Paul Allen
Senior Finance Manager at OKdo- Claim this Profile
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English Native or bilingual proficiency
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Bio
Credentials
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Associate Chartered Management Accountant
Charted Institute of Management Accountants (CIMA)Mar, 2011- Oct, 2024
Experience
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OKdo
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United Kingdom
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Appliances, Electrical, and Electronics Manufacturing
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1 - 100 Employee
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Senior Finance Manager
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Oct 2018 - Present
Promotion to Senior Finance Manager, an integral part of the senior leadership team and finance lead on £95m fast moving and dynamic business. Responsible for end to end finance functions within OKdo Technology Ltd and management of global sales performance reporting and forecasting for the wider group.• Provide robust modelling and scenario planning to inform and direct business plans / strategy and manage risks.• Develop robust financial plans and KPIs to monitor & track progress, and drive action where necessary• Drive and help inform key decisions and strategy through challenge, insight and data• Support the leadership team and contribute at regular CFO reviews• Provide accurate and credible reporting on all areas of the business including sales and margin, inventory, customer segmentation, digital performance, costs and operating profit.• Responsible for budgeting and forecasting across 27 markets (full P&L forecast)• Manage costs and cost controls to ensure Operating Profit targets are met• Responsible end to end finance function for OKdo Technology Ltd (£5m business) and development of Assistant Finance ManagerNotable Achievements• Grown gross margin from 15% to 25% and operating profit from 3% to 9% in one year• Developed and maintain a successful working relationship with the Senior leadership team building trust and respect which supports collaborative working and supports key decision making.• Successfully implemented new ERP system (NetSuite) for newly formed legal entity and new consumer website. This is now successfully trading and has had two successful external audits.o designing new chart of accountso defining all end to end finance process and procedures o implementing new payment gateways, ensuring revenue was correctly recorded and collected• Designed and built database to pull data from 3 global ERP, enabling enhanced daily sales and margin reporting
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RS Components
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United Kingdom
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Appliances, Electrical, and Electronics Manufacturing
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400 - 500 Employee
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Category Accountant (Tools Consumables and Test & Semiconductors)
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Dec 2015 - Oct 2018
Promotion to Category Accountant where I became part of the product category leadership team for tools consumables and test, and Semiconductors the following year.• Be the voice of finance for the Product Category Leadership Team and support wider Product Finance Team• Support the wider category team in day to day finance activities and ensure controls are maintained• Support strategy and key decisions making through insight and data and robust modelling• Provide accurate and credible reporting on all areas of the business including Sales and Margin, customer metrics, inventory turns etc• Identify areas of improvement or successes to repeat through variance and trend analysisNotable Achievements• Implemented a dashboard covering key metrics which was available WD3. This allowed the category teams to focus on the drivers of performance rather than the numbers• Part of a CI project reviewing payment terms in which the TCT team delivered £2.7m of cash benefit in FY17
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Reporting Accountant
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Oct 2013 - Dec 2015
Oct ‘13 – Dec ‘15 Reporting Account & Finance Business PartnerResponsible for global report production and providing insight / decision support to the Global Marketing Team• Deliver accurate and credible performance reports to marketing leadership team members showing performance, key metrics and trends• Provide a snapshot of eCommerce performance to the wider Marketing Team on a weekly basis• Finance Lead on a strategic project, responsible for providing forecasts and funding requests, as well as active monitoring of costs to ensure the project benefits are measurable and delivered to budget• Accurately combine data from various sources and systems into one coherent and useable format to provide a central repository to meet the Marketing Finance Team data requirements Notable Achievements• Successfully reduced report production time at month end from 3-4 days to a few hours, while also introducing rigorous checks and controls to ensure data integrity and accuracy are maintained• Designed and built a new PPC (Pay per Click) reporting pack (including waterfall diagrams to show which markets had driven / declined in performance). This was well received by the Ecommerce Leadership Team and I have now been requested to build the same for SEO (Search Engine Optimisation) performance• Designed and created a dashboard to monitor and assess performance of a UK Compliance Marketing Scheme. This was previously unmonitored and required new sources of information and data to be obtained / created. This is now being upscaled and rolled out globally by the Marketing Insight Team
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Nationwide Building Society
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United Kingdom
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Financial Services
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700 & Above Employee
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Accountant
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Jul 2011 - Sep 2013
