Sonia Cook Apam Email and Phone Number

Managing a team of 38 with 4 direct reports, Accounts Payable, Accounts Receivable, Payroll, Customer Payments and Fraud.

Managing a team of 46 with 5 direct reports, Accounts Payable, Accounts Receivable, Facilities, Payroll and Customer Payments and Fraud.

Heading up a team of 12 accounts payable clerks, processing around 4 to 5 thousand manual invoices and around 1 thousand electronic invoices, the system we are currently working on is an in house manual accounting system generating a lot of paper reports which assist us in clearing our queries. Responsible for Processing weekly payment runs which have to come within pre set budgets, including euro payments and same day chaps payments for key suppliers when needed. I have implemented new procedures on invoice sign off limits for the clerks and I, which has tightened the controls for auditing.Bank detail authorisation procedure in place for authorisation to be done by finance department.Weekly cash flow meeting with Financial ControllerWeekly team meeting with department and one to ones when needed or requested, Staff appraisals on a yearly basis and disciplinary and performance reviews when needed..• Running month end reports and closing off period ends.Currently implementing the EDI process and have 35 key suppliers on EDI ongoing project..Debit note procedure in place, this was never done before and we are currently saving the company 15 thousand a week in raising these.Motivating staff by running small incentivesEncourage staff investigate training courses to assist them in their personal development. Pass on knowledge on my day to day tasks to encourage growth within my own department.Regular visits to depots and suppliers to address any issues in procedure.Reconciliation of all key suppliers on a monthly basis.Reduced head count by two since starting as department was over staffed.Within my role I work very closely with the accounts team and team leaders working towards a better system, we are trying to streamline our current procedures and looking to improve systems to affect new account set up, bank detail authorisation, signature records and reviewing sign off limits.

When joining Ocado all invoices were processed manually, I worked very closely with the Systems Accountant to implement the EDI process, this took about 6 months to get up and running and needed constant attention to ensure the parallel running with suppliers worked before going live, we would aim to get 10 suppliers on to electronic invoicing a month, which was achieved.I was responsible for a team of 4 payables clerks processing 2 ½ thousand manual invoices a month and 4 thousand electronically processed invoices which generate about 500 queries a week. Ensuring invoices are entered correctly and processed in a timely manor, chasing various departments for authorisation, supply chain team for stock issues and various heads of department for head office costs. Processing 6 payment runs a week in the region of 5 million pounds, also generating foreign payments on a weekly basis and same day payments for key suppliers.Running all month end reports within the payables functions, producing month end reports for accruals using excel and pivot tables, reconciling accounts payables to the general ledger and reporting on any discrepancies. Closing month end periods in oracle, statement reconciliation on key accounts telephone queries liasing with receivables department on contras between suppliers used on both ledgers. Reconciliation on computerised banking entering direct debits.Other responsibilities, weekly meetings to report on payables performance, assisting in improving all systems used in payables with systems accountant.Staff appraisals and bi weekly meetings on performance with staffLooking for new ideas on improving current systems involving staff.