MY CIPP MY CIPP
Can you tell us about you, and your role in the Finance Team? I started my working life delivering newspapers and serving petrol at an attended service petrol station. I began a role in a bank after leaving school to gain some customer service experience, and at the age of 21, achieved my dream of becoming cabin crew. When the drunken passengers started to annoy me, I decided to move into an admin role and found my way into finance, where I’ve continued for about 20 years. When I joined the company in 2020 as the Finance Manager for CIPP and IPP Education Limited, I was on my own in the department. However, we've now grown to a team of three. The Credit Control and Finance Administrator processes the daily online receipts, chases all debt owed to CIPP and IPP Education Limited, posts all supplier invoices onto our accounting software and deals with administration, such as setting up new accounts and answering client and supplier queries. The Finance Executive allocates daily transactions for the company bank accounts, checks and approves tutor fees and expenses and runs lengthy month-end procedures in the accounting software. My role as Finance Manager is to support the team and ensure all transactions are posted accurately and in a timely manner. This enables me to produce high quality monthly management reports so we can monitor the performance of both entities. There are also lots of other daily activities, including setting up supplier payments, second approval of expenses and fee claims, dealing with requests from the Senior Leadership Team and other departments for management information, producing forecasts, assisting with budget setting – the list goes on! What are the team's priorities? Our focus each morning is to ensure any payments received either online or
challenges of your role, and how do you overcome them? Because time is of the essence when allocating receipts to membership, training and events invoices, one of the biggest challenges is often trying to quickly work out what a receipt is for. Some clients are helpful and include an invoice number or customer number on the bank payment, so we know which client it relates to. However, some receipts into the bank come with little information, and we need to put our Sherlock Holmes hats on to work out what the money's for. We once received a payment, and the reference was just ‘I’ – not much to go on! As a small team, overlapping deadlines can be a challenge, especially in short months or holiday times. But we adapt and work around them, and as Finance Manager, I’m happy to dig in and help with the day-to- day transactions or make a cuppa to boost morale. There are also evolving transactional needs, whether that’s with regards to the systems we use or the way we accept and process payments – there’s always something new to consider. What does your role mean to you? I’m passionate about providing an efficient and effective finance function, and I’m ever grateful for the fantastic team I work with, who have the same ethical approach. I enjoy understanding the finer details and complexities of running finances for two separate entities and their consolidation. Understanding that the CIPP provides membership and the payroll assurance scheme, and that IPP Education Limited supplies education and training in payroll helps me to ensure income and expenditure are costed correctly, and the monthly reports I produce are accurate. I’m proud that the detailed work I put into monthly reporting and annual budgeting can help to influence company strategy, and I enjoy the collaborative approach working closely with other departments brings. o
through the bank are processed quickly and accurately – a CIPP member can’t have access to membership benefits, such as the Advisory Service unless their membership is showing as paid on our customer relationship management system. Likewise, some IPP Education Ltd courses require payment before the start date. It’s therefore essential that all receipts are allocated quickly, so we know who can have access to membership benefits / courses / qualifications. Other priorities include accurate input of all transactions onto our accounting software to ensure monthly reports are a true reflection of the current position. Oh, and as Finance Manager, I’m also responsible for administering the monthly payroll, which is, of course, of utmost importance! How does the Finance Team collaborate with other departments in the company? The Finance Team always works closely with other departments, and it’s a two-way interaction. Membership could be checking with finance whether payments have been received; finance could ask the training or qualifications departments whether somebody attended a course; we may need further information about booking details, in which case, we could liaise with the Sales Team, or directly with the training, events or qualifications departments. There’s also daily coordination with the QESH, marketing and ICT departments to ensure goods or services have been received before we settle supplier bills. Collaborating with other teams is essential, especially to get to the bottom of queries. Supporting other departments by providing useful historical, current and future information is a fulfilling part of the job.
What are some of the biggest
7
| Professional in Payroll, Pensions and Reward |
Issue 109 | April 2025
Made with FlippingBook - Online magazine maker