Sowmya Vasanthakumar Email & Phone Number

Working across the Finance department to lead to-be process mapping and requirements gathering, ensuring full coverage of requirements for the Finance Process Taxonomy, as well as assessing the quality and prioritisation of such requirements to implement new systems and new ways of working accross Finance.

London, England, United Kingdom

Managing a range of improvement projects accross the finance team to enable better customer service and more streamlined, efficient ways of working within the teamCurrent key projects:- Finance process mapping- SharePoint Migration- Purchase order re-launch- Finance processing support- Enabling Cross-skilling across the team

- Owner of financial information pack for board of directors, analyzing and presenting financial information in clear and concise manor that will enable decision making fit for target vision and strategy (‘To be’)- Senior stakeholder management to understand current operating model and budgeted costs- Project manager’s support in consultations with board of directors and senior leadership team to understand current ways of working and bottlenecks.- Monitor programme budget and actual spend; report financials to programme manager and Finance Director

United Kingdom

- Financial monitoring and analysis of diocesan and wider Church finances- Support NCI capital projects, prepare budgets and reforecasts, ensure provision of regular financial information to project managers, and enhance quality of business case information- Financial planning and reporting for NCI trading businesses – currently Pathways Recruitment and Parish Buying- Provide analytical support to the Finance Business Partners and the Senior Finance Team as and when required, responding to ad hoc requests as they arise

London, United Kingdom

Role Overview: Finance Subject Matter Expert working with Finance function to capture constraints and propose viable remedial action. Key Responsibilities:• Planning, co-ordination & execution of deferred income project for year-end audit (3 months). Understand ‘As is’ process & make recommendations for ‘To be’ process• Management of Finance Improvement Programme Plan to address internal control weaknesses & process inefficiencies• Planning & execution of 121 discovery sessions with Finance Function to capture problem statements; facilitate ‘As is’/ ‘To be’ workshops with operational & finance stakeholders for inefficient finance processes (Purchase Orders, Sales Invoicing)• Delivery of policies, procedures & training to finance to ensure implementation of uniform approach & alignment to internal control requirements• Streamlining of year end statutory reporting workbook to ensure successful delivery of financial year end & handover new process to financial controllerKey Achievements• Successful system analysis & identification of factors contributing to erroneous historical deferred income balances• Facilitated workshop to implement revised process for income deferrals whilst considering both operational and financial requirements to prevent future errors• Produced & embedded balance sheet control tracker into team’s ways of working to address internal control weaknesses, leading to increased capacity of c.20% and reduced management sign off time• Data collection, analysis & prioritisation of team bottlenecks for presentation to senior management (heatmap of constraints)• Captured hand off issues, individual requirements and interdependencies leading to production of implementation plan to address constraints in finance processes and achieve desired ‘To be’ model

London, United Kingdom

Role Overview: Lead Business Analyst working within Continuous Delivery (DevOps) Community of Practice to assist Digital teams with adoption of Continuous delivery/’DevOps’ principlesKey Responsibilities• Facilitate engagements with stakeholders to understand 'AS IS' maturity level of culture, methods & practices (agility) and tools & technology.• Elicit business requirements using gap analysis, interviews, document analysis, business process descriptions & workflow analysis• Produce solution implementation plans for individual engagement outlining project purpose, project scope, projected timeline of project delivery, and risk log.• Facilitate ‘As is’ & ‘To Be’ workshops to ascertain key bottlenecks & how these can be alleviated in line with stakeholder expectationsKey Achievements• Embedded agility within project management office team via delivery of agile coaching, leading to a more innovative, collaborative team culture• Created efficiency in ways of working within team by streamlining of task management tool, enabling 10-15% capacity within team• Identification of software development lifecycle system constraints via production of Value Stream Map Environments document• Production of DevOps recommendations paper for Valuation Office Agency’s IT team, highlighting areas for improvement &streamlining of software development delivery pipeline• Promotion of team’s services via delivery of presentations around the organisation, explaining concepts of continuous delivery and how these can be applied.

London, Greater London, United Kingdom

Role overview: Financial reporting accountant responsible for accurate production of management and statutory accounts, data modelling and business process improvements.Key Responsibilities• Coordinate production of half year & yearly consolidated and subsidiary statutory accounts and liaise with external audit team• Monthly profit flash, variance analysis and collation of data for production and distribution of monthly management accounts• Re-design, validate & deliver streamlined financial reporting model to replace legacy model by incorporating business acumen accumulated through project roles• Elicit requirements for reporting regulation changes (IFRS16 Leases) & deliver reporting model to account for resulting changes Key Achievements• Business process efficiency of c.30-40% achieved via redesign & delivery of financial reporting model • Successful sign-off of three sets of accounts based on detailed analysis of material financial variances, successful financial data modelling of impacts of changes to IFRS16, and timely delivery of financials against reporting deadlines• Assigned as trusted mentor for aspiring accounting professionals

