Debbie Burnett

During my fixed term contract I lead the team to colllect on average £2.2m per month, against a billing of £1.8m per month. There is a significant historical debt accumulated by the company which I am leading the detailed investigation and collection thereof. The business operates in the EU, Far East, and North America including recognisable house-hold names. Managing 11 staff across the Sales and Purchase Ledger, and the Treasury functions along side the wider Credit Control department. Working alongside the GFC to deliver a new accounting software package, to streamline functionality to improve the daily position of the Ledgers. Introduction of more robust control processes in the above listed functions and departments in preperation for the new software.

Managing 20 staff, covering accounts payable and accounts receivable billing process including cash book, for the UK and Eire, South Africa, Middle East, and North America. Since 2006, I've undertaken 3 redundancy processes to streamline staffing in line with business needs. I have also conducted my own recruitment campaigns during this time and have totally changed the hierarchy and structure of my team to reflect the changing workflows and demands of the department. I have implemented and encouraged staff development and mentoring. I've successfully helped 8 members of my staff to work towards professionally recognised management accounting qualifications and transfer into other areas of the business to enhance their chances of successfully passing their CIMA/ACCA qualifications. Additionally I have 4 current staff members working towards achieving their qualifications. I find the management of people particularly rewarding and anonymous staff satisfaction surveys have shown that my leadership style is highly regarded and appreciated by all staff, regardless of their seniority, within my team. Senior management have commended my "Acadamy" for encouraging staff to aspire to study towards recognised accounting and finance qualifications. The organisation is currently significantly upgrading its accounting systems, I sit as a subject matter expert on the panel as the only recognised user of the current systems within my area, feeding in my in-depth knowledge of protocols, policies and practices which I have gained from my career history to date. Once the new system is in roll out phase, I will be acting as the leading trainer to deliver bespoke training to each member of my team, ensuring that the business sees no change in service as the new system comes onstream and the old system is phased out.

Headhunted to lead a team of 3 to reconcile numerous outstanding purchase invoices in record time. Concurrently I led the sales ledger team to speedily resolve the outstanding inter-company debtor position, to allow the organisation to become more efficient and maximise cash flow. Later I was key support to the Financial Controller when a new financial software pacakage was implemented and I coached staff to use the new systems and subsequently rewrote the process guidance and training notes.

Brought in to resolve outstanding sales ledger billing. Moving from billing in arrears of circa £3m to billing retained fees in advance and billing recharable expenses to a max of 7 days in arrears. Debtor position moved from an average of 90+ days payment to less than 30 days as result of my stewardship of the team. I had line management responsibilities for 4 clerks, all of whom left the company on promotion as a result of my management skills and mentoring.

I was solely responsible for all aspects of the company's financial and accounting positions. I introduced new policies to ensure funds were always available to meet the company's tax liabilities. In addition augmented the processes already in place to ensure warehouse team acknowledged goods received in a timely manner.

Lead the relocatation of the finance functions from Birmingham to London, allowing Rynam to centralise and create a stand alone accounting department. As a result of the relocation, I recruited 19 staff to create a new team from scratch and subsequently managed all of these individuals. My new team was responsible for sales, purchase and nominal ledgers, and cash book. I was responsible for the daily cash management targets from across the 150 UK stores. I was promoted to the above from Assistant Warehouse Manager where I was responsible for stock control and receipting/despatch of goods from across the full range of Ryman's products. I was also responsible for the annual warehouse stock take of thousands of items. Ryman, as part of the Pentos Group, went into Administrative Receivership in the mid-1990s, during this period I successfully led my team to ensure that the maximum stock levels were maintained for the minimum cash outlay for the Receivers, allowing the Receivers to sell the company as an ongoing and profitable retail business.