shahid olakara

As a Senior Associate within the northern audit team based in PwC Edinburgh, I’ll be working as part of a team of problem solvers with extensive consulting and industry experience, helping our clients solve their complex business issues from strategy to execution. Specific responsibilities of the current role include but are not limited to:

• Providing audit and business advice to a variety of clients. The current portfolio includes a range of companies from industries such as oil and gas, public finance initiatives, manufacturing, retail and pharmaceutical research.
• Proactively assisted in the management of several clients, while reporting to Managers and above.
• Provided an on-site co-ordination role for audit clients including planning, day to day control of the audit team, liaising with clients and completing audit assignments.
• Building and maintaining strong relationships with clients and other stakeholders. Working and liaising with other members of the audit team and colleagues in other parts of the firm as necessary to provide high quality clients service.
• Reporting directly to a partner, director, senior manager or manager. Contributed to the development of own and team's technical acumen.
• Actively involved in business development activities to help identify and research opportunities on new/existing clients.
• The role gave me opportunity to become a part of a PCAOB engagement involving testing and reporting on the operating effectiveness of SOX controls.

KPMG Qatar Feb 2016 - June 2019
Audit Associate (Supervising Senior)

Working in audit at KPMG Qatar means being part of a multi-disciplinary team with a thorough understanding of financial reporting, technical accounting, and auditing standards. I joined KPMG Qatar as an intern during the busy audit season of 2016.

Key achievements:

• Developed necessary business skills to provide value to the clients and other key stakeholders.
• I worked with different teams throughout the period and working with a wide portfolio of clients allowed me to get to know people across my function and outside of my department. Also, I get to meet a lot of people who work at my client firms across functions and roles, which gives me exposure to areas of the business, improving my knowledge and understanding.
• During the audit season of 2017 three of my audit engagements were selected under the nomination list for the quality performance review of KPMG international and for the engagement which was selected the team received a satisfactory rating from the reviewers.
• I was awarded back to back with the best performance ratings which resulted in early promotions.
• Previous positions held within the firm
o Audit Senior executive (from Oct 2017 to Sep 2018, 1 Year)
o Audit Executive (from Dec 2016 to Sep 2017, 10 Months)
o Audit intern (from Feb 2016 to May 2016, 3 Months) *

Description of duties:

• During my career here, I sometimes worked independently on audit engagements as an in-charge or supported a bigger team.
• My job involved attending meetings with clients, taking part in discussions with senior members of the KPMG team, providing quality audit and other assurance services to clients, Identification and communication of accounting and auditing matters to managers and partners.
• Maintained good Interactions and relationship with clients to help ensure that the information flow from the client to the audit team is efficient.
• Performed and documented audit in compliance with International Standards on Auditing (ISA) and KPMG Audit Methodology, regulatory requirements, using applicable IT systems and tools.
• Ensured that clients fulfill regulatory and contractual obligations through the audit, monitored and reported emerging risks and provided detailed post-audit feedback to ensure continuous improvement.

*Please note that I have taken a career break of six months from 1 Jun 2016 to 30 Nov 2016 during the transition from internship to graduate job.

Key audit clients:

As an in-charge:
Al Faisal Holding W.L.L. (Family owned business)
Al Faisal Without Borders Foundation (Not for profit)
AkzoNobel L.LC. (Chemical)
Dnata Travels L.L.C. (Travel and tourism)

As a team member:
United Development Company Q.P.S.C (Listed)
Hospitality Development Company Q.S.C.(Hospitality)

Inchcape Shipping Services (ISS) is the world's leading maritime and logistics service provider. With a global network of some 300 offices across 70 countries.

I was assigned to serve a causal role within the Qatar branch's accounting department for 3 months. My role was to handle various management accounting tasks for the liner services department.

•Junior member of the team of four associates to execute engagements covering financial, operational and compliance processes by following audit program involving control evaluation, audit testing, report drafting, audit issues tracking and follow up, verification of issues closure, as well as ensuring audits were completed timely with the budget .
•Performed internal control testing over financial reporting as related to various business cycles such as costing, fixed assets, inventory, revenues, expenditures, treasury and payroll.
•Interviewed, documented the results of discussions with client's management to evaluate the risk of business process within petty cash, accounts payable, accounts receivable, payroll and inventory management .
•Bench marked business processes against leading practices and developed an extensive listings of internal controls for consideration.
•Produced well documented findings & recommendation and discussed deficiencies with Management and Head of Internal Audit Services.
•Provided support to the client's anti-fraud programs.
•Conducted extensive performance appraisals and bench-marking of audit clients and determined root causes for significant unfavorable figures.
•Created and implemented several new spreadsheet programs for clients to increase productivity and profitability.

Eisa Alderbasti Accounting and Auditing is a leading audit firm based in Doha, Qatar. The firm is an independent member of CPA Associates International Inc.

I joined a team that performed a full spectrum of accounting services for clients. The services offered included advisory secondments, business process outsourcing, and internal audits assignments. This role gave me fresh hands-on experience in various accounting functions