Profile
I have plus 10 years’ experience from the year 2002, rising through the ranks from Accounts Clerk at NCR Zimbabwe to Finance Manager at BlackstoneTek (RSA) and now Management Accountant at the Green Fuel Ethanol Plant in Chisumbanje.
Senior Level Duties
a. I have designed and implemented Automated Management Accounts Packs for several companies I worked for. I have extensive experience in report writing on the SQL server, writing Microsoft access queries, using the ODBC drive to structure any kind of report querying systems like Sage Line 300 & 500, CS3, Sun systems, Pastel, Sage Accpac 300 ERP etc. This has enabled reporting processes I am responsible for to be accurate, fast and completed at the press of a refresh button.
b. I have also automated several Statutory Accounts Packs from the auditor Ernest & Young, ensuring that year end accounts are prepared and completed on time.
c. I have extensive knowledge of Advanced Microsoft Excel, multiple spreadsheets, functions, queries, pivot tables and charts and so forth.
d. I am strong at preparation of Board Abridged Packs, Daily and Weekly Flash Management Accounts. I have used these reports to flag on time, expense line items encroaching budget limits and provided other value adding advice to Management.
e. I have high analytical skills and attention to detail.
f. Excellent ability to critically review company contracts.
g. Ability to review Management Accounts Prepared by other company Accountants, and I have been raising crucial queries for resolving before final accounts presentation to the Directors.
h. I have trained several Accountants, both Financial and Management in the last 4 years.
i. I have trained clerks and Assistant Accountants to full bloom.
j. I have excellent presentation skills, board presentations and excellent command of the formal business English language.
k. I am strong at all types of costing systems, Job Costing, Contract Costing and Capital Appraisals, Bill of Material Costings and so forth.
l. Have developed standard costs for products and set prices.
m. I have been key to the drafting and implementation of full scope company Authorities & Financial Procedures Manuals.
n. I have been preparing detail proof budgets from scratch and implementing them for manufacturing companies I worked for, one of which is Green Fuel Investments where I recently prepared a detail proof, full scope zero based budget. Green Fuel is a new ethanol Plant that I am currently working for. For several years, I have been responsible for full year and half year budget compilations for other large companies. These companies range from Motor Cycle and Parts Manufacturers (Blackstonetek), Ethanol Manufacturing Plant (Green Fuel), Sugarcane Farming Estates (Rating Investments & Macdom Investments).
o. I am good at profit actualization, helped BlackstoneTek RSA attain their first profit in 2006. This has seasoned and strengthened my skills of resolving company sustainability and cash flow issues. I have thus participated and been key in the drafting of several turn around strategies for companies I have worked for. At BST RSA I revamped an outdated costing system that was under-costing products which was resulting in negative margins at pricing stage. I went on to liaise with distributors in USA, Italy, Spain, UK, Netherlands etcetera’s encouraging them to take on increased prices and softening their markets for price acceptance. This I was responsible for as Finance Manager at BST RSA June 2006 to December 2007.
p. My previous and current jobs entailed attending management meetings and preparing reports for presentation at these senior management meetings, where I sit for hours with Factory General Managers, Electrical Engineers, Mechanical Engineers, Bio-Chemical Engineers, Human Resources Managers, Welfare Managers, Loss Control Managers, IT Managers, Finance Directors, CFOs, Finance Managers, Logistics Managers and Workshops Managers.
q. I have also sat in meetings and presented reports to external stakeholders like Auditors, State Regulators, Critical Creditors and Potential Financiers.
r. I work in pressurized environments with tight reporting deadlines.
s. I am good at budgetary cost control, have even gone on to critically review existing factory ergonomics for several companies I have worked for and proposed well documented cost saving implementations. These cost savings include a decision passed to bring back a factory 4th shift to save on excessive overtime, removing free lunches and free accommodation at guest houses, renegotiating with hired bus transporters ferrying over 4500 staff members to work daily, cutting down on the transport charge rate per kilometre and etcetera.
t. Have strong understanding that today’s business, in the current environment surrounding Zimbabwean companies, must have a deep appreciation for any synergies in their commercial environment. The synergies must be fully exploited and harvested for extra returns on operations, increasing incomes, helping to minimize losses in bad months and so forth. The synergies concept simply put reads-: 1 + 1 = 3.
u. At the companies I have worked for, I have strongly encouraged the reaping of benefits of synergies to ensure business survival in the depressed Zimbabwean economy. This includes ensuring that all by products are exploited and sold, outsourcing non critical operations, optimum factory process flow arrangements, dynamic cost structures that always ensure operations break even and provide a profitable return and so forth.
Junior Level Duties
In my years of career progress, rising through the ranks from Accounts/Audit Clerk to Finance Manager, I have had some bottom up work exposure covering the following-:
a. Creditors reconciliation preparation and review.
b. Invoice processing.
c. Petty Cash Management.
e. System Monthly/Yearly Rollover.
f. Preparing and Filing statutory returns.
g. Preparing and reviewing general ledger reconciliations.
h. Preparing and reviewing the month end file.
i. Preparing rolling cashflow forecasts.
j. Preparing and reviewing the external auditors file.
h. Preparing Monthly Management Accounts.
Non-Governmental Work
Worked in a team that developed a comprehensive excel based Program Sustainability Indexing Tool (PROSIT) that was submitted for funding to the Humanitarian Innovation Fund (UK), based on studies done by USAID, “2010 Sub Saharan Africa NGO Program Sustainability Risks”. The tool’s concepts were introduced to the following NGOs FACT Masvingo, Child Hope Zimbabwe, Restoration of Hope Bulawayo (ROH) and others. Though still in development phase and not yet fully implemented, the tool was set to identify, cater for and resolve NGO funding sustainability issues by proposing a structure that gradually moves NGO operations to self-sustenance. The more self-dependent an NGO is, the more sustainable would be its operations since most African economies are faced with the current problem of dwindling aid.
The project identified many sources of donor funding for the proposed NGO self-sustenance projects. In this operation, run by a company set up under the name Allan Nickson & Associate Fundraisers International, my position was founder and Managing Partner.
Employer Details
1. Current Position: (Nov 2013 to Date)
Management Accountant Green Fuel Investments (Pvt) Ltd (Ethanol Manufacturer)
2. Current Position: (Nov 2011 to Nov 2013)
Estate Accountant Macdom & Rating (Pvt) Ltd, Related to (Green Fuel the Ethanol Manufacturer)
3. (Dec 2010 to Nov 2011)
Head Office Accountant Wasteman Holdings RSA (Waste Management)
4. (Jan 2008 to Dec 2010)
Head of Accounts Wasteman Phambili RSA (Waste Management)
5. (June 2006 to Dec 2007)
Finance Manager Blackstonetek RSA (Bike & Parts Manufacturer)
6. (Mar 2005 to May 2006)
Accountant Blackstonetek RSA (Bikes & Parts Manufacturer)
7. (Jan 2003 to Dec 2004)
Senior Auditor Hunyani Holdings (Packaging Manufacturer)
8. (June 2001 to Dec 2002)
Regional Internal Auditor Unilever South East Africa (Soaps, Foods Manufacturer)
9. (June 1999 to July 2000)
Accounts Clerk NCR Zimbabwe (Pvt) Ltd
