Our client is a non-profit organization which offers training.
The objective of this training center was to restructure its finance department.
Therefore, it has chosen BFS to help them carry out this large project.
In order to fully support the operational financial team on a day-to-day basis, 3 BFS consultants have been deployed to fill the following positions: an AP accountant, a GL accountant and a business controller.
In this assignment, we, among others, hold the position of GL accountant and focused on the coordination of the accounting department.
Added to this, the other major customer’s need was to establish a relationship of trust and ensure good communication between the GL accountant and the finance manager. The client places great importance on autonomy and leadership.
Services
Financial Controlling mission to assure function continuity
The situation
The task
The role of the GL accountant is to ensure accurate general and analytical accounting. To do this, we check the accounting operations by ensuring that all the entries have been made, that they are accurate and that they are carried out on time in accordance with established financial procedures.
In practice, there are 3 parts:
- Weekly tasks: allocation of financial accounts, execution and monitoring of payments, verification and correction, if necessary, of accounting allocations, execution of various tasks based on manager’s requests
- Monthly / quarterly tasks: checking the accuracy of accounting entries, preparing various reconciliation files, declarations
- Be the point of contact between the various employees on financial matters but also with external stakeholders such as auditors
In practice, there are 3 parts:
- Weekly tasks: allocation of financial accounts, execution and monitoring of payments, verification and correction, if necessary, of accounting allocations, execution of various tasks based on manager’s requests
- Monthly / quarterly tasks: checking the accuracy of accounting entries, preparing various reconciliation files, declarations
- Be the point of contact between the various employees on financial matters but also with external stakeholders such as auditors
The action
Concrete actions were taken such as:
- Establishment of work procedures and reconciliation files in order to carry out the monthly closings
- Management of the closing schedule and respect of deadlines
- Establishment of sharing files with the AP accountant and the department manager in order to ensure good communication and a good follow-up of the tasks carried out
The results
- The monthly closings are now executed in a methodical, structured way, with a history which allows other members of the department to have a better view and understanding of what has been done
- The implementation of work files has improved collaboration and the understanding of accounts and writings for members of other departments (eg: bonus department)
- There is also better communication within the team. Indeed, we communicate and share as much information as possible in order to ensure good cohesion within the team