Peter Elder Email & Phone Number

I got my start in Accounts Payable processing after graduating college during the Great Recession. After just over two years of AP experience in the Bio-tech field, I moved to San Francisco and started working for Kimpton Hotels as an AP Specialist at their corporate office. During my time with them I expressed a desire to take on additional accounting roles and I had my eye on the Staff Accountant position. I took it upon myself to train the other teams (IT, Marketing, Sales, HR) on our accounting system. All teams had to enter their own purchase orders and expense reports directly into JD Edwards, which could get very complicated due to the way the business was set up. I did several one-on-one training sessions, created templates, and step-by-step guides. Along the way I built up relationships with all levels at the corporate office, from interns and assistants all the way to the VP level. Whenever anyone had an accounting or process question, they would come to me first.After 4 years of working in accounting, life threw a curve-ball at me and I needed to leave San Francisco ASAP. Not wanting to leave Kimpton, I applied for a Help Desk position in Portland, Oregon. I didn't have the experience for the position, but the VP of Technology and Senior Director of Enterprise Systems, just to name a couple, encouraged me to apply: "You're smart and have excellent people skills. The rest we can teach you. We know you can do the job".I worked in the Help Desk position for exactly one year, supporting all Kimpton managed properties across the country. During this time, Kimpton was busy integrating their systems with IHG systems. The accounting systems were included in this. While the Systems team was busy building our unique business model into IHG's PeopleSoft, I was plucked from my help desk job to provide support for the legacy JD Edwards system. I was a logical choice. I already knew how the system operated from a user perspective, and my quick, technical mind was able to pick up how the system worked behind the scenes. By taking on the support and maintenance of JD Edwards, the other teams were able to fully concentrate on building the new system.Eventually the new system came online. The process from JD Edwards was (mostly) emulated in PeopleSoft and Concur with a lot of new quirks thrown in. It was functional but still pretty complicated, and there would be quite the learning curve for Kimpton properties and the corporate office. Lots of training and support would be needed, and I happily accepted that job offer when they presented it to me.

Listed skills include Accounts Payable, Invoicing, Microsoft Office, Microsoft Excel, and 20 others.