Accounting - Self Development

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Upon collation, analysis and summarization of 2017 budget we presented the budget to the Finance Review Committee (CFO and regional directors are part of this committee). At this meeting, we responded to the specific questions that were raised by the regional finance heads. We updated the draft budget based on the recommendations of the Finance Review Committee and the updated budget was presented by the CFO before the Board of the company. At time work got really intense. On some days, Dina and I were in office at times from 8 AM to 8 PM, preparing workings on spreadsheets and PowerPoint presentations. Knowing the end goal and understanding expectations helped me to be effective and efficient.

Change Management Initiative

During my stint at Four Seasons, the corporate office underwent a restructuring wherein the company got leaner and few of the employees were let go of. The reason was to reduce duplication of work and make systems more efficient. This change management initiative was described by the CFO as Finance 2.0. Given the fact that I was working on the old systems of the company and using the knowledge gained during our Operations course in the first year, I could pinpoint the redundancies and inefficiencies in the system. To name a few:

- Lack of seamlessness: For certain aspects of accounting there was two reporting software being used, one was for the corporate office and another one was for the hotels. The problem was there was no way to transfer information from one platform to another. This lead to duplication of efforts and a lot of human intervention was required to move data from one platform to another.

- Manual reporting: For the Booking Fee reports, Excel sheets were being used as a means to communicate with the properties