Melissa Kisting Email & Phone Number

Sussex, Wi, Us

Glendale, Wisconsin

Leads a team of five direct and next level reports, and manages Finance, IT, Business Process Improvements, Pricing, Risk Management, and Tax & Regulatory Compliance functions. Provides strategic and decision-making support to President, Operations, NPD, and Sales teams.• Executed separation of RSS from DCI, including tax registration/compliance, customer/supplier notification and transition, outsourced IT infrastructure design, implementation, and oversight, and Syspro ERP system selection and implementation, all completed in 15 months, on time and on budget. • Developed SKU-level forecasting tool to support 2022 Sales & Operations Planning initiative, giving Supply Chain critical data needed for production planning to drive improvement in on-time shipment, product availability, and excess/obsolete metric results. • Conducted market review for Commercial Zone brand to validate pricing against our competition, using product attributes and assigned value rankings. Drove 2% revenue increase, with higher price increase %’s for high volume, differentiated products and accessories, offset by decreases or recommended PLS for underperforming SKUs. • Led VPN/Cloud migration and major ERP upgrade (Syspro 7 to Syspro 8) to improve network availability and implement multi-factor authentication for network and ERP access. • Established Syspro Super User Group to better support user community in our remote working environment, leveraging Microsoft Teams for capturing issues and communicating updates, and conducting detailed process reviews and improvement initiatives for each team.

Glendale, Wi

Glendale, Wisconsin

Glendale, Wi

• Led Finance team through substantial organizational change and rapid volume growth (approx. 50% growth in first two years), including integration of books of business transferred from sister companies, full responsibility for additional business unit, and financial integration following sale of business to Marmon Holdings Inc.• Implemented Adaptive Insights (FP&A system) across global organization to support 80/20 initiatives and business segmentation. Built modeled sheets for bottom-up forecasting for sales, cost of goods, personnel costs, capital/depreciation, and detailed overhead spend by department, streamlining forecasting and subsequent analysis against multiple plan versions. System continues to be used by DCI, as well as RSS/CZ.

Greater Milwaukee Area

Direct all financial and tax reporting activities, ensuring accuracy and reasonableness of all supporting data, as well as compliance with GAAP, CAS, IFRS and FAR. Forecast and manage working capital to achieve Corporate free cash flow objectives. Identify process/control gaps; design and implement process changes or control checkpoints to mitigate. Coordinate annual "bottom up" department expense budgeting process in sufficient detail to allow for meaningful analysis and measurement.  Challenged Finance team to improve analysis, documentation and review process for journal entries, account reconciliations and critical monthly controls, all while meeting tight financial reporting timelines. PCT was subsequently recognized as "Greenest Business Unit" by DRS Corporate Internal Audit after a successful audit in July 2010. Developed and implemented detailed rolling working capital model, synchronized with cash forecast to better predict and manage monthly / annual results. Created detailed billing and cash receipts dashboards to track results against forecast, clearly identifying actionable risks and opportunities.  Identified and corrected process gaps, while scrubbing historical data, to address inconsistencies in programmatic reporting. Changes resulted in an accurate Contract Status Report that allows for "at a glance" identification of cost growth, margin fluctuations and available reserves by major program.

Directed all financial and tax reporting, planning and analysis activities, ensuring accuracy and reasonableness of supporting data, as well as compliance with GAAP. Coordinated cash/vendor management activities and bank reporting requirements.  Reconciled incomplete financial records to annual reports, identifying and recording audit adjustments for two reporting periods. Recast 12 months’ internal financial statements to reflect adjustments. Developed consolidation methodology and financial reporting package to guarantee consistency across reporting periods.  Designed and implemented weekly collateral/cash forecasting model used internally and by bank-appointed financial analyst to facilitate approval and reporting against four line of credit amendments.  Designed revenue template for Annual Operating Plan that facilitated “bottoms up” budgeting by line of business, customer, and product. Template dynamically calculated revenues, cost of goods sold, royalties and commissions, and provided data for inventory planning, distribution and sales compensation programs.

Directed all financial consolidation and reporting activities, ensuring accuracy and reasonableness of supporting data, as well as compliance with GAAP. Coordinated tax and compliance reporting activities with third parties. Developed effective working relationships with insurance brokers and bank executives to protect and enhance shareholder investment. Worked with accounting and executive teams to collaboratively identify process and control gaps, design corrective procedures, and prioritize and execute projects.  Completed closing activities to produce accurate financial statements for seven open months in preparation for our year-end audit. Challenges faced and overcome included lack of supporting documentation for previously recorded transactions, incomplete or missing account reconciliations, and transition from SAP to Adage financial package.  Created a standard financial reporting package, facilitating consistent line item classification, simplifying the consolidation process, and providing meaningful financial performance information to the shareholders.

Directed financial reporting, planning and review activities, including the preparation and approval of periodic financial statements and forecasts, as well as annual profit plans and operating target reviews. Managed leaders responsible for general accounting functions including billing/collections, accounts payable, access cost auditing, payroll, and Sarbanes-Oxley compliance.  Served as a key leader through several corporate and departmental changes, including an acquisition and subsequent integration, a workforce reduction, and a planned spin-off from our publicly-traded parent company.  Guided leaders through the development of meaningful individual objectives and measurements for direct reports who were previously measured and rewarded based on team results. Changes resulted in increased employee satisfaction, facilitated the identification of development needs, and improved productivity.

Greater Milwaukee Area