Finance Manager

• Nov 2021 - Present

Business and Finance Consultancy

• May 2021 - Present

Assistant Head of Finance

• Mar 2020 - Apr 2021

Assisting the Head of Finance of the Spanish digital bingo business YoBingo and YoCasino, registered as Bingosoft PLC and part of The Rank Group of Companies. Daily and recurring operations include the following for three separately registered companies (2 in Malta and 1 in the UK):-Bank Payments-Bank Reconciliations-Computation of VAT Returns-Financial analysis and reporting to relative authorities-PR/PO contact point and registration-Accounting generalAs part of the current transformation program being run by The Rank Group, I am part of the accounting system changeover team that is transitioning from QuickBooks and third party accounting to Dynamics365. In this context, I am a COA accounting code mapper, Data Migration supervisor and User Acceptance Tester and first line of contact with the Head of Financial Systems at The Rank Group UK HO.

Accounts Manager

• May 2019 - Dec 2019

In this position, I was responsible of managing a portfolio of clients on behalf of the accountancy firm and also assist in the structuring and growth of the same firm. My responsibilities include the following:Year end accounts preparation for companies, partnerships and sole traders;Preparation of monthly and quarterly management accounts;Monthly and quarterly cash-flows, budgeting and forecasting;Integrate planning models and CRM system (Accountancy Manager);Operating and supervising payrolls for small businesses to deadlines;Corporate and Personal Taxation computations and returns;Tax and remuneration planning for owner managed businesses;Cloud accounting experience and facilitation specifically QuickBooks and Xero;Preparing VAT Returns and giving VAT advice; andAssisting with the development and documentation of new operating procedures using system tools like (AVN’s System Builder).

Accountant and Payments Executive

• Jan 2018 - Mar 2019

In this role, I was primarily tasked with managing the daily financial operations of two companies within the corporate structure - Binary (Europe) Ltd. and Binary Investments (Europe) Ltd.. This included:Daily bookkeeping and processing of operational expenses in multi-currency (predominantly Euro, GBP and USD) using Xero;Bank reconciliations of current and client accounts;Preparation of prepayments and accruals schedule;Posting of journal entries;Preparation of monthly management accounts;Double checking and process management of Malta staff salaries ( including liaison with the local authorities and payroll software provide: Inland Revenue Department and Shireburn Software Ltd.);Preparation of payroll reports;Monthly and annual regulatory submission of income tax, social security and maternity leave returns (FS5s, FS3s and FS7s) with the Inland Revenue Department; Currency conversion and posting of salaries at departmental level;Preparation and submission of VAT Return (article 10) using Amazon WorkSpaces and Tableau; Preparation of ad-hoc financial reports; Daily trade records in relation to derivatives falling under the European Market Infrastructure Regulation (EMIR);Preparation and submission of the Common Reporting Framework (COREP) return on a quarterly basis, in line with the European Banking Authority (EBA) regulatory requirements.On a daily basis, over the back office and company’s cashier systems, I checked and processed traders’ payout requests from various payment service providers (Incl. Fasapay, QIWI, Neteller, Skrill and Webmoney) and credit/debit card issuers, in line with internal compliance and regulatory requirements.

Accountant (Internal Accountancy)

• Nov 2016 - Dec 2017

In this role, I was primarily responsible for the bookkeeping and maintaining of accounts for Contact Advisory Services Ltd., Kyte Consultants Ltd., and Gaming Consulting Ltd. which are three individual companies that provide auxiliary services relating respectively to (Contact Advisory Services Ltd.) - corporate services, (Kyte Consultants Ltd.) - fraud management solutions, legal assistance, PCI DSS, IT Assurance and Auditing, IT Consultancy, Remote Gaming licensing and regulatory certification review, (Gaming Consulting Ltd.) - client accounting and payroll management.Furthermore, my responsibilities also included:Monthly billing for corporate, accounting and payroll services and also other ad-hoc billing relating to the above services as per letter of engagement using SAGE Line 50; Payment to business suppliers and regular cheque payments to the Registry of Companies(ROC) and Ministry of Foreign Affairs(MFA);Posting of companies’ expenses;Bank reconciliations;Preparation and submission of VAT Returns (as per article 10); Posting of journal entries, analysis and preparation of accounts up to the trial balance stage; Periodic financial reporting, cross-company billing, and debt management.

Accountant Executive and Budget Analyst

• Nov 2015 - Nov 2016

The key duties and responsibilities of this role were:The calculation of payroll and preparation of payment templates and posting of multi-currency payrolls for all of VAOS staff (excl. Malta-based staff) using SAP ERP; Uploading of payment templates and liaison with banks with regards specific payment instructions and utilisation of forex forward contract;Monthly clearing of salaries, allowances and travel accounts;Liaison with HR staff on matters related to employees’ bonuses, allowances, and other contributions and regular maintenance of these benefits;Assist and query budget owners with the preparation/revision of annual budgets and supplementing the budgets with payroll related information and other financial information before final approval by the managing director;Review budgets against actual costs; Adjusting costs by reclassifying/reallocating costs according to expense account or cost centre respectively and providing variances analysis commentary.Preparing ad hoc reports with a particular focus on payroll issues.

Signatory Officer-Financial Analyst

• May 2011 - Oct 2014

At this workplace, I formed part of a unit led by the bank’s head of advances (lending). The unit’s role was primarily to define the bank’s advances strategy and to provide the top management function (from an advances standpoint only) that was needed to support the bank’s national branch network including 11 Branches, the Commercial Business Unit (CBU) and the Recoveries Unit. The team also assumed the function of the bank’s regulatory compliance section and was responsible for the statistical reporting to the Central Bank of Malta and the Malta Financial Services Authority, for matters relating to compliance.In my capacity, I was responsible for:The compilation/interpretation of the database relating to the entire bank’s advances portfolio and for the preparation of the monthly general and specific provisions of this portfolio, which were passed on to the finance department and were particularly important due to their effect on the bank’s profitability;Taking care of the reporting (advances section only) related to the European Central Bank’s ‘Monetary Financial Institutions’ (MFIs) monthly statutory returns, which is the statistical data that all Banks in the Eurozone, channeled through their National Central Banks, are obliged to report to the European Central Bank (ECB).Assessing and recommending the sanctioning of advances proposals which presented exceptions to the product schemes or the bank’s advances policy/lending guidelines; these included high-end proposals that were above the branches’ discretion and staff proposals. Preparing the sanctioning memoranda for proposals approved by Head Office, keeping a record of the periodical facility reviews of the proposals that fell within Head Office, Advances Executive Committee and Board of Directors discretion and maintaining a database of all the correspondence concerning Head Office.

Accounts Executive

• Feb 2010 - May 2011

In this role, I assumed direct responsibility for a portfolio composed of 18 companies. My tasks included: Inputting of the clients’ financial data in the employer’s accounting system on a daily basis; Regular reconciliation with bank statement & creditors/debtors list;Preparation of periodical reports from the accounting system, management accounts and annual financial statements. Assisting with payroll and the compilation of income tax, and on a quarterly basis I prepared VAT returns (for companies as per VAT articles 10 & 12); Preparation of audit schedules; Preparation of business plans, financial projections, due diligence reports, business valuations, feasibility reports and project appraisals.

Finance Officer

• Sep 2007 - Feb 2010

In this position, I assessed from a quantitative perspective all projects under the Youth in Action Programme directed by the European Commission’s Directorate General for Education and Culture. As part of the finance unit, I was responsible for:The financial operations and budget of all of the agency’s programmes: Lifelong Learning, Youth in Action, Euromed, Euroguidance and Eurodesk. The agency’s own operational budget, and programmes’ common expenditure accounts (i.e. budgeting, accounting reconciliation, bank transfers and issuance of cheque payments); Managing the procurement system ranging from direct orders to quotations but excluding tenders in excess of €6k; Calculating the financial costings for each tender proposal, particularly in conjunction with the programmes’ meetings/seminars and other events held in Malta;Taking care of travel arrangements and calculation of subsistence allowances for internal staff in conjunction with overseas meetings, conferences and seminars they attended; Providing consultation to the management staff and National Coordinator (Head of the Agency) on matters relating to the agency’s financial aspects; particularly following finance meetings I used to attend in Brussels; changes, updates or addendum to national or EU directives and local meetings I attended on procurement procedures. Verifying the payroll calculation for every employee of the agency worked out by the salaries department at the Ministry of Education, Youth and Employment, before giving the department the go ahead for payment and subsequently paying the department for the whole combined gross salaries.