Senior Accountant / Controller / Finance Business Partner

• Daily reconciliation of traders’ profit and loss. Solve daily issues that arise in the P&L process.
• Analyse daily control reports and publish the daily foreign exchange and interest rates for the Cargill group
• Acting as a key contact responsible for answering queries from global business units. Investigating and escalating these to the relevant party to ensure efficient and timely resolution.
• Accurate accounting for intercompany loans. Communicating key information and providing a service to other Cargill Treasury hubs and business units worldwide.
• Budget preparation and further Budget to actuals analysis on a monthly basis
• Responsibility for internal corporate reporting and budgeting for Cargill’s ETC activities including admin expense transactions.
• Verify and post Thomson Reuters and Bloomberg invoices
• Preparation and submission of VAT return report
• Coordination of financial audits
• Ensuring daily and monthly tasks are completed within corporate timeframes
• Performing month end balance sheet reconciliations, and internal reporting. Provide analysis and commentary on quarterly movements in the Balance Sheet and Profit and Loss.
• Assist in the production of financial statements, partake in regional/global projects and work with the corporate Financial Reporting team to ensure daily and monthly tasks are completed with the relevant deadlines being met.
• Ad hoc projects such as requests for further analysis of financial data and financial year end reporting, assisting in the preparation of annual statutory accounts for UK entities, take part in coordination of the annual audit, responding to other requests/questions from areas such as tax and audit
• Identify and implement work process improvements with regards to efficiency and maintaining a strong control environment

• Provided full accounting and financial support to ACG field project and achieved zero late submission at high quality. Utilising my general accounting as well as Oil&Gas specific skills I led the following processes and procedures:
- timely preparation and thorough analysis of Joint Interest Billings and Transportation tariff expenses received from Operator
- ACG field Over/Under lift calculations, updating analysis based on research from the market
- verification of the BTC pipeline Tariff Invoice according to agreements
- based on continuously updating model was analysing, preparing and posting Asset Retirement Obligation/Decommissioning into SAP
- preparation and posting to SAP ACG Depreciation of assets on a monthly basis. Reviewed assets based on information from the local Asset Team and arranged asset transfers in SAP from construction to production
• Managed coordination of annual tax audits with governmental officials. Submitted PTR report to them within timeframe and on high quality
• On joining I was appointed by Senior Leadership team to lead Annual Statutory Reporting preparation and submission to Central office which was previously done by the other team. Arranged timely preparation on a high quality for 2 legal entities. Coordinated and led any discussions associated with reporting with external auditors
• Performed monthly and quarterly reconciliations of ledger accounts as well as being in charge of the entire Balance Sheet accounts reconciliation. Achieved timely submission and analysis of the necessary backup information. Led the process of achieving timely submission of the other reconciliations in the team as well such as Lifting, Reserve, Tariff, Cash Call, Working Capital, Fixed Asset, Billing reconciliations
• Delivered Office & Expats House Rent Allocation and drove clearing of prepayment account. All outstanding issues were cleared within a month which further reduced timing spent on Reconciliation significantly
• Prepared detailed analysis of Earning before income and Tax analysis which was previously done by another team, submitted to Corporate office with zero follow up from their side
• Developed Oil sales/Lifting related documentation and based on that provided NBV reports to BP as Operator
• Performed key controls in SPC; executed SOX self-assessments and updated SOX critical spreadsheets, verified processes with Corporate compliance team and had no compliance issues
• Supported KPMG during continuous audits; provided required information to Group auditors during Shareholder expenditure and Shared Services audits
• Established and maintained effective systems for reporting over 3 countries
• Provided Capex analysis reports to Performance Management team

• Reviewed Gifts & Entertainment, Conflict of Interest and Hosting of Government Officials registers. Analysed entries, followed up on exceptions and shared inputs with Leadership Team. Proposed improvements on the systems use which was approved, implemented and reduced time increasing efficiency
• Reviewed, analysed, performed ranking and closed out all of reported Code of Conduct breaches within deadline
• Carried out deep dives into financial and control processes to test control effectiveness and control designs.
Analysed root causes of control deficiencies and monitored remediation. The outcome led to improved reporting and minimised system errors
• Designed and issued ethics flashes and posters which were populated in BP locations globally and followed by employees. Administered Ethics & Compliance website and posted updates to Internal Controls on a weekly basis
• Ensured 100% completion of e-learning sessions by AGT employees and delivered Code of Conduct face-to-face inductions to all new joiners, provided refreshment sessions to BP staff; ensured delivery of Anti-Bribery Corruption face-to-face training to target groups
• Planned and coordinated the Annual Ethics & Compliance Certification process, was a central focal point for queries and issues related to the E&C Certification process
• Prepared the Region President’s Certificate and reviewed it with Management. Submitted the Certificate to Group Ethics & Compliance by agreed deadline
• Performed internal verification of BP in Azerbaijan Sustainability Report which was done by Ernst&Young before. Proved to be a success exercise with $40K cost saving to the company
• Actively supported Group Control and E&Y review of control processes

• Provided accounting expertise for ACG field Offshore, Renewal and Major Projects Performance Units, which
included General Ledger maintenance and analysis / postings, and the following:
- coordination of the month and quarter-end process closure consisting of accruals and prepayment postings in Azerbaijan Strategic Performance Unit -accruing circa $345mln monthly according to given month and quarter end corporate deadlines/timeframes. Checked cash costs vs SAP, reconciled and entirely adjusted them to each other
- decommissioning and finance lease calculation in the Excel model and postings to SAP ERP system
- coordination of cash management forecasts and timely provision of reports for cash calls
- delivery of the high quality gross to net Balance Sheet reconciliation of ACG PSA books/ledgers and made sure they are reconciled in respect with Balance Sheet Integrity requirements. Reconciled all CAPEX/OPEX in I/S and prepared Power Point reports and Pivots in Excel on the cost centre level to the Senior management on the variances found, presented and explained them, cleared outstanding balances
• Prepared and submitted to the Central Team in London Income Statement and Balance Sheet for the BP Exploration Caspian Sea in accordance with IFRS requirements and worked with different teams in Azerbaijan Strategic Performance Unit to achieve final result
• Provided ongoing required support to Shareholder Auditors and Ernst&Young Auditors. Supported Shareholder Auditors during the annual Audit, closed out all Information Requests
• Worked with Group Internal Auditors and implemented control checks in all our templates to minimise any risks that could occur (task that was delivered as part of being in Sarbanes-Oxley control environment)
• Verified externally used Cost Recovery Report and internal Joint Interest Billings to make sure we represent true and fair information to all Joint Venture Partners involved in the project and provided it to the Finance Representatives of all the Shareholders involved within agreed in the legal framework boundary
• Prepared annual Profit Tax Return Report and quarterly tax packs for group reporting purposes. The task was taken over from Tax advisor and partially from E&Y. Report was further submitted to the Ministry of Taxes and complimented for quality delivery by Leadership team. The job I did reduced E&Y fees and the cost saving for the company I made was circa $20K for 2 months only.
• Designed Joint Venture Accounting Knowledge Sharing presentation and delivered it to the wider Finance and Operations population. This was my initiative: in order to improve reporting Finance has to speak language that Engineers understand, by doing so we could get right information/numbers from them. To improve this I was holding regular presentations later on as well for newcomers in Engineering department and explaining them our requirements on accruals and other standards

• Verified and processed BP Group receivable and payable balances and inter JV invoices, making sure proper coding is used (settlement of payments in intranet’s BP global e-HUB system and made sure weekly settlements are done timely)
• I produced monthly reconciliations of the 8 accounts posting all transactions to the ledgers
• Proposed process change and successfully implemented Commercial Browser system for receivables reporting that reduced complexity and significantly improved processing time
• Provided weekly cash call requirements for Shah Deniz project/Shared Services Dept and managed timely reconciliation of balances on a quarterly basis
• Arranged clearance of pre 2006 Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan/South Caucasus Pipeline invoices: identified problems and discussed with the management, proposed resolutions. All backlog was cleared and debts returned
• Provided management with one Pager Management Reports weekly for the Intercompany Team
• Established and maintained effective liaison and working rapport with remote sites (Turkey, UK, Georgia, US etc) and senior staff. Set up meetings upon need with other departments’ representatives in order to resolve any outstanding problems
• Trained/coached new comers, assisted them in case any disputes aroused and advised how to work with vendors’ representatives and address all their concerns