Dutco Group

• Drive the financial planning process at the group level, inclusive of deadlines, assumptions, data format/loads, as it applies to budgets, re-forecasts, capital planning, and long-term plans, and measure the effectiveness of the planning process.

• Ensure timely and accurate financial reporting; develop Power BI dashboards to increase financial transparency in management reporting and business-line performance management.

• Produce accurate and insightful financial and operational reports by preparing data, creating reports, and ensuring quality control. Deliver consistent data, effective visualizations, and variance analysis, explaining trends and root causes in actual vs. forecast, plan, and historical spending.

• Developed a Power BI-driven intercompany balance confirmation portal, centralizing subsidiary data and enabling real-time counterparty balance visibility. 

• Responsible for the automation of an inventory of reports, ensuring the right information is delivered at the right time; includes maintenance of existing reports, development of new ones, and retirement of outdated reports and key metrics.

• Utilize SQL, Python, and Power Query to gather, manage, and manipulate data from multiple sources for analysis; identify trends, extract insights, and deliver actionable presentations or dashboards of findings.

• Lead the IFRS group consolidation process, ensuring compliance with IFRS standards, accurate financial reporting, and timely consolidation of subsidiaries. Developed an automated MS Excel consolidation tool, streamlining intercompany eliminations and adjustments, which enabled IFRS financial statements to be closed within Q1.

• Review and update investment decisions to assess progress, success, and milestones; maintain a “gating process” for additional funding and continuation.

Group Finance Manager

Association for Financial Professionals

The objective of the Council is to provide subject matter expertise and guidance to ensure that AFP delivers products and services that meet the needs of the corporate finance community in the MEA region.

The Council is composed of FP&A professionals in the MEA region who have multiple years of experience in the FP&A profession and represent diversity across geography, industry, company size, structure, race and gender.

To support AFP in its goal to be the key resource and advocate for the FP&A profession within the MEA region, the Council meets to share ideas and discuss best practices to address common challenges and changing needs. The information gathered is used to strengthen the FP&A practitioner community through articles, research and events.

AFP FP&A MEA Council Member

Smollan

•	Engage global business partners to create detailed financial plans and influence investment decisions.

•	Strategically lead the comprehensive analysis of monthly and annual flash and finals results, meticulously identifying intricate performance patterns, inherent risks, and strategic opportunities. 

•	Translate these insights into well-structured recommendations, empowering finance and operations leadership with data-driven strategies for continuous improvement and informed decision-making.

•	Demonstrate leadership as I guide and nurture a high-performing financial analysts, fostering their professional growth through mentorship and skill development. 

•	Participate in the development of the FP&A and finance departments’ plans and programs; provide strategic financial input and leadership on decision-making.

•	Consolidate the business units’ forecast/plans into the overall corporate reporting to build a composite view of the company. 

•	Apply statistical techniques, including Holt Winter's method and Multiple Regression, to analyse time series data. This involves evaluating revenue forecasts generated through the Delphi methodology, aiming to mitigate bias and establish agreement on scenarios (Best, Base, Worst case) for budgeting and forecasting purposes and further guiding our business development teams on target customer personas.

•	Prepare analyses, forward-looking financials, and pro-forma financials for the investor community.

•	Drive month-end closing, as required and demonstrate appropriate understanding of accounting principles and internal controls.

•	Formulate questions and analyses for the team to research such as in the case of margin erosion or margin improvement inquiries, root cause analysis etc.

•	Gather, manage, and manipulate data from multiple sources for analysis; identify trends, extract insights and deliver actionable presentations of findings using tools such as Power Query, Power Pivot and Power BI.

Finance Manager - Business Partnering & FP&A

PAE (Pacific Architects and Engineers) has been a critical partner of the U.S. government and its allies on a global scale. With more than $2.7 billion in annual revenue, a workforce of more than 20,000, an operational presence in approximately 60 countries, and a persistent presence on all seven continents, PAE delivers smart, secure, mission-critical operational support, information analysis, and business process services.

At the Centre of Excellence in Dubai, United Arab Emirates my focus was on improving the Project Accounts Receivable as a key component of the company's working capital and strategy for maintaining strong a cash flow. Working with a talented team of billing specialists we were responsible for analyzing financial data and using it to forecast future performance, as well as developing strategies to improve the collection by reducing the Day Sales Outstanding (DSO) and improving billing accuracy.

I had to interact with a diverse workforce of professionals and subject matter experts due to our presence on all continents, which brought out my greatest qualities as a Business Partner. While holding this position, I started developing conversations with brilliant FP&A professionals throughout the world, which helped me expand my network quickly and gave me access to conversations and people with a wealth of Business Partnering & FP&A knowledge.

Senior Accountant  - Business Partnering & FP&A

•	Timely preparation of weekly, monthly, and quarterly reporting including flash and finals, as well as ad-hoc financial analysis/special projects.

•	Understanding the business, end-markets, competitive environment, industry peer group and general economic conditions that impact the company.

•	Facilitate and support the annual strategic planning and budgeting financial process including managing the data collection and consolidation process with accounting resources and functional leadership; analysing the information to validate completeness and accuracy with the goal of communicating trends and key drivers to executive leadership.

•	Contribute to data analysis processes by preparing (collection and cleaning) time series data for evaluation. This includes compiling revenue forecasts using the Delphi methodology and assist in applying statistical techniques such as Holt Winter's and Multiple Regression, aimed at ensuring data accuracy and supporting the determination of scenarios (Best, Base, Worst case) crucial for budgeting and forecasting.

•	Understand and analyse business units’ monthly/quarterly financial results (versus forecast, prior year, budget) and clearly articulate themes and performance drivers; this included driving efforts to understand root causes of variances and making recommendations to enhance business performance.    

•	Support internal and external financial and management reporting.

•	Maintain and coordinate group completion of financial review templates and meetings.

•	Collaborate cross functionally as a business partner to drive continuous improvement in reporting, forecasting, budgeting, and analysis processes.

•	Create and manage improvements to financial reporting templates, current reporting hierarchy and general FP&A-related business practices.

•	Own the cash forecasting process and communicate to executive leadership how the company is performing.

Senior Accountant - Business Partnering & FP&A

Grant Thornton Kenya

•	Strategically executed audit planning procedures, employing a risk-based methodology and conducting audit tests to proactively address key matters that might have eluded detection during the planning phase, effectively communicating these findings to the client management team.

•	Spearheaded the preparation of precise and comprehensive financial statements, while also critically assessing financial statements and management reports prepared by clients. This process not only deepened my understanding of the entity but also heightened awareness of intricate accounting nuances.

•	Led due diligence initiatives pivotal to mergers and acquisitions, thoroughly evaluating Balance Sheet Valuation, ensuring the completeness of Profit and Loss statements, and meticulously verifying tax liabilities for accuracy. Notably, I played a significant role in the acquisition of Godrej Consumer Products Ltd's 75% stake in Canon Chemicals Ltd.

•	Developed comprehensive audit working papers that formed the basis for scrutinizing transactions, effectively uncovering irregularities, potential fraud, and errors, thus ensuring the accuracy and integrity of financial data.

•	Conducted thorough compliance checks, evaluating an entity's adherence to internal controls and local tax regulations. This process ensured the organization's alignment with regulatory standards and minimized potential risks.

•	Carried out rigorous tests of controls to assess the effectiveness of control mechanisms implemented by client entities, contributing to improved accuracy and reliability in financial reporting.

Associate

Finance Manager | AFP MEA FP&A Advisory Council | FP&A | Finance Business Partner

My journey in Business Partnering & FP&A was inspired by one statement in a town hall in 2017 "Finance needs to transform into business partners and add value to the business".

Since then I embarked on a journey of self-education and on the job learning that culminated in my taking a certification offered by the Association of Financial Professionals the FPAC - FP&A Certified, a certification that gave me a voice as a subject matter expert in FP&A.

In April 2023, I was honored with an invitation to join an exclusive council "Middle East and Africa (MEA) Financial Planning & Analysis (FP&A) Advisory Council" by the Association for Financial Professionals. 

The council connects to share best practices and innovative initiatives, as well as provide subject matter expertise and guidance on AFP products and services developed for the corporate finance practitioner community in the MEA region.

I have a passion for connecting with fellow FP&A professionals, Finance, and Non-Finance Business Partners to discuss professional matters and experiences in Business and Finance. I am a strong enthusiast of the benefits of FP&A and the leading practices that can lead to the growth and maturity of the profession and the technology stack that supports the people in Finance.

If you are looking forward to having a quality conversation with me, please feel free to reach me through the below contacts.

Contact Details.
alexmbuthia1@gmail.com
+ 971 52 84 88 404

I spent more time writing code this week than working on Ms Excel.

A couple of years back writing code was not a priority in finance but currently the reality is that such skills + AI deliver very significant productivity gains.

What does this mean for accounting and FP&A roles ?

Rapid evolution 💪🏾.

The skills that got us into these professions might be obsolete within the next few years, so what next and what worked for me as I evolved ?

On of the most profound decisions I made was taking the FPAC certification offered by Association for Financial Professionals. It didn’t teach me how to code, but it helped me understand where I could deploy code strategically.

Another strong point was consistency, a few lines of daily code practice in the right direction gradually compounded to solid skills.

As I write this post, a block of code running an inter-company reconciliation for 30+ companies is running by itself and doing what would have taken a full team weeks to accomplish & will be done by the time I hit post.

taplio

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