Simon Wright Email & Phone Number

Horsham, England, United Kingdom

Brighton, United Kingdom

Created weekly payment proposals in Unit4 for payments in GBP, EUR and USD and uploaded the payments to the bank, consistently ensuring on-time payment of suppliers, student bursaries and employee expenses.Created ad-hoc payments for the payroll team, advances and other same day requests.Processed GL transactions for manual payments and tax reconciliation. Monitored advances given to employees and students to ensure that receipts are received in the agreed time frame and unspent funds are returned.Collated & analysed the reconciliation report for the external invoice processing company, provided feedback in meetings and collaborated to devise improvements for faster processing.Active in Zoom meetings with the bank and outsourced service teams to ensure smooth running of their services.Evaluated the Aged Creditors report, liaising with the AP team and requisitioners in the University to either ensure that payment is agreed or issues are negotiated with suppliers.Evaluated all credit balances, liaising with suppliers for refunds and the cashiers team to ensure all refunds are allocated to the related budget.Provided the AP team with a monthly checklist of suppliers to be reconciled. Monitored the progress of the strategic suppliers and the top suppliers by spend. Communicated with my suppliers to ensure payments are on time and issues are being actively resolved.Provided training to team members and used their feedback to re-design the business rule manuals and ensured that they are updated whenever new processes are put in place.When the lockdown began I assisted the team with setup of home-working systems. We completed a scheduled payment run within three days allowing no impact to our supply chain. Moved training to shared screens on MS Teams.Held MS Teams meetings with the AP team as a group and as individuals since the start of remote working to ensure the team can work efficiently both in terms of hardware and open communication.

Sutton, United Kingdom

Created regular payment proposals in Oracle for multiple Reed companies in ten countries, consistently ensuring on-time payment of suppliers and reimbursal of employee expenses.Created and maintained vendor accounts whilst liaising with purchasers to ensure that contractual payment terms had been agreed.Monitored Inter-company payment transfers to ensure costs were passed to the correct parts of the Reed group of companies.Prepared month end reconciliations for the Global AP teams in a multiple currency ledger and uploaded to Blackline to ensure timely and accurate reporting across the group.Evaluated negative balance reporting, liaised with suppliers for refunds and implemented tracking for returned payments to ensure refunds were received and returned to the cost centre.Provided accounting support and training to newly acquired companies during their transition to the Reed group and helped with their integration to Reed processing methodologies.Liaised with divested companies to ensure that Reed and the divestee did not duplicate payment to suppliers in the lead up to the divestment date and during the transitional period that followed.Tracked unpaid US cheques and liaised with suppliers to ensure that we pay the correct escheat amounts to the US state authorities whilst keeping that amount to a minimum.Collated 1099 reporting data for the US and created the report for upload to SOVOS.Devised systems for the purchase of staff gifts for the UK and US offices and took ownership of the purchasing for the UK business group.Developed training materials for the US office teams and successfully performed the Skype training sessions with the teams at those offices.

Proposed and initiated a strategy for faster payments to local small businesses to promote links with the local community.Collated reports relating to Intrastat declarations for Finance Manager and completed reporting to HMRC within monthly timelines.Created regular payment proposals, consistently ensuring on-time payment of suppliers and reimbursal of employee expenses.Prepared monthly accruals for all orders due for delivery for which an invoice has not been received, to allow for accurate budgeting.Created and maintained vendor accounts whilst liaising with purchasing team to ensure that contractual terms of purchase had been agreed.Involved in a recent project team to implement a data cleanse to ensure vendor accounts were ready for a migration to a global vendor database.Fully involved in the initial planning stages and the testing for the UK implementation of a global electronic invoicing system (AP4SAP).Developed training materials for UK purchase ledger teams and successfully performed the training sessions for local team.

Consistently met strict deadlines for the allocation of payments received including in excess of 250 payments per day and daily delivery of the cheques to bank.Negotiated payment schedules and arranged direct debits for clients with poor credit ratings to ensure deliveries could continue.Liaised with pre-legal team and debt recovery agency regarding delinquency on customer accounts.

Co-ordinated between customers and the sales and operations teams to ensure prompt resolution to situations relating to delivery and pricing.Collated weekly reports for Regional and Area Management teams regarding performance levels of the couriers at the Franchise offices.Maintained database listings for Self-Employed personnel. Communicated with Solicitors and Mortgage companies on their behalf. Checked any wage deductions and resolved any pay disputes.Team Leader for Customer Invoicing, Self-Employed personnel payroll and the Securicor Chauffeur Drive division.Led the training of the Operations team and appointed sub-team members in keeping with key selection criteria.

Care For The Wild is a registered charity devoted to the protection of endangered animal species in their natural habitat both within the UK and worldwide.Created and maintained a computerised stock database system which led to an improvement in the ordering of new stock and allowed for more efficient use of limited storage space in the office.Advised on acquisition of computer equipment and programs with responsibility for purchasing hardware and software and integrating within the network.Analysed yearly statistics for changing rate of animal fostering and supplied reports relating to the retention of donors as well as the effectiveness of each advertising campaign for reaching new supporters.