Responsible for cash management and statutory accounting for Nationwide’s Asset Backed Funding Structure (Silverstone), reporting to Senior Treasury Finance Manager.• Deliver accurate and credible management and external investor reports detailing cash flows as well as aggregating and presenting mortgage KPI data utilising skills in excel and SQL• Forecasting future cash flows and ledger balances in various stress scenarios• Accurate production and review of statutory accounts including o group consolidation o Financial Statements for 3 small companies o I&E and Balance Sheet reconciliations• Present results and investor reports to a range of stakeholders• Effective cash management of £22bn structure ensuring all cash flows are accurate and adhere to legal documentation (including swap and bond payments)Notable Achievements• Successfully tested the Treasury Accounting System (FINDUR) during the restructure of Nationwide’s complex Silverstone structure two months after commencing role• Created and implemented highly efficient system to automate inputs and enhance controls into Asset Back Funding reporting system (using VBA and Excel)• Significantly contributed to the success of the team which developed and implemented Nationwide’s new Asset Backed Funding reporting and collateral servicing tool (personally involved with testing all elements of complex funding structure and developing system scripts)• Created professional training manuals and successfully delivered training to both new and existing employees as part of new system implementation
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Environment Agency
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United Kingdom
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Environmental Services
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700 & Above Employee
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Business Analyst Specialist
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Nov 2009 - Jul 2011
Promoted to re-engineer processes within the Finance Service Centre using Lean Six Sigma methodology, reporting to the Process Re-engineering Manager.• Responsible for process mapping and documentation of processes across all areas of the Finance Service Centre• Identify improvements in either controls or cost / time savings, utilising system functionality or process streamlining• Present options and recommendations to the business• Implement process improvements, managing and supporting affected parties through the change processNotable Achievements• Realised substantial time savings through the creation and development of a system using Excel and VBA functionality to automatically import and convert 1,500 field based operatives timesheets for automatic upload into the payroll system (previously hand written and manually input)• Recognised as the Oracle Projects System super user expert advising senior managers and users on functionality and best practice, as well as problem solving issues• Supported and mentored 1 direct report• Overcame resistance to change and provided well respected solutions through participation and involvement of affected parties
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Senior Systems Development Accountant
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Nov 2007 - Nov 2009
Promoted from System Accountant to deliver and develop management reports for use across the Environment Agency, as part of a new centralised team, reporting to the Finance Consulting Manager.• Timely and accurate production of monthly management accounts across 8 regions including o Budgets o Forecast o Capital Reporting• Development and production of reports for both finance and non-finance departments to tight SLA• Report writing responsibility across all modules (AR, Procurement, AP, Payroll, Projects, GL etc) Notable Achievements• Delivered improved reporting through systems configuration of the reporting tool (Oracle Discoverer) using SQL• Designed and delivered new transparent and standard management accounting reports across 8 regions, replacing inconstant regional reporting• Introduced centralised reporting framework to produce and email cost centre reports to budget managers across the Environment Agency • Decommissioned and merged two “End User Layers” within tight deadlines, including the cataloguing, migration and rationalisation of several hundred user reports
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System Accountant
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Jul 2005 - Nov 2007
Promoted to develop and support the new Oracle Projects System as part of national upgrade to Oracle Financials, reporting to the Finance Consulting Manager.• Ensured successful month end closure, often clearing 100’s of processing errors due to inconsistent use and insufficient knowledge of the new system by accountants• Member of small Oracle Projects team liaising with both finance and non-finance staff, as well as liaising with IT department to implement fixes and resolve issues• Identify best practise and make recommendations on newly implemented Oracle Projects systemNotable Achievements • Successfully delivered national end user training sessions to educate users and promote correct use and awareness of the system• Streamlined the month end process through education and process improvement from 2-3 days to 2-3 hours• Successfully tested new functionality to allow finance users to transfer costs from one project code to another and made recommendations on best practice to management.• Enabled the handover of Projects System to Sys Admin team following streamlining and user training
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Assistant Management Accountant
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May 2003 - Jul 2005
Appointed to assist in the production and distribution of cost centre reports and fielding queries from budget managers, reporting to the Chief Accountant• Actively involved in annual budget setting including discussion and agreement of budgets with budget managers• Answer budget manager queries and investigate where necessary • Successfully covered the management accountant’s maternity cover during which time I was the only accountant on site• Delivered training to budget managers on new self-service reporting tool
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Finance Officer
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Jul 1998 - May 2003
Initially employed on a Youth Training Scheme to study AAT. Initially worked on sales invoice processing working my way up to Finance Officer via several promotions reporting to the Chief Accountant• Production and distribution of monthly cost centre reports• Sole responsibility for VAT returns and year end statutory accounts for small subsidiary company• Recognised as the Finance Department IT expert, handling all elements of Finance IT needs• Sole responsibility for all aspects of the Sales Ledger from invoice entry to credit controlNotable Achievements• Successfully installed and configured NatWest BankLine system enabling electronic BACS payments for the first time• Installed and configured new accounting system (Exchequer Enterprise) liaising with the software authors• Designed and created the company’s cost centre reports using Excel and OLE links
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Education
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1994 - 1998
Guthlaxton College
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