Financial Analyst (Mar. 2002 - Jan. 2004)

In March of 2002, I asked my management to present me with a new challenge.  The woman for whom I had been covering during maternity leave had returned to work, and I was anxious to apply the new understanding of finance on a new project.  In response to my request, my manger moved me into an analyst role on two projects: Business to Consumer Communications (B2C) and Integrated Volume Planning (IVP), for a management total of approximately $90MM.

IVP was a project in its infancy at the time, and so my role was to design and implement a financial process for the group.  I did so using the same processes I had developed during my time as a project planner for the Emerald project.  Implementation in this case went very smoothly.  My process was well liked by the associated program managers, and due to their financial background, the could see its merits. 

The B2C project, however, was three years old when I joined.  The first issue that I found was that of historical data.  Until I began working on the project, the financial analyst role had always been a rotational one, with no one individual controlling the project for more than nine months.  For this reason, there had never been much care for documentation, to the point where no one knew exactly how much funding had been committed for any project, nor for the department as a whole.  This was my first task.

Choosing the most direct path to my goal, I found several requisition number streams that related to my new program.  These were then printed and sorted according to project and vendor.  Using a database designed by one of my predecessors, I logged each commitment and then scoured the general ledger, finding those invoices that had already been billed.  During my first meeting with my manager after taking on the program, I explained the situation.  I was challenged to give a date by which a full understanding of the program's situation could be published.  I offered two months as an executable, albeit ambitious deadline.  Upon returning to my desk, I found that my manager had sent a meeting notice for eight weeks from that date. 

Exactly eight weeks later I again sat with my manager.  I informed him that the project was $7 million over budget for the 2002 fiscal year and that the overage was due to commitments that should be accrued expenses.  My manager, in turn, took this to his director.  The immediate result of his meeting was that I became a direct report to the B2C director, and my role on the IVP project was phased out over the next several months. 

Upon being assigned to B2C, I made a point of interviewing each stakeholder before designing my process, as not to do so in a vacuum.  After reviewing the requirements of seven managers, I began to compile a collection of flowcharts, forms and databases.  The previous database was replaced with one of my own design, although the core elements remained.  I also created a C script to parse data extracted from the SAP reports.  This allowed me to free approximately 20 hours per month of my own time to devote to my project, and it freed a similar amount of time for each of the other three analysts marinating the other related projects.  The forms and processes, after being documented, were distributed to the appropriate project managers prior to full implementation.  When the cut-off date for any commitments not following the new process passed, I was surprised to find that none of the managers had any issues following the new procedure.  The speed with which documents began to flow through the system offset the slight increase in administration required to run the group. 

At the end of the year, the department properly accounted for all of its accruals, providing for both proper representation to the stockholders of a material amount and avoiding a large hit in 2003.  I continued to work exclusively for the Interactive group until January of 2004, when I became a shared resource during my time as a Sr. Analyst.