Daniel Phillips

• As Summerset is a rapidly-growing company listed on the NZX and ASX, this role required tight deadlines to be met with high attention to detail, and provided numerous opportunities for value-adding and business process improvements
• Established partnerships with business unit leaders and provided effective guidance, support, and strategic planning advice. This included providing advice on how best to meet the needs of the organisation at the lowest cost, supporting business cases with analysis, and ad-hoc requests
• Annual preparation of business unit budgets through a bottom-up approach, including working closely with business unit leaders to collate expenses expected to be incurred in the upcoming year, and supporting the business unit through budget presentations
• Provided monthly reporting, actual versus budget analysis, and forecasting for business units to track financial trends and performance, and presented results to business unit leaders with recommended actions
• Prepared monthly commission schedules for sales managers, including downloading and manipulating data and adhering to commission policies to ensure sales managers are paid the correct sales and settlement commission
• Maintained strict confidentiality over employee data in compliance with internal organisational policies
• Performed month-end close tasks, including journal preparation and balance sheet reconciliations within tight timeframes and in full compliance with regulations
• Wrote the monthly Finance Report that is provided to the board, including monthly and year-to-date variance analysis to budget at both the organisation and cost centre level, as well as updating waterfall graphs and tables
• Collaborated effectively with the Management Accountants that support other business units and the Business Performance Manager to ensure all deadlines are met and team goals are achieved
• Worked with and provided document support to external auditors
• Prepared other ad-hoc reports on a weekly basis that require manipulating large quantities of data through excel formulas
• Continuously looked for opportunities to improve business processes and add value for business units and the Finance team

Selected to go on secondment to the Consulting service line to maintain the budgets and finances of a large project with over 130 people. This included:

• Maintaining and updating the budget for each phase of the project
• Onboarding and offboarding people from the budgets, adding their sell rate to the client and cost rate to the company to determine the profitability of each person
• Reporting billable time to the client on a weekly basis, as well as reporting on actual vs budget position at the end of each week, and the impact on the forecasted position at end of the project phase
• Preparing and sending invoices to the client based on billable time reported, and track the payment of these invoices
• Collating expense information and report these to the client to be reimbursed
• Preparing approvals to bill based on the cost of different contracting parties to the company over a period of time, including raising an invoice and tracking the payment of the invoice
• Calculating the profitability of each phase of the project, including the margins made on each member contracting to the company, and reporting this to the Engagement Partner
• Overseeing the timesheet process, ensuring that each person on the project is submitting their timesheets, and communicating with the relevant project lead for approval

This role included all the responsibilities required of a Consultant, with an added focus on developing the skills and competencies of junior staff members, including managing their workflow. This role also required:

• Leading client engagements and being the key contact for providing advice, as well as being accountable for outputs produced
• Client Delivery - Having an in-depth understanding of Deloitte Private's offerings and clients' businesses, and assist with managing client expectations
• Technical Ability - Effectively perform the technical components of a Senior Consultant, leveraging a variety of tools and technologies, and proactively identifying possible issues and opportunities
• Team Development - Supporting the learning of others by sharing information and knowledge, and effectively delegating and managing junior staff
• Growing the Business - Proactively identify opportunities to grow the business, and assisting with developing them including writing and presenting proposals
• Trainings - Facilitating technical trainings for junior staff members to enhance their skills and competencies

Provided of a range of services to small to medium sized enterprises including:

• Preparation of monthly management accounts, year-end accounts, compliance tax returns, and providing strategic accounting and business planning advice
• Development of strong competencies in tax and compliance work, and effective communication with clients and team members
• Preparation of Financial Statements through the Xero accounting software, including Profit and Loss Statement, Balance Sheet, Statement of Changes in Equity, Notes to the Financial Statements
• Manipulation of large amounts of data and transactions in Microsoft Excel to be entered in Xero and Taxlab
• Maintaining the Xero Profiles of clients, including bank account reconciliations, accounts payable, accounts receivable, monthly management reports, budgets, Financial Statements and GST Returns
• Maintain contact with a variety clients including participating in face-to-face meetings to present report outcomes, and regular phone and email check-ins to ensure the client expectations are being met
• Preparation of payroll for clients, requiring a high attention to detail to ensure that employees of the client organisation are being paid the correct amounts
• Preparation of client Tax Returns for a variety of entities including individuals, companies and Trusts. This included making complex tax calculations, and communicating with the client their tax liabilities and due dates for payment
• Providing timely advice to clients on their business operations. This included answering in-depth adhoc client queries in an effective manner over phone or email
• Preparation of budgets and long-term forecasts for both for-profit and not-for-profit entities. This required communication with the client on income and expenditure items they are expecting to incur over the next four years, and presenting the results
• Attending regular compliance and tax trainings to maintain and enhance my core technical skills and provide the highest quality service and business advice to clients.