Alison Cotton Email and Phone Number

I currently work as the Director of Cotton Accountancy Services, providing accounting and tax services to small businesses. My focus is on sole traders and small limited companies providing services, such as IT contracting, freelance teaching and translation. I am responsible for all aspects of the business.I have recent experience of setting up small limited companies and working as Financial Director within a small business. I also have recent and current experience of working freelance, as a translator. Therefore I am particularly well-placed to advise those acting as freelancers or contractors.As a qualified chartered accountant, I trained at PwC as an auditor. I spent 6 months of my training contract in Duesseldorf, Germany, where I made use of my fluent German and financial skills. One of my key tasks while in Germany was to write and review the reports to management in English.At Georgia-Pacific I undertook a few different roles, as the business changed shape before moving to the Oughtibridge plant to act as a commercial accountant, business partnering the marketing team.At Kellogg I broadened my experience by taking a month-end reporting role. This also involved using my fluent Italian skills. Eventually I also took on reporting for the new European head office entity in addition to the Italian entity, which entailed coordinating a monthly consolidation. My next role was as S404 manager, where the main focus was managing a large project and communicating across the European entities to ensure adherence to and understanding of requirements. While performing this role I also assisted the statutory reporting accountants by reviewing/ proofreading statutory accounts. Finally I undertook a business partnering role, helping managers manage their budgets. I prepared monthly reports on actuals to budget/ forecast as well as adhoc reports. for more specific items.