Sohaib Abbas Sohaib, Group Accounting Manager – Consolidation and Reporting

Sohaib Abbas Sohaib

Group Accounting Manager – Consolidation and Reporting

Arasco

Location
Saudi Arabia - Riyadh
Education
Master's degree, Accounts
Experience
17 years, 11 Months

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Work Experience

Total years of experience :17 years, 11 Months

Group Accounting Manager – Consolidation and Reporting at Arasco
  • Saudi Arabia - Riyadh
  • My current job since February 2020

-Lead a team of 8 personals to prepare and present monthly quarterly and annual financials for internal management and external auditors.
-Collaborate with Business Units Leaders to produce annual budgets and forecasts.
-Work closely with the leadership team to formulate short-term and long-term financial and strategic plans.
-Analyze financial and operational results using financial ratios and operational KPIs to better understand the company’s overall health.
-Performing variance analysis and providing commentaries and executive summaries on Business Units, Products and Channels and communicating the results and recommendations to management leading to revenue generation, cost reduction and efficient operations
-Own the process for preparing financial statements and financial models.
-Lead Strategic and Special Projects in collaboration with IT to improve reporting through automation and system optimization
-Produce Board Pack, Group Executive Pack, and Monthly management Pack showing financial and operational performance along with prospects and potential investments
-Part of Asarco company’s transformation program focusing on financial and procurement department process redesigning and enhancement.

Senior Accounting Manager – Consolidation and Planning at Almarai
  • Saudi Arabia - Riyadh
  • July 2016 to January 2020

Achievements

-Managed a Project of Implementing IFRS related changes covering Consolidation and Internal reporting structure as well as system changes related to SAP BPC.
-Settlement of Intercompany Balances from $2 Billion to $0.5 Billion covering Accounting, Tax and Interest related issues.
-Managed a Project relating to Budget and Forecast of Monthly and Yearly Rolling forecast implementation in SAP BPC 10.
-Part of the Project - VAT related impact analysis related to business and system integration.
-Successfully completed several SAP BPC projects including implementation of the annual budget, rolling forecast, and long-range plans (05 Year Plan), weekly flash financials, KPIs Dashboards, and management operational and analytical reports in SAP BPC.
-Participated in transformation project of financials to IFRS including associated amendments in SAP and BPC systems.

Area of Responsibilities

-Responsible for preparation and delivery of the Group Planning, Budgeting and Consolidated Financial Statements both from the internal and external perspectives for all group entities (in KSA and Abroad).
-Performing variance analysis and providing commentaries and executive summaries on Business Units, Products and Channels and communicating the results and recommendations to management leading to revenue generation, cost reduction and efficient operations
-Ensure that the consolidation process is performed through the latest SAP BPC platform.
-Ensure timeliness and quality of all the Process (Consolidation and Planning) from end to end in SAP BPC Architecture through efficient usage of the platform.
-Identify, investigate, and analyze potential Operational Improvement and implement business changes into the system.

Job Features

-Review & Prepared Weekly, Yearly and Long-term planning and budgeting process along with 12 monthly and 4 quarterly - Consolidated IFRS based Financial Statements at the Group level.
-Organize and Coordinate reporting process with all functional areas of Almarai Group including 37 Subsidiaries (23 local and 14 foreign)
-Number of Direct and Indirect Subordinates: 10 professional accounting staff.
-Interaction with all business functions/departments (Interaction with all divisions, including Farming, Manufacturing, Logistics & Supply Chain, Sales & Marketing and support functions of HR, Finance) and all the group JV’s and Foreign legal entities
-Number of locations covered: 12 operational countries

SAP BPC Lead consultant at siemens
  • Pakistan - Islamabad
  • July 2014 to June 2016

Project : Implementation of Budget system
Client : Ministry of Finance (MOF) of Pakistan
Platform : SAP NW BPC 10 (Business Planning and Consolidation)
Role : Lead SAP BPC Consultant

This project scope includes maintenance of budget system of Government of Pakistan in SAP BPC 10. Implementation includes extraction of data from different provinces and saving it on the server by input schedules and then use this information to forecast next 3 years of Budget. The project also includes variance analysis reports at top level by different categories.


Key Project Deliverables;

 Building up scenarios and analyzing of MOF's requirements
 Making of Blueprints and conducting trannings on BPC 10
 Identifying inputs and variables to be forecast
 Building up solution architecture
 Understanding MOFstructures
 Created AppSet, Dimensions and Forecasting Applications
 Data Manager packages for loading data
 Security setting : Creation of users/teams/member access profiles
 Setting up work status and concurrent locks with different levels
 Input schedules with multiple EVDREs

SAP BPC Consultant at Scan Regn Scap
  • Pakistan - Lahore
  • January 2014 to July 2014

Project :Top-Down Planning, Implementation Project
Client : Scan Regn Scap (Pvt) Ltd - Norwegian client
Platform : SAP NW BPC 7.5 (Business Planning and Consolidation)
Role : SAP BPC Consultant

Prime activities of Scan Regn Scap are providing the best quality of food in Norway. The company has 14 restaurants in all over Norway. All the project activities were performed in Dubai Head office.

Key Project Deliverables;

 Created AppSet, Dimensions and Top-Down Planning Applications
 Data Manager packages for loading data
 Security setting : Creation of users/teams/member access profiles
 Setting up work status and concurrent locks with different levels
 Input schedules with multiple EVDREs
 Passed transactional data across BPC applications using different Script logic.
 Script logic for distributing production costs and pushing data to Sales App.
 Generated financial statements
 Setting up journals

Consultant & Manager at Crowe Horwath Chartered Account
  • Pakistan - Lahore
  • January 2012 to December 2013

 Managed 3 projects of the implementation of SAP B1 projects.
 Analyzed and mapped business processes for business case development. (Current state/future state)
 Prepared budgets and forecasts of the company as required by the management.
 Managed outsourced activities of Norway Region.
 Conducted Business Process Review.
 Constructed business and financial models built on an analysis to identify key requirements, generate alternative solutions and propose recommendations.

AUDIT SUPERVISOR at Crowe Horwath Hussain Chaudhury & Co Chartered Accountants
  • Pakistan - Lahore
  • June 2006 to December 2011

 Led a team of 15 people in preparing and reviewing consolidated financial statement of the Descon group (estimated Turover Rs. 84 billion, Balance sheet value Rs. 97 billion) which is one of the biggest Engineering company in South Asia
 Led a team of 8 people in the consolidated financial statement of the Himont Pharmaceutical group (estimated Turover Rs. 950 million, Balance sheet value Rs. 850 million) which is one of the top pharmaceutical company in Pakistan.
 Prepared and reviewed consolidation of subsidiaries, conversion of foreign subsidiary’s financial statement in to parents reporting currency for consolidation.
 Supervised audit of the consolidated financial statement of Shahzad group (estimated Turover Rs. 10 million, Balance sheet value Rs. 8 million) which is a Textile Manufacturing group, including an Associate called Sargodha Jute which is one of the major Jute producers in Pakistan comparing 25% of Jute production
 Led the team of 8 people in preparing and analyzing various consolidated financial statements of Private sector companies and Non-governmental Organizations as mentioned below in the Appendix.
 Supervised audit of a quoted Modaraba (Islamic Financial Institution) (estimated Turover Rs.5million, Balance sheet value Rs. 2.4 million) for 3 years.
 Supervised nearly 30 audit and assurance assignments, book-keeping, internal control system review, fixed asset verification and stock take assignments
 Mentored team members through on-the-job review, coaching and direction for completion of their sections
 Assessed the financial statements in order to ensure their compliance with the requirements of the local laws, Regulation and International Financial reporting Framework (IFRS).
 Planned and Developed work methodology and working programs for audits and consulting projects
 Involved in the team, maintaining and improving the Quality of Audit and implementing International Standard on Quality Control (ISQC) 1 standard issued by IFAC (The International Federation of Accountants).

APPENDIX

Key List of Audit Clients

Client Role

1. Descon Group Assistant Manager 2. Himont Group Assistant Manager 3. Guard Group Assistant Manager 4. Shahzad Group Assistant Manager
5. D.S Group Assistant Manager
6. Pakistan Red Crescent Society Supervisor
7. SOS Villages of Pakistan Supervisor
8. Pakistan Olympic Association Supervisor
9. First National Bank Modaraba Assistant Manager
10. Clean Development Mechanism - Pakistan Supervisor

Education

Master's degree, Accounts
  • at CPA Canada
  • January 2014
Master's degree, Accounting,Auditing and Business analysis
  • at ACCA
  • July 2013

ACCA Member

High school or equivalent,
  • at ICAEW (Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales )
  • June 2012

(Two papers and a case study left to become Member)

Diploma,
  • at Certified Accounting Technician
  • June 2006

Specialties & Skills

Accounting Standards
Year End Accounts
Internal Audit
Internal Reporting
Accounting
Excellent understanding of the International Accounting (IAS) / Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS)
Experience of working in time pressured projects both individually and with team
Excellent skills in preparing and analyzing financial statements
 Proficiency in computer aided management software’s and trainings in ERPs
SAP Enterprise Performance Management (EPM)
Developed documentation, including blueprints, business process diagrams and perform Tranings
Business Planning and Consolidation (SAP-BPC NW 7.5, NW 10)

Languages

English
Expert
Urdu
Expert
Arabic
Beginner

Memberships

Association of Chartered Certified Accountants (ACCA)-UK
  • ACCA Member
  • March 2014
CPA Canada
  • Member
  • January 2014

Training and Certifications

 SAP Business One(B1) (Training)
Training Institute:
SAP Portal
Date Attended:
January 2011
 SAGE ACCPAC ERP (Training)
Training Institute:
Sage University
Date Attended:
January 2011
 SAP Business Objects Planning and Consolidation 7.5 (Training)
Training Institute:
SAP-Excellence Delivered (exD)
Date Attended:
January 2013
Strategic Time Management (Training)
Training Institute:
Time Lenders
Date Attended:
February 2012

Hobbies

  • Playing soccer and following all the major European football leagues.
  • Trekking, out-door sports and PC Gaming.
  • Passionate about photography.