London, United Kingdom

Role overview: Design, build, test, and document financial reports using Oracle Business Intelligence Enterprise Edition (OBIEE) 12c reporting tool, ensuring alignment to customer requirementsKey Responsibilities• Elicit and accurately document business requirements from technical and non-technical finance users• Liaise with technical project team to understand data warehouse structure and develop Financial Reporting’s MI solution • Provide MI developers with business acumen and required finance knowledge to develop MI solution• Attend sprint reviews to ensure finance related user stories describe and prioritise finance deliverables as expected• Write user stories that can be understood by end users and developers to describe finance requirements• Understand and document link between operational processes & financial transactions in new system to help resolve MI inaccuracies• Test MI solution, with the use of JIRA to manage and update test cases and evidence• Assist in defect management service to resolve identified issues, performing reconciliations where necessary to correct inaccuracies• Deliver OBIEE training for London Finance end users Key Achievements• Enabled delivery of customer reporting requirements via clear and concise communication with technical team and end users, ensuring timely & accurate financial and operational information• Supported timely production of statutory accounts via successful delivery of accurate MI reports for financial reporting team• Assisted London Finance team in becoming self-sufficient with new reporting tool

Role overview: Financial subject matter expert bridging the gap between companywide system transformation project and Financial Reporting team requirementsKey Responsibilities• Capture of ‘As-Is’ ‘To-Be’ from a finance perspective, performing gap analysis in implementation of new leasing and reporting systems• Liaise with external product providers to understand new leasing system and consequent financial processes.• Facilitate design, build and testing financial data migration and lead migration cutover trials, performing general ledger reconciliations• MI solution tester for financial reporting & ‘sandpit’ tester for general ledger configuration• Understand and document accounting double entries in new system ALFA• Implement post project accounting processes and controls into 'business as usual' to fulfil statutory financial reporting obligationsKey Achievements• Devised & coordinated process for accurate finance data migration; increased reliability of data to be migrated via investigation and data cleansing. • Enabled business understanding of technical team for data requirements needed to perform financial reconciliation• Successful implementation of proposed changes for financial & operational business processes driven by the system change project

Rayners Lane

• Comprehensive management of accruals and prepayments against forecast within tight deadlines.• Successfully build and maintain rapport with Trading team to control website content spend against forecast, monitor longstanding accruals and determine how overspends will be funded.• Development of analytical skills via query of unfamiliar costs within cost centres, conducting efficient reallocation as necessary.• Reconciliation of various general ledger accounts, exercising governance and attention to detail to highlight anomalies. • Effectively communicate with business partners within Digital organisation to accurately generate annual budget and quarterly rolling forecast.

Role overview: Financial Analyst for Infrastructure Projects Southern in Kent working within the Finance and Reporting team. Work across a wide portfolio of over 100 projects renewing and enhancing the railway in Kent route.Key Accountabilities• Support the project teams and senior management team in the financial management of the portfolio• Participation in budget holder and senior management reviews of the portfolio to provide sound financial support and guidance• Support the business planning & forecasting process in assisting with the preparation of the consolidated business & forecast plans for the area, including Capital, Operating Costs & Volumes.• Assist in the production of the periodic balance sheet report for review by the Financial Controller with supporting detailed information to aid understanding of balances• Communicate with Central finance function to ensure accurate reporting of the financial KPI’s from the monthly reports• Produce periodic reports and analysis including reporting information and analysis to be included in the monthly business reports• Assist with project accounting tasks and completion of periodic processes as required• Management of interface with, and change control of client asset business plans and review of performance in line with these both for cost and volume• Lead in the management and reporting of efficiency in line with Infrastructure Projects policy

• Reconciliation of Accounts & Month End Journals• Project set ups & monitoring Project Financials (Capex Projects funded by Opex)• Business Planning & quarterly forecasting activities.• Maintain Business partner relationships & challenge where possible.• Periodic review of variances in balance sheet & Profit or Loss (KPIs) position for OPEX• Resolving ad hoc queries within HQ and improving processes.

• Daily cashbook & bank processing; bank reconciliation for numerous accounts within group companies.• Weekly cashbook analysis and short term cashflow forecasting• Detailed weekly aged debtors and divisional analysis• Accounts Receivable & Accounts Payable Control• Contract Reconciliation Review & Contract Cost Management each period• Quarterly preparation of Group VAT reconciliation & return• Reconciliation of balance sheet accounts for all companies within group• Monthly Intercompany reconciliation• Gross Profit Reconciliation & Analysis• Company credit card reconciliation & posting• Various month end journal posting• Monthly Prepayment posting.• Supervising, training and developing two assistant accountants

Bachelor Of Science (B.Sc.), Financial Mathematics, First Class Honours

Fcca

F1-F3 Exempt via Degree F4-F9, P1-P3 Completed P7 Advanced Audit & Assurance Passed Aug'13 P6 Advanced Taxation Dec'13 Passed Feb'14 Fully.

A Levels

Mathematics, Psychology and Design & Technology