Donna Backus Email & Phone Number

Wallingford, Ct

Wallingford, Ct

Orange, Ct

Actively manage all aspects of accounting department including billing, accounts receivable, accounts payable, general ledger, payroll, account reconciliations, variance analysis, and forecasting. Prepare audit schedules. Prepare and present financial statements to the owners group.* Improved accuracy and integrity of financial information by developing and implementing internal controls.* Developed policies and procedures to ensure work was completed consistently and on time.

Work with the Outsource Partners International team to ensure month end activities such as journal entry preparation and account reconciliations are completed accurately and on time; perform general accounting functions including month end close activities; account reconciliation preparation and review; management reporting; audit activities; preparation of tax packages; review existing procedures to identify areas for automation or process improvement.

Provided financial support for international military contracts, including forecasting, performance and variance analysis. Supported Achieving Competitive Excellence (ACE - similar to six-sigma) initiatives.* Identified $1.7M in margin pick-up by analyzing inventory credit balances from a completed contract.* Provided key information leading to finalization of significant foreign military contract.* Modified SAP Measurement Report making it more concise and easier to view, while also reducing run time.* Coordinated with pricing and developed procedures to provide information consistently and accurately in a usable format

Completed account reconciliations; management reporting; reserve analyses; payroll postings; analyzed undistributed costs; program directives; supported Sarbanes Oxley requirements; supported ACE initiatives.* Improved process for determining excess and obsolete (E&O) inventory reserve, potentially reducing E&O inventory balance. Established and documented standard work procedures.* Reduced balance of undistributed costs by 80%. Analyzed undistributed costs to determine root cause. Reviewed SAP process flow to determine breaking point. Identified several causes including incorrect settlement rule parameters and incorrect purchase orders. Worked with IT, purchasing and asset management to correct the issues. * Designed an SAP report and automated the NAVAIR reporting, improving accuracy and efficiency by 30%. * Completed Material Management & Accounting System (MMAS) documentation as requested by the government. Demonstrated compliance with MMAS standards. Created process flow using Visio.* Supported SAP implementation at off-site location in both operations accounting and general accounting; provided general ledger training.

Performed general accounting functions: period end closing; variance analysis; account reconciliations; management reporting; fixed assets; SAP system administrator. Supported Sarbanes Oxley requirements and ACE initiatives. Supervised summer interns. Promoted in 2006.* Played a key role in implementing SAP ERP system, wrote functional design to extract data from SAP for loading into HFM, created training documents and trained co-workers on general ledger and fixed asset modules.* Collaborated with IT to develop, test and implement SAP journal entry upload. Time savings of 90% and reduced input errors.* Assisted in SAP implementation at off site location including testing, defining controls and providing general ledger training. Designed and implemented overhead allocation rules. * Represented Sikorsky on UTC HFM implementation team. Developed common rules and reports. Identified Sikorsky specific needs. Conducted training. Utilized one system for all business units to report financial results.* Identified the need and created template for uploading journal entries to HFM. Template is used by all UTC business units. * Recognized the bottleneck during month end intercompany balancing and alleviated it by creating an SAP report to replace the lengthy manual process. Defined specifications, coordinated with the IT group, tested and implemented the report. Mistake proofed the process. Data was accessed more timely, by multiple users as needed. * Researched SAP functionality and implemented: foreign exchange process so unrealized foreign exchange was recorded for foreign currency accounts payables; recurring journal entry to reduce manual input of standard monthly entries.* Developed methodology for full allocation of fringe benefits.* Improved processing time of property tax returns by over 50% by automating data gathering process and formatting into a usable format.* Co-authored Sarbanes Oxley manual for the fixed assets cycle.

Prepared/reviewed financial statements for 10 countries; period end closing responsibilities; calculated and processed royalty payments; international inter-company sales eliminations; international profit in inventory analysis; tax reporting.

Forecasted monthly depreciation expense; fixed asset capitalizations and retirements; property tax reporting; reserve analysis; five year capital plan; annual depreciation budget; audit schedules.

Prepared and presented monthly financial statements for two hotels; account reconciliations; variance analysis.

Reviewed financial statements for over 40 dialysis clinics, variance analysis; reported results to Joint Venture partners, acquisition and joint venture accounting, general accounting, asset management, period end closing. * Played a key role in converting the general ledger from Oracle to PeopleSoft