Mazhar Akbar Ali

Accounting/ Financial Management
 Develop and maintain timely and accurate financial statements and reports for the users and in accordance with International Financial Reporting Standards
 Review and publish monthly financial report to the Group and the Central Bank of UAE
 Ensure compliance of the Accounts related regulations laid down by the Central Bank of UAE
 Work with the top management on Strategic planning & decision-making and arrive at a road map (short term & long term)
 Effective coordination with External Auditors for all audit related matters and analyze audit reports
 Prepare Annual Budget in co-ordination with all the functional heads
 Analyzing and commenting on the feasibility of various business acquisitions, mergers and sell-offs.
 Detailed Analysis of company’s revenue and cost
 Oversee progress against plans and budgets and alert concerns to favourable and adverse variances - ensuring appropriate actions for minimizing variances
 Identify process improvements to drive efficiency across different functions/businesses, track performance and trends, implement strategies and programs to maximize opportunities for business performance
 Monitor all the bank’s day end balances regularly and advise the team on effective utilization of funds.
 Ensure that the company complies with VAT reporting regulations issued by Federal Tax Authority
 Participate in determining and implementation of strategic business plans
 Participate in key decisions as a member of the executive management team
 Close monitoring and approval of cost
 Participate in identifying and mitigating risk
 Ensure timely collection from partners and payment to the vendors/ Money Product partners
 Prepare various reports for management and bank
 Oversee the administrative function of the organization
Team Management
 Managing a team of Accountants and ensuring high performance of the team.
 Provided training to the new employees and kept the team members informed of the new developments.
 Assisted the team in completing tasks on time and in improving their accountability towards individual work by introducing new and effective methodologies.

Key Highlights:
 Reduced monthly MIS publishing time from15 days to 7 days, after the close of a month.
 Accomplished tagging of 3500+ Fixed Assets of the company and reconciling it with the books of accounts
 Contributed in successful migration of core system
 The financial statements prepared for the year ended 2019 & 2020 were approved by the auditors with no audit adjustments.

Accounting/ Financial Management
 Cash Flow Management and working capital optimization
 Lead the banking operations of to ensure effective monitoring and accounting and to assure the company is adequately funded to meet its short and long-term cash requirements, improve profitability and optimum returns through efficient treasury and funds management
 Prepare presentations for banks and management, explaining the business activities, performances and future prospects of the company
 Ensure accurate and timely submission of financial reports (consolidated and stand-alone financial statements), and forecasts are prepared in compliance with the policies, international Accounting, and Financial reporting standards and collaboration with external auditors to provide clear insight into financial condition enabling high quality and agile decision making.
 Oversee the coordination and activities of external auditors ensuring all audit issues are resolved, and all compliance issues are met and ensure the preparation of the annual financial statements by reporting standards and requirements
 Working closely with the team to ensure timely filing of VAT return
 Analyzing accounting records, financial statements, and other financial reports to assess accuracy, completeness, and conformance to reporting and procedural standards.
 Developing financial statements, optimizing financial resources and managing the control of risk.
 Developing financial models for new projects/ Business units and help management take various strategic decisions
 Analyzing costing of contracts, product pricing and labour utilization and efficiencies.
 Managing month-end books closing activities which include recognizing revenue, ensuring all the costs for the month are booked, making various provisions for costs, bank reconciliation, payroll posting, depreciation booking, asset capitalization and balance sheet schedule preparation.
 Analyzing the operational processes and identifying areas where additional accuracies and efficiencies can be achieved.
 Analyzing business operations, trends, costs, revenues, financial commitments and obligations to project future revenues and expenses and/or provide advice.
 Make presentations for Senior Management and prepare various ad-hoc reports for them.
 Suggesting necessary improvements in policies and procedures of the company.
 Maintaining tight control over cash transactions and following up of accounts receivable and payable including customer invoicing, follow-up customers for collection, customer reconciliation, revenue booking, invoice booking, payments, processing LCs and guarantees, vendor reconciliation and cost booking.
 Ensure effective implementation and enforcement of the approved budget; monitor and report on budget variance and identify key issues and potential corrective action.
 Ensuring control & efficient management of company assets (additions, transfer/ movement & deletions/ termination) in line with company goals and targets.
 Developing, maintaining, and analyzing budgets, preparing periodic reports that compare budgeted costs to actual costs.
 Ensuring timely reports of the accounting results.

Key Highlights:
 Contributed in achieving one of the biggest financing deal of the company amounting AED 1.25 billion
 Stellar role in finalizing the acquisition of three international companies.
 Negotiated with the banks and reduced the average working capital rate of interest by 75 basis points
 Instrumental in implementing VAT and SAP in the organization
 Slashed payroll/benefits administration costs by 30% by negotiating pricing and fees, while ensuring the continuation and enhancements of services.

Accounting/ Financial Management
 Developed the financial statements of the company which has its branches operating in UAE, Kuwait, Qatar, Kazakhstan and Saudi Arabia, Iraq and Russia.
 Conducted project financial feasibility analysis and credit risk at the time of bidding for new project.
 Developed annual budget & quarterly forecasts
 Ensured cost management records of expenditures, forecasts and cash flow were maintained.
 Managed accounts and ensured compliance with statutory authority and audit requirements and ascertained timely finalization of statutory books of accounts and financial reports.
 Analyzed actual labour, material and overhead cost of projects against budget.
 Managed Internal as well as External Auditors in finalization of accounts and monthly reporting with cost analysis and measure the achievements vs budget and accounting information system.
 Reviewed company’s policies and procedures and suggest necessary improvements.
 Liaising with Regulatory Authorities for timely assessment and filing of Tax Returns as per the provisions of regulatory tax acts.
 Introduced strict internal controls in finance & accounting activities and all operational areas which helped in cost reduction and eliminated revenue leakage.
 Calculated standard labour rate and equipment rate which was used by projects to absorb labour and equipment cost.
 Maintained the reconciliation of Ledger Accounts, Debtors & Creditors and handled receivables to achieve the targets assigned by management within specified time limit.

Reports
 Developed reports like MIS, actual v/s budget variance report, project-wise revenue and GP, revenue center-wise overhead listing, staff cost and head count reports, capital expenditure reports and recommendations on cost control.

People Management
 Assisted the team in completing tasks on time and in improving their accountability towards individual work by introducing new and effective methodologies.

Key Highlights:
 Successfully increased the frequency of generating the financial reports from quarterly to monthly.
 Instrumental in reducing the time required for preparing financial reports from 15 working days to only 6 working days after the close of a month.
 Provided various suggestions on overhead cost reductions, some of which were successfully implemented by the company.
 Contributed in successful implementation of ERP system, i, e. Oracle in the company

RESPONSIBILITIES HELD

• Preparation of Financial Statements and reports on a monthly basis.

• Preparing various management reports such as Budgeted Profit and Loss A/c, Budgeted and Actual Cash Flow, variance report, cost-benefit analysis report, list of defaulters, customer discrepancy report, etc.

• Monitoring day to day accounting operations and reconciliation of accounts payable, accounts receivable and bank.

• Managing payroll of the company’s 220 employees.

• Coordinating with banks and undertaking Treasury activities

ACHIEVEMENTS

• Substantially reduced the number of complaints from the vendors for non-payment of invoices on due dates. This is mainly achieved through timely reconciliation of accounts payable.

• Ensured successful implementation of ERP system, i.e. Oracle 11i, in the company.

• Recruited and trained 3 accountants to join the team.