Accounting Manager
AF Construction LLC
Total years of experience :23 years, 4 Months
AF Construction LLC (Al Futtaim Group) has broad range of business in construction (main contractor), civil
engineering works, sewerage works, concrete repairs, transport and construction services to commercial
and public sector clients in UAE.
Profile
• Managing daily accounting operations. Efficient and effective management of accounting team
(Payables, Receivables, Intercompany. Employee Claims, Petty cash and Period Close/ audit).
• Train and mentor the team, resolve complex queries and provide guidance to the team, or site
personnel, whenever required.
• Conduct process audit and periodic analysis of processes and procedures, identify and implement
continuous improvements.
• Ensure all invoices are processed within normal lead time as per company policies and procedures
and reporting deadlines are met. Ensure any discrepancies are appropriately addressed and timely
resolved.
• VAT In-charge and provide advisory services to other departments.
• Approval of Client Invoices, Activation of new suppliers and documentation for supplier banking
details /setup masters, Supplier Reconciliation, Approval of monthly reports and reconciliation for
various accounts including related parties, Approval of Journal entries (Period close and other
regular items), Approval of Petty Cash and employee claims.
• Liaison with senior management for payment approvals and processing. Negotiating with suppliers
for increasing credit period whenever required & assisting in supply chain related finance decisions.
• Ensure annual, internal and other audit requirements are met and queries are clarified.
Managing daily operations of accounts payable department. Efficient and effective management of
accounts payable staff (Team of 7).
• Train and mentor the accounts payable team. Resolve complex queries and provide guidance to
the AP team, or site personnel, whenever required.
• Ensure all invoices are processed within normal lead time as per company policies and procedures.
Ensure discrepancies if any are timely resolved.
• Activation of new suppliers. Approval of the documentation for supplier banking details and setup
masters.
• Liaison with senior management for payment approvals and ensure processing. Negotiating with
suppliers for increasing credit period whenever required.
• Approve the intercompany invoices. Approval of monthly reports and reconciliation for various
accounts including related parties. Approve the journals for the period closing and regular journals.
• Approve vendor reconciliations, supplier advances, aged material receipts without invoices and take
appropriate action.
• Periodic analysis of processes and procedures, identify and implement continuous improvements.
• Ensure annual, internal and other audit requirements are submitted and queries are clarified.
Achievements
• Automated and simplified the cash forecasting preparation process thereby saving time.
• Suggested senior management about various cost reduction measures, leading by example
conducted MS Excel training programs to various department staff, saving external training costs.
• Transformed paper based invoice processing to electronic processing (paperless environment)
through effective planning, organizing and implementing the same.
• Deputed by senior management as VAT Consultant to company. Took lead in VAT training
internally to all departments, implementation and coordinating with IT/ software team to customize
the required changes.
• Established cross training mechanism, routine process audits and regular meetings to resolve
issues.
Profile \[GL | Close and Process | Reconciliations\]
• Managing daily operations of accounting department. Efficient and effective management of
international enterprise accounting staff (Team of 5).
• Guide and oversee contractor processor team in various outsourced functions (Payroll accounting,
Project Setups, Intercompany billings, etc.).
• Ensure all Cash, Bank, Corporate Card, Payroll related accounts, tax withholding and other
reconciliations are performed in a timely basis and resolve any discrepancies.
• Approval of Cost point Journal Entries in the General Ledger Module.
• Analysis of all processes, identify and implement continuous improvements.
• Ensure Intercompany billings are performed every month as per schedule. Oversee period closing
activities.
• Ensure all telecom invoices are processed within normal lead time and paid to service provider.
• Analyze complex recons or queries and provide guidance to the accounting or corporate personnel,
whenever required.
• Assist various finance projects, whenever required. Providing expert advice, designing database
and improving processes of other finance functions.
• Smooth transition of all the EA process from Texas to Dubai and recruit staff for the department.
Achievements
• Changed the process of reconciliation of corporate credit cards by creating new reports and
identified the excess payments to the extent of $96K and supplier duplicate payments for $100K.
• Improved the process of reconciliations of “GL Liability” accounts by designing and developing a
tool that saves time to perform reconciliations quicker.
• Identified new reports in the Cost point to quickly determine the pending cash receipts for IWO
project billings.
• Modified the allocation methodology of WebEx charges to various departments.
Efficient Supervision of 10 AP staff and resolve complex queries. Deputed to manage the entire
team in the absence of AP Manager.
• Approval of the Cost point (ERP) Vouchers, Vendors, Wires and Expense Report Claims.
• Ensuring invoices are processed within normal lead time in compliance with company policies and
procedures.
• Conduct meetings & training, constantly suggest process improvements, system development &
implementation and other activities to increase the efficiency of the department.
• Preparation & review of overall departmental metrics, analyzing & providing feedback to the AP
Manager & DSS director interpreting the causes for increase / decrease in time consumption.
• Oversee reports such as weekly consolidated cash flow projections, monthly accruals, weekly
disbursements, other reports and reconciliations are timely and accurately submitted.
• Prepare and update desk process, and prepare Cross training matrix of employees.
• To ensure all queries from internal and external customers are responded in a timely manner.
Achievements
• Awarded “Lightning Bolt” in 2011 for improving accounts payable process. Planned, developed &
implemented various applications in work, resulting in time saving for the processors there by
increasing the overall efficiency of the department.
• Awarded “Certificate of Achievement (Service Award)” recognizing hard work, dedication &
excellence in work for 5 years continuously.
• Suggested to eliminate wires review process for LOGCAP Afghan programs that has been resulted
in saving 50% of time for the processors.
• Explored Cognos reports & identified ways to reduce the time spent on processing. Created and
modified new Cognos reports that help team members (Unposted vouchers with PA and PAA).
• Corporate office visit to Texas, USA for taking over additional responsibilities & suggested process
improvement (foreign vendor setups /consolidated accrual process).
• Introduced weekly “Certificate of appreciation” in DIFZ AP to acknowledge hard work & dedicated
services to motivate team members, appreciated by management.
Efficient and effective review of wire packages and ensures packages are processed within 2-3
days from date of receipt from program.
• Preparation of consolidated cash flow projections, monthly accruals, other reports and
reconciliations and ensure that they are timely submitted.
• Preparation & review of overall departmental metrics, analyzing & providing feedback to the Senior
Manager interpreting the causes for increase / decrease in time consumption.
• Prepare various reports as required by management and analyze them. Constantly suggest process
improvements, system development & implementation and other activities to increase the
efficiency of the department.
• To work along with other team members and assist them whenever required to accomplish the
objectives. To actively participate in team building activities.
• Assisting program, supplier, corporate, SOX & Internal auditors & other departments on various
other reports & all other tasks required by management.
Achievements
• Tracked excess billing & avoided double payment for $600K for which supplier issued credit notes
to us. Reported price variance and unutilized cost resulting in contract restructuring.
• Awarded as the first “icon” of the month in AP department. Awarded as the ‘key
S (4) Services P Ltd provides accounting & allied services to Bharti Televentures (P) Ltd (India’s No. 1
Private Telecom service Provider in Landline Division, Employing more than 1500 personnel within the
region).
Profile
• Lead an AP team of 3, process operating & capital expenditure invoices as and when required and
guide the team to resolve issues \[Advanced user in Oracle Financials 11i (AP/GL/ FA Module)\].
• Processing vendor payments & reconciling bank statement.
• Involved in monthly closing of books like preparing & recording accruals, review of accounting
entries & rectifying (if any), verifying the balances between modules (AP Vs. GL, FA Vs. GL).
• Review of line items posted in “fixed assets” module & reclassify, if required.
• Preparation, review & submission of various reports to managements like expenditure analysis
report, department wise expense report, creditors ageing, group company transactions, process
time reports, variance analysis (Budget Vs. Actual), financial analysis and other reports related to
service tax, income tax and all other reports as requested by management.
• Reconciliation of major vendor balances. Coordinate & resolve the issues arising out of
reconciliation. Ensure the balances are certified on periodical basis.
Achievements
• Awarded as the best payment processor in the region.
• Reported unutilized costs resulted in restructuring of contract and savings to the company.
ICAI is an individual body governing the auditing function of any enterprise in India. I had undergone
training for 3 years in the areas of Accounts, Audit \[Internal & External\], tax planning & audit in
Manufacturing and trading companies, SME’s, banking and financial institutions, exceptionally large sized
commercial banks under the supervision of M/s. R. Sundararaman & co, audit firm in Chennai.
Certified Management Accountants USA
Professional Global Certified Management Accountant (GCMA) from IQN (Pearson Testing)