Graham Wood BSc, ACMA

Mobile: 07753 603071 email: graham_wood@blueyonder.co.uk

PROFILE

Versatile Ltd Co. Finance and Systems Professional ready to use his creativity, innovation, determination and people skills to the benefit of organisations seeking improvements in their support functions.

KEY SKILLS & EXPERIENCE

Senior Interim Finance and Systems professional. Chartered Management Accountant (ACMA) with extensive experience on senior management teams and advising Board members. Taken over departments that were under stress, brought them back to best practice standard and

found talent internally or externally to take over leadership. Quick to understand the implications of changes in practice and regulation (SORP, GAAP, IFRS,

VAT) and implement them as appropriate for the organisation.

Systems Aptitude. Proposes and implements solutions to IT and manual systems/processes to generate added efficiency, effectiveness and clarity of output.

People Development. Proven ability to develop team working and motivate individuals and teams.

Latest Assignments:

Business Accountant Raglan Housing Association January 2014 – November 2014Charity status Registered Social Landlord with £750M of properties and an active building programme in England. M S Dynamics site. Three to six month contract to: Facilitate implementation of FRS102, the UK response to IFRS – which lead to attendance at

seminars given by KPMG and others; Make improvements to their financial reporting ability using their current systems; Help the existing team prepare for their March 2014 year end and achieve a better audit report

than in the previous year.Achievements: Designed and created excel models to simplify production of the annual accounts and the audit

process; Clarified day to day finance processes so that they could be understood, and the frequency of

errors would be reduced.Results: The audit was completed within timetable, with fewer clarifications having to be sought and

delivered a much improved management letter from the auditors; Finance management was able to gain a clearer view of the required workload, and a

reorganisation of the department took place.

Interim Head of Finance The Parole Board January 2013 – August 2013Central Government “Arms Length Body” funded by the Ministry of Justice, c100 staff and a cohort of members who adjudicate in Parole cases. Pegasus site, Five month initial contract reporting to the Chief Executive, Management Board and Audit Committee.Stood in for, and eventually replaced, the incumbent Head of Finance after a three month period of absence during which their 2.6 FTE staff had struggled to maintain the department. Initiatives included: Produced a zero base budget built around the Board’s forecast case activity level; Protected the year end position by highlighting problem areas in the finance department and

procuring extra help through the Ministry to complete the process to timetable; Revised the departmental structure of the Board to enable finer financial reporting and control; Proposed, and, having obtained Board approval, implemented a move to the Ministry’s Shared

Service function under a “lightening” timetable in order to improve the resilience of transaction processing;

Assisted the Shared Service function to identify other efficiencies within transaction processing and regular reporting that would also reduce the administrative load placed on members.

Financial & Management Accountant, The Insolvency Service December 2011 – July 2012The Insolvency Service, a Central Government Agency funded by the Department for Business, Innovation & Skills, 2,000 staff. Reports under the government IFRS “FReM”.First contract was for three months to join the Central Finance Department, which had been in a state of flux and operating with three fifths of its normal establishment. Results included:

Understanding, explaining to colleagues and facilitating production of, the financial information pack required from agencies by the Department. Enabled the Service to move from being a problem agency and become one of the “best in breed” in terms of the pack.

Bringing balance sheet information back up to date, analysing accounts and producing schedules for audit for own areas and those of colleagues when absence or pressure of work decreed;

Agreeing the inter-entity position between the Service and the Department; Getting to grips with Kypera Financials (previously unknown finance system), finding ways to

generate tight information and suggesting ways in which the system could be used better; Undertaking final checks on the statutory accounts, finding and fixing errors; Inducting new members of staff and giving them a good starting point from my previous work; Created procedure notes and templates to assist staff to perform tasks more consistently.

Previous Assignments include:

Westminster City Council, London Borough of Tower Hamlets and other employers/clients – Provided a full management accounting service reporting to senior finance and general management: Prepared budgets for capital and revenue expenditure and cross charging within the organisation,

and forecasts for periods between three months and five years, in consultation with colleagues of all disciplines and levels;

Provided a reporting and monitoring service against the above, discussing opportunities for performance enhancement with managers and highlighting issues to upper management;

Spontaneously pointed out to management areas of weakness within finance management and systems and proposed solutions, some of which were built into the organisation’s operating model,

Created models in Excel and Access to provide customised reporting, modelling, projections and scenarios with input from colleagues,

Raised the level of confidence and understanding of the financial process amongst managers and colleagues;

Kept watch on balance sheet performance to maintain stability of the organisation.

Westminster, Kingston upon Thames and Leicester City Councils – Joined the team responsible for the statutory accounts. Contributions included: Exposing areas needing change and ensuring they were covered; Holding training events to encourage all departments to provide input to the project according to

best practice; Populating the intranet with guidance notes and pro formas to facilitate colleague involvement; Data and evidence collection using email communication and interviews to prove compliance with

new IFRS practice; Preparing statutory accounts for subsidiary bodies; Resolving audit queries and ensuring that the audit timetable did not slip; Enabling the reporting systems (JD Edwards and Agresso) to deliver accounts schedules and

audit working papers without the need for excel manipulation, thereby saving time throughout the process and allowing the auditors to perform their tasks more efficiently.

In all cases the audit was performed to time and the use of resources score was at least retained.

Westminster City Council – Identified a requirement to speed up the process of weekly reporting which involved extracting data from multiple spreadsheets and taking a full week to prepare. Created a database in Microsoft Access that could manipulate data from multiple sources. This

solution was more stable and enabled the rapid creation of many different kinds of reports. It was a significantly more efficient and less labour intensive method of providing analysis.

British Transport Police - Supported the Deputy Director of Finance in refashioning the finance function following the Force’s change of corporate status to NDPB. Personal initiatives included: Encouraging the other staff to overcome difficulties inherent in a change situation and to

contribute to the development of a professional, authoritative finance function; Preparing the 2004/05 year end accounts for their first scrutiny by the National Audit Office; Working with Department for Transport staff to design new methods of reporting from Cedar to

their SAP system; Enhancing the finance department’s ability to use and get results from Cedar E-Financials and

Business Objects and training other users.

Example Previous Employment

Jun 99 - Dec 01 ROYAL BROMPTON & HAREFIELD NHS TRUST, London£120M T/O Trust formed in 1998 by merger of two hospitals.Feb 01 - Dec 01 Finance Manager - Systems and Capital reporting to one of the new Deputy Directors of Finance

Continued work on fixed asset accounting, prevented it from being an audit issue and implemented the CEDAR fixed asset module under current cost accounting;

Encouraged staff to remain with Trust during reorganisation and seek development opportunities internally - thereby saving recruitment and redundancy costs;

Recruited and trained successor, who was still in place at November 2011.Dec 99 - Jan 01 Interim Accountant reporting to the Trust Head of Finance.Following successful hand over of Charity function, invited to remain with Trust to assist with their CFACS implementation and improving their financial operations during the year end process and the reorganisation of the finance function. Projects included: Bringing fixed asset accounting into line with latest practice; Investigating better ways of using the CFACS and Business Objects systems, enhancing their use

and doing away with manual or spreadsheet processes – became a creator of “universes” in B.O.; Cash forecasting and balance sheet budgeting.Jun 99 - Nov 99 Interim Charity Accountant reporting to the Trust Director of Finance. Joined to manage the charity (£40M assets) function, which was depleted by merger attrition. Brought the function under control and up to date with best practice; Re-staffed the function from members of staff who were facing redundancy, thereby saving both

recruitment and redundancy costs; Inducted the new Charity Head of Finance.

SOFTWARE SKILLS

Microsoft Dynamics, Pegasus Opera, Kypera Financials, Agresso Business World, JD Edwards OneWorld, Cedar (CFACS and eFinancials), Exchequer, TM1, XL Reporter, Oracle Discoverer, Business Objects, Crystal Reports, Excel and all MS Office Professional.

EMPLOYMENT/ASSIGNMENT LIST

Jan 14 – Nov 14 Raglan Housing Association Interim Business AccountantJan 13 – Aug 13 The Parole Board Interim Head of FinanceDec 11 – Jul 12 The Insolvency Service, London Interim Financial & Management

AccountantApr 11 – Sep 11 Royal Borough of Kingston upon Thames Interim Principal AccountantFeb 10 – Nov 10 Leicester City Council Interim Senior AccountantJul 09 – Oct 09 London Borough of Tower Hamlets Interim Senior AccountantMay 07 – Jun 09 Westminster City Council Three Interim ContractsFeb 07 – May 07 London Borough of Hillingdon Interim Principal AccountantOct 05 – Feb 07 Westminster City Council Interim Senior Principal AccountantMar 05 – Sep 05 British Transport Police, London Interim Project AccountantDec 04 – Mar 05 Westminster City Council Interim Project AccountantOct 04 – Nov 04 Roehampton University Interim Accountant Jul 04 – Oct 04 University of Lincoln Interim Project AccountantMar 03 – Jul 04 Westminster City Council Interim Principal AccountantAug 02 – Feb 03 London Borough of Harrow Council Interim Implementation AnalystMay 02 – Jun 02 Vale of White Horse District Council Interim AccountantJan 02 – Apr 02 Agresso Ltd. Bristol Financial Software ImplementerFeb 01 – Dec 01 Royal Brompton & Harefield NHS Trust Finance Manager – Systems & CapitalDec 99 – Jan 01 Royal Brompton & Harefield NHS Trust Interim AccountantJun 99 – Nov 99 Royal Brompton & Harefield NHS Trust Interim Charity AccountantJan 97 – May 99 Family Planning Association Head of Corporate ServicesFeb 96 – Jun 96 Laser Advisory Council, London Acting Chief ExecutiveAug 94 – Jan 96 Laser Advisory Council, London Finance & Administration ManagerOct 86 – Aug 94 P&O PNG, Reuters, National Schizophrenia

FellowshipFreelance Interim Accountant

Jul 85 – Oct 86 Conservative Central Office, London Chief AccountantApr 83 – Jun 85 Conservative Central Office, London Accountant

Between 1983 and 1974, gained experience in the service sector while studying for the qualification.

Relevant Education and Professional QualificationsChartered Management Accountant (ACMA 1985) BSc (Hons) Engineering & Social Sciences – University of Newcastle-upon-Tyne (1970 – 1974)

Nationality: British, Holder of “Disclosure Scotland”