Waqas Ali

FRANTS & Co is a chartered accountant firm which is involved in providing External Audit, Accounting, and Advisory services to various clients. I was mainly involved in providing Accounting services to a portfolio of clients. Description of my job responsibilities is as under:

• Oversee the preparation of financial statements along with all accounting and financial information of the clients including relevant subsidiary ledgers, schedules, reports and informatory notes;
• Assisting the clients in Financial planning and control system including preparation of budgets, cash flow projections, and other sub systems (accounts receivable, accounts payables, payroll system) and ensure development and implementation of effective and efficient financial control, strategies, policies, and procedures;
• Ensuring accurate and timely monthly, quarterly and year end closing of books of accounts in line with the Internal Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) and Company policies;
• Development of internal control systems for assurance of smooth running of Accounting and Financial operations;
• Establishing and maintaining effective communication and coordination with clients;
• Coordination with client’s Banker and preparation of Financial Projections for presentation to the lenders of the Company.

Above Services were offered to following Clients:
 DF Deutsche Forfait AG Pakistan (Private) Limited
 Hijveri Constructions
 Engineering Kinetics Limited
 Avatar Interactive Entertainment

Special Assignment - Treasury

Worked at Gulistan Group of Companies to ensure efficient functioning and improve performance of treasury department. The assignment consisted of following procedures:
• Preparation of standard operating procedures for treasury department;
• Comparison of terms of banks and calculation of weighted average cost of financing to identify best finance options;
• Advice on L/C discounting and foreign exchange rate negotiation with banks.

During the period of 3 years and 9 months at “Ernst & Young”, I worked in Audit & Assurance, and Financial Advisory departments. Planned supervised and executed external audit assignments of various national and multinational organizations with exposure varying from manufacturing to financial sector. In individual capacity as well as a team leader my experience is as under:

• Planning and co-ordination of assignments to meet stringent deadlines, including the supervision, training, review and motivation of team members;
• Liaising with, and developing good working relationships with the clients to meet and deliver engagement expectations;
• Preparation of audit planning documents, formulation of audit strategy and risk assessment of critical and significant audit areas;
• Comprehensive system study of the business processes of entities, which involved documentation and critical review of all significant accounting streams, identification of weaknesses in the control systems and evaluation of their impact on the Financial Statements;
• Analytical Review of financial and non financial data to reduce the risk of material misstatements in financial statements and investigation unusual variances;
• Ensuring that financial statements are in compliance with IFRS, related laws & regulations and special reporting requirements of the industry;
• Review of presentation and disclosure of financial statements in accordance with applicable local laws and IFRS;
• Verification of compliance with Code of Corporate Governance if applicable;
• Preparation of final audit deliverables - Audit Report, Covering Letter to the Board of Directors, Management Letter of Control Weaknesses, Reporting Packs and other reports and certificates;
• Discussion and preparation of correspondence with management of the company and those charged with governance which include discussions of major findings and control weaknesses identified and final audit meeting;

Seconded to “Ernst & Young Saudi Arabia” for a period of three months with key mandate of providing Audit and Assurance services to various clients. Job responsibilities were:

• Planning the audit engagement and preparation of initial planning documents;
• Inquires from the Management and documentation of major processes of the client’s business;
• Performance of tests of controls and assessment of audit risks including identification of weaknesses in the internal control system of the client;
• Evaluation of combined risk assessment and preparation of audit strategy on the bases of the assessed risk;
• Execution of substantive audit procedures on various areas in accordance with the International Auditing Standards;
• Preparation of Financial Statements in accordance with IFRS, Company polices and the related laws & regulations;
• Concluding the audit by preparing summary document for observations noted during the audit and their effect on the Audit report;
• Preparation of Audit Report, Letter of Control Weaknesses and final Audit deliverable.

Worked as Financial Consultant at “Kansai Paint” (under outsourcing contract between Ernst and Young and Kansai Paint), where I learned to work in tight deadlines, gained exposure to work in an ERP environment and groomed my skills in a multinational environment.

My responsibilities were:

• Supervising the accounts department and providing directions to the staff members;
• Advising the accounts staff on accounting treatment in accordance with the International Financial Reporting Standard and on the classification of the financial transactions;
• Supervising the monthly inventory count and calculation of inventory provision to be made in the Financial Statements;
• Supervising the Monthly, Quarterly and year end financial statements closing process and preparation of Standalone Financial Statements of the group companies.
• Preparation of Consolidated Financial Statements of the Kansai Paint Middle East Group.
• Reporting of Consolidated Financial Statements to the ultimate parent company “Kansai Paint Japan”.
• Coordination with the ERP software team in capacity as member of Steering Committee during implementation of Micro Soft Dynamics.
• Preparation of Financial Projection.