Senior Accounting Specialist

• Leasing of rail vehicles, ERP: Dynamics 365
• Project leader: CFO, Staff: 150
• Special topics such as IFRS 9 / accounting for complex syndicated loans
• Accounting for 2 subsidiaries

• Digital marketing agency, ERPs: Unit4, MS Dynamics NAV
• Project leader: CFO HQ Netherlands, Direct Reports/Staff: 6
• Preparation of prior-year financial statements for 3 group companies
• Process optimization in finance and performance areas
• Ongoing accounting and administration, consolidation
• Reporting with LucaNet and Power BI

• Fashion / industrial workwear, start-up
• Project leader: CEO
• 10-year financial planning including cash flow, margin details by customer and product group etc. for negotiations with investors

• Automotive, start-up
• Local ERP: eGecko/Penta/Automotive Accelerator
• Project leader: CFO
• Operational accounting
• IFRS conversion
• Implementation of internal controls and digitization of P2P process, consolidation
• IPO preparation

• Animal pharmacy
• Group: Elanco, revenue USD 5 bn
• Local ERP: SAP R/3
• Project leader: CFO Germany
• Local country accounting: responsible for accounting, reporting and payments/treasury for the production company KVP in Kiel, EUR 250 m revenue and ~1,000 employees as part of a carve-out from Bayer AG, support for 2 additional sites
• SOX implementation
• Optimization of key processes – P2P, O2C, R2R

• Household and kitchen appliances
• Group revenue EUR 5 bn, Germany: ~EUR 500 m
• ERP: SAP R/3
• Project leader: Manager Commercial Agreements
• Auditing invoice conditions over the past 3 years, ~15,000 line items, based on bookings, invoices and contracts

• FMCG / cosmetics and personal care
• Start-up / grown-up, group revenue EUR 50 m
• ERP MS Dynamics NAV
• Project leader: Commercial Managing Director of the group
• Finance & controlling projects including BI systems
• Top-down group consolidation of 7 companies
• Analysis of tax filings vs. tax payments
• Development of P&L by products, sales channels, key accounts
• Analysis of customer contracts, pricing, return agreements
• Determination of reclassifications for cost centers
• Equity investment controlling: budget variances, postings by month and cost center

• Software for top-tier automotive companies – connected car
• Group revenue EUR 5 bn, entity revenue EUR 10 m
• ERP MS Dynamics AX
• Project leader: CFO, India
• Preparation and audit support of financial statements for 2014 and 2015 during operational bridge
• HR: monthly review of payroll, handling of employee assignments from India to Germany
• Development of tax optimization measures

• Chemicals: high-quality fertilizers and horticultural products
• Group revenue approx. EUR 300 m, 20 entities
• ERP SAP R/3, Project leader: CFO
• Build-out of treasury in a carve-out after sale by PE Triton to XIO, responsibility for treasury planning across the group
• Management of syndicated credit facility in triple-digit millions
• Cash pooling
• Implementation of 13-week and mid-term liquidity planning
• Short-term introduction of factoring
• Operational execution of weekly payment runs in SAP
• Controlling and financial planning, support in closings
• Participation in financial statements, consolidation, annual audit
• Negotiation of new credit insurance

Case Study: Introduction of Factoring within an SAP R/3 System in One Month

• Task: COMPO Expert was sold as a carve-out of the COMPO Group by PE house Triton to PE firm XIO in June 2015. Accounting and controlling at HQ were provided as a service by the COMPO Group for COMPO Expert. Treasury was newly staffed and tasked with implementing silent factoring under the syndicated credit facility of COMPO Expert.
• Execution: The objective was to complete the first sale of receivables to the factorer within 4 weeks. Contracts were essentially pre-negotiated for the previous COMPO Group. In coordination with the factorer, potential internal and external dealbreakers were identified. External legal issues were negotiated and resolved with lenders. Internally, the challenge was to match different numbering ranges between invoicing and receivables in the SAP system, which was solved together with IT. Simultaneously, new business transactions were discussed with accounting and booking and reconciliation guidelines were developed. The sale was carried out via the factorer's portal.
• Result: Through precise identification and elimination of potential dealbreakers in dedicated teams, factoring was implemented extremely quickly within the required 4 weeks.

• Automotive supplier
• Group revenue approx. EUR 1 bn, entity revenue EUR 15 m
• ERP Infor Syteline
• Project leader: CFO, Direct Reports: 2
• Operational finance management
• Controlling and monthly reporting to HQ including variance analyses
• Monthly/annual close

• Process optimization NAV 2013 / US GAAP

• Bonds, mezzanine, factoring in collaboration with a chartered accountant firm

• Optical industry / medical technology
• Group revenue approx. EUR 5 bn, entity revenue EUR 120 m
• ERP: Oracle, Navision
• Project leader: CFO Entity, Direct Reports/Staff: 3
• BI: development and roll-out of an integrated planning software with Cubeware Cockpit for revenue to gross margin by customer, product
• Management of corporate planning including presentation to HQ
• Selection, concept and roll-out of sales reporting system with QlikView
• Business partnering with sales, marketing, HR etc.: analysis of sales pipeline, CRM data, KPIs, restructurings
• Production controlling
• HR and supply chain controlling

Case Study: Development and Implementation of a BI System for Planning and Reporting

• Task: Development of a new process for annual budgeting and subsequent forecasts, moving away from previous use of Excel on one hand and an MS Access database application on the other. The latter was maintained by sales with much implicit, undocumented knowledge. Furthermore, this software version was no longer IT-supported from 2015 and therefore had to be replaced in the medium term.
• Implementation: Market and resource analysis showed that a database/BI tool was already in use in controlling: Cubeware, with server hardware running Cubeware. Cubeware was used for Opex planning. A solution based on this would thus save part of the necessary investment costs. Additionally, IT was already working on a data warehouse for products. The approach was to extend the DWH to include customers and revenues and to develop a BI solution with Cubeware that maps both actual and planned data in maximum detail. Sales was convinced that existing functionalities of "their" database would largely be transferred and new functions created. After specifications and tendering, the system was developed, tested step by step and successfully implemented.
• Result: With comparatively low resource deployment, a system with modern technology was created that transparently and flexibly met the budgeting requirements and was accepted by planners. For reporting, a complete data set for revenue and gross profit by customer and product was available for the first time. Building on this, further cost optimizations could be achieved in collaboration with supply chain.

• Classical music films
• Media / film production and distribution
• Group revenue EUR 40 m, Direct Reports/Staff: 4
• Project leader: CEO
• EuroArts Berlin: cash management, ensuring cash survival – daily liquidity fine planning, negotiations with creditors, revenue pre-financing, M&A: vendor due diligences, sales negotiations
• Medici Arts/Idéale Audience, Paris: audits, development and implementation of restructuring measures to maintain operations, negotiations with suppliers, transfer of rights to Germany

• Web-based literature distribution: business plan, presentations

• Optimization of marketing, merchandising & music production, including development of contract database and budgeting, negotiations with licensors