Laura Bernhauser Email & Phone Number

Nashville, Tn, Us

Nashville, Tn, Us

Trusted advisor to senior leadership, driving financial strategy, data-driven analysis & performance evaluation to support operations teams and ensure sector-wide business and financial goals are met. Develop and manage strategic financial plans and evaluate monthly performance for 4 of the 7 business units within the Technology, Media & Telecommunications (TMT) sector of PwC operations.Create annual forecast and strategic plan including key actions for operations teams within the TMT sector, securing buy-in from senior leadership team. Proactively identify potential issues and risks through data-driven analysis and provide senior leadership with recommended actions needed to achieve financial targets.Review market trends to prepare and present monthly sector financial reporting, providing strategic analysis and commentary to ensure key drivers, variances to budget/forecast and required actions are clearly communicated. Successfully navigate a highly matrixed organization to build strong working relationships with multiple cross-functional business units.Optimized and streamlined regular report-outs to senior leadership by building an automated Alteryx workflow replacing a previously manual process—reducing report preparation by a day and creating the new standard team-wide practice.Lead and mentor a high-performing team of 3 finance managers and associates responsible for day-to-day financial transactions, reporting reviews, and client service support.Regularly lead core skill training for new client service managers on how to execute effectively in their new roles—consistently receiving feedback from participants that the additional training provided the in-depth insights needed to hit the ground running.

Primary operations support to the leadership team for the Southwest mega-market (800+ individuals), headquartered in Los Angeles, CA.Drove strategy and execution of initiatives from finance leadership for Southwest market.Led monthly operations update meetings with Market Team Leaders, highlighting critical areas of focus and actions needed, including the review of the Assurance Scorecard, projected performance variances, billings and collections trends, portfolio changes, transaction activity, and internal control procedures/sign offs. Reported key findings and trends from monthly Market Team Leader calls to their leadership team, highlighting actions needed and areas of focus to drive alignment with key finance strategies and market improvement initiatives.Oversaw IPO gating process to ensure compliance of multi-step process for IPO/SPAC transactions to maximize assurance profitability. Co-led workstream that drastically streamlined WIP reporting — from dozens of files to one and reducing report preparation time from a week to one day. New report created a single source of truth for all teams allowing real-time collaboration between key stakeholders and providing more transparency of financial position.Participated in workstream to create efficiencies in bill plan reporting — making the report more user friendly and adding key information previously missing.Managed senior associate—overseeing day-to-day work, training, coaching.

Provided operational support to the core attest, Private Company Services, and risk assurance practices for the Southeast mega-market (1,500+ individuals).Performed Private Company Services (assurance and tax) monthly forecasting, analysis, and financial reporting.Created from the ground-up, new client service manager training for Southeast market to ensure new managers succeed in their new roles. Traveled to PwC offices within the Greater Atlanta, Florida, North and South Carolina locations to lead training workshops. Key contributor of the myEngage automation workstream creating a new “Turbo-tax” style process for the client service teams to process daily transactions and automate approvals—creating a more efficient process and time-savings for both the client services and finance teams.Streamlined the process for billing clients—reducing the time from multiple days/weeks to 48 hours as a key member of the Billing & Collections Centralization workstream—creating a new company standard procedure.

Provided operational support to the Greater Atlanta Assurance practice (450+ individuals).Managed financial analysis and reporting, delivering first level review of monthly results. Analyzed operations and financial metrics and identified trends and issues to drive business results.Provided financial forecasting to market leaders and regional Finance team.Subject matter expert for budgeting, forecasting, financial transaction, and reporting tools: EMT, GFS and myEngage—supporting client service teams’ day-to-day operations. Determined reporting, controls and process changes needed following a reorganization of the finance group as a member of the Project FIT Market Operations Workstream (March 2017). Developed and distributed process documents to teams.

Master'S Degree, Accounting

Bachelor'S Degree, Accounting