regulations including recording, documenting and Return filing
• Overseeing Accounting functions including: payroll, statutory audits, balance sheet and general ledger management and banking
• Liaise with external and internal auditors in carrying out audit of companies accounts and coordinate with tax & legal consultants in filing of tax and statutory returns with the regulatory authorities
• Fixed Assets management by ensuring that company's’ assets are stated at their true values and that there are no over or under statement on their values that involves physical verification of Fixed Assets at year end
• Management of Account Receivable and Account Payable functions closely working with sales team, credit controller, Legal Adviser and Operations team.
• In charge of monthly Management reporting that includes Income Statement, Margin & Profitability analysis, analysis of variance with respect to Budgets, Cash flow forecast, sales and collection analysis by Divisions, Locations and Sales Executives
• Management reporting on Regions performance against various KPIs (Orders, Revenue, Margin, OPEX and headcount) to our Corporate office in UK on a weekly & monthly basis.
• Actively participating in the preparation of regional annual budgets, submit monthly finance reports, variance analysis and accounts reconciliations to corporate office.
• Sales control and reporting related to software license and software support sales streams. Analysing and advising the Management on the adequacy of gross margin on sales proposals.
• Maintain and manage forecast files and advise Management on the trends in the forecasts and on the results of analysis on actual results as against the forecast
• Prepare adhoc reports on sales, revenue, margin as required by both regional and corporate Management
• Providing commercial assessment of all bids to customers and in dealings with suppliers, balance sheet control, forecast accuracy, capture of cost efficiencies and continual improvements in the quality of project reporting and forecasting.
• Participated in deals with customers and partners in Africa and Pakistan to help in the transfer trapped cash out of country.
• Co-coordinating with Auditors & Banks, looking after the day to day finance & accounting functions.
• Negotiated and agreed payment terms with major mobile operators resulting in minimizing working capital exposure on multimillion dollars projects
• Initiated action to reduce WIP balance from $18 Million to less than $6 million, resulting in collecting 130% of 2010-11 revenue in cash.
• Initiated and implemented automated online expense claims system within a fully integrated HR management system linked to payroll and ERP.
My Roles & Responsibilities covered the following.
• Managing regional financial reporting and analysis
• Collaborating with corporate leadership, regional leaders and local leaders on asset and project management, and determining appropriate revenue recognition on projects
• Annual budget preparation and management by reviewing actual results against the budgets on a regular basis
• Overseeing financial functions including: payroll, tax compliance, statutory audits, balance sheet and general ledger management, banking and treasury for offices in Middle East and India and functional management of the Deltek Vision financial system
• Liaise with external and internal auditors in carrying out audit of companies accounts and coordinate with tax & legal consultants in filing of tax and statutory returns with the regulatory authorities
• Communicating with and coordinating support from Stantec’s overall financial services and other corporate support teams
• Asset management by ensuring that companies’ assets are stated at their true values and that there are no over or under statement on their values
• Management of working capital in coordination with corporate treasury team
• Providing post acquisition support to corporate office in identifying collections and disbursements that were part of acquisition settlement agreement
• Ensure that our control procedures and records are in compliance with corporate policies and procedures and SOX (Sarbanes - Oxley) rules.
This position provides a key role in liaising between local and corporate leadership, and ensuring that policies and procedures are implemented and maintained in an appropriate manner to ensure compliance with regulatory, corporate and local requirements.
In charge of functions such as Monthly Management Accounts, preparation & finalization of Budgets, Cash flow projections, Calculation of support services rates for the back office services provided to inter companies and outside clients, Co-coordinating with Auditors & Banks, etc. in addition to looking after the day to day finance & accounting functions.
• Preparation of final accounts for various legal entities in the Eastern Hemisphere Area after passing appropriate year end adjustment entries required if any.
• Liaise with Auditors in getting the accounts audited, providing information and support documents as required.
• Verification of the indirect tax returns prepared on a monthly/quarterly basis for GST, VAT FBT and withholding tax for Saudi Arabia, India, Australia, United -Kingdom, Singapore, Azerbaijan, Thailand etc.
• Preparation of Corporate Tax Returns for the McDermott entities in Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Qatar, Singapore, Australia, depending on the tax regime of respective countries
• Liaise with the Tax consultants in the verification of Tax Returns and arrange to lodge these Returns with the Tax Authorities & co ordinate the Tax Assessment process
• Preparation of tax forecasts based on the inputs provided by the project accounts department on a quarterly basis and providing relevant information to the higher management.
• Comply with the requirements laid down under Sarbanes - Oxley Act especially Section 404 on internal controls procedures.
• Providing the bid inputs on tax related matters to the bidding department on the tax exposures related to various bids.
• Overseeing the entire day to day accounting functions of Abu Dhabi office
• Verification of periodical airline sales reports of various airlines
• Scrutiny of purchase invoices and passing them for payment on due dates
• Scrutiny of debit notes from principal, Qatar Airways for the reimbursement of various expenses and passing the same for payment
• Finalization of annual accounts and coordinating with Internal & External Auditors
My job profile included overseeing the work of Accounts Supervisors who in turn were verifying all the aspects including day to day books writing, processing procurement & supplies bills, pay roll, sales invoicing, account receivables & payables, employees statutory records maintenance & filing of periodical returns, sales tax & income tax returns filing