Nikoleta Cook, MBA, CPA
Director of Finance at Advocates for Basic Legal Equality, Inc- Claim this Profile
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Bio
Credentials
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CPA
Accountancy Board Of Ohio
Experience
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Advocates for Basic Legal Equality, Inc
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United States
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Legal Services
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1 - 100 Employee
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Director of Finance
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Jan 2017 - Present
■ Participate in ABLE and LAWO strategic planning process, including establishing conceptual framework, education, and communication with Board Members, and engagement of various other stakeholders. Lead two of the five major strategic plan areas: Multiply and Money. ■ Work with diverse group of community organizations, community organizers, advocacy organizations, and leaders in local communities with a goal of establishing a Strategic Partnership Collaborative. ■ Lead the annual budget process including development of structured fundraising plan leading to 20% increase in unrestricted resources. ■ Lead organization wide efforts related to establishment of a new compensation system and development of performance review system with transparent and measurable standards for advancement. ■ Direct A/R, A/P, payroll, billing, cost accounting, and collection processes. Complete financial forecasting, performance, and reporting specific to costing, budgeting, net/gross margins, profitability, and expenses. ■Manage income, cash flow, and other financial metrics. Show less
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Director of Finance
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Apr 2013 - Dec 2016
■ Direct treasury/banking, debt management, budgeting, leasing, and capital improvements for 16 facilities with annual revenue exceeding $25M. Oversee A/R, A/P, payroll, billing, cost accounting, and collection processes. ■ Reorganized Finance and A/R Departments by eliminating process bottlenecks and hiring/on-boarding new managers. Authored job descriptions and outlined key performance goals (limits on outstanding balances) and benchmarks. ■ Oversee financial statements and supporting schedules preparation and analysis by complying with Generally Accepted Accounting Principles. ■ Participated in consolidation of 9 employee handbooks and revised or developed new human resources policies related to EEOC, FLSA, and FMLA compliance. ■ Sponsored electronic health records migration, which provides staff with accurate and up-to-date patient heath information; e.g. allergies, medical history, and medications. ■ Supported organization-wide staff realignment and internal restructuring, which involved job evaluations and succession planning, compensation and retention trends. ■ Negotiated 50 managed care contracts with third-party payers for facilities in OH, MI and PA; increased reimbursements more than 5%. ■ Reviewed contract compliance and identified outstanding revenue of approx. $300,000 after discovering large discrepancies between actual versus expected reimbursement from many large national insurance companies. ■ Performed several claim payment reviews, which resulted in more than $100,000 of additional revenue. ■ Introduced and implemented new system enhancements that saved an estimated 15% in overhead: √ Payroll system that automated tax filings, provided advanced tracking tools and benefits administration; √ General ledger system to generate financial statements for each individual facility; √ Electronic time tracking and approval processes; Show less
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ProMedica Health System
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United States
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Medical Practices
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1 - 100 Employee
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Director of Internal Audit
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Apr 2007 - Apr 2013
■ Directed 10 auditors in monitoring balance sheet account reconciliations and accuracy of system financial statements preparation. Oversaw budgets, financial forecasts, risk assessments, and compliance with state and federal laws/regulations. ■ Handle human resources tasks; e.g. hiring, training, coaching, and completing performance reviews. Utilize a personable management style to improve employee satisfaction levels and reduce staff turnover. ■ Supported internal controls design, compliance initiatives related to HIPAA, Stark and Anti-Kickback Statues as well as Physician Compensation. Led compliance and IT risk assessments and EHR implementation. ■ Managed financial oversight specific to fixed assets, revenue, cost allocations, inventory, treasury/ banking, expenses and payroll, safeguarding assets and capital vs. operating budget funds accordingly. ■ Developed monitoring programs that streamlined contracts negotiations, management, and tracking; introduced risk deterrence measures that reduced liability exposure by an estimated $100M. ■ Led redesign of procurement processes associated with $250M in annual spend. Cut $10M by facilitating Lean Six Sigma, IT-compliant equipment that eliminated root causes and reduced fixed assets inventory. ■ Sponsored project to improve business processes — reduced expenses by $5M dollars by sponsoring an integrated capital projects tracking and reporting process, diversifying team resources. ■ Reduced budgeted operational costs $2.2M by implementing monitoring program that audited construction projects with budgets exceeding $10M. ■ Developed new travel expense protocols, outlining reimbursable and non-reimbursable travel expenses, which reduced yearly expenses by 10%. Show less
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Gilmore, Jasion & Mahler
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United States
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Accounting
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1 - 100 Employee
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Senior Accounting Associate
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Aug 2003 - Apr 2007
■ Prepared 100+ individual and corporate (C and S Corp) tax returns that also encompassed more complex tasks involving estates, trusts, buyouts, acquisitions, asset transfers, and so on. ■ Supervised, evaluated, and mentored 4 fellow accounting associates. Conducted on-the-job training and shadowed new recruits as well as assisted colleagues with troubleshooting. ■ Audited and reviewed financial statements for 20+ not-for-profit organizations and governmental entities with average revenue exceeding $20M. ■ Managed largest clients with net revenue exceeding $100M; provided controllership services for construction, real estate, investment, and insurance clients. ■ Expanded staff training on advanced internal financial controls, budgeting and forecasting trend analysis, financial planning and performance, and cost management. Show less
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Education
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2012 - 2014
University of Toledo
Master of Business Administration (MBA), Business Administration and Management, General -
2001 - 2003
University of Toledo
BBA, Accounting and International Business -
Advanced Trainings
Community
