We arrived at the client as a Project Finance Controller in a context of lockdown, so with very few interactions with the colleagues and having to learn processes and systems from home.
The team was quite deforced by many departures and a maternity leave with an accelerated handover of only 2 days.
By trying to get, step by step, the right information from the right person, we started elaborating the puzzle and to start working on a more or less independent basis, focusing more and more on daily tasks described below.
Industry
A to Z project finance follow-up in an industrial production environment
The situation
The task
Our tasks and responsibilities were to:
• Participate in overall Project Management process jointly with Project Manager.
• Be the main partner for the Financial Strategy success of the project.
• Supervise, analyse and support for overall finance topics of the project.
• Challenge and approve Project Financials.
• Contribute effectively with the project initial set up (SAP project creation/parametrization, stakeholders’ meetings…).
• Prepare the budgeting and forecasting.
• Manage and analyse costs, revenue and profitability.
• Prepare timely forecasts for sales, costs, margin and cash.
• Be responsible for the billing process and follow-up.
• Support the finance teams in the monthly closing process and reporting Project financials in a suitable manner.
• Analysis and follow-up of project cash-flow and project cash-curve
• Participate in overall Project Management process jointly with Project Manager.
• Be the main partner for the Financial Strategy success of the project.
• Supervise, analyse and support for overall finance topics of the project.
• Challenge and approve Project Financials.
• Contribute effectively with the project initial set up (SAP project creation/parametrization, stakeholders’ meetings…).
• Prepare the budgeting and forecasting.
• Manage and analyse costs, revenue and profitability.
• Prepare timely forecasts for sales, costs, margin and cash.
• Be responsible for the billing process and follow-up.
• Support the finance teams in the monthly closing process and reporting Project financials in a suitable manner.
• Analysis and follow-up of project cash-flow and project cash-curve
The action
In order to succeed in the integration of our consultant in the team, many initiatives has been taken such as pick-up the phone, dare to ask questions to various stakeholders never met in real, “get our hands dirty” into systems (ERPs) and processes,… On
The results
We managed to :
- successfully adapt in a covid/teleworking context, in an industrial environment full of challenges in terms of systems, processes and people.
- Efficient integration, both professionally and humanly speaking, while facing an offsite training/debut period.
- Afterwards, successful mastering of daily and requested tasks, allowing to further deepen financial analysis skills and performance with regards to answering ad-hoc requests, therefore bringing some added-value and impact for the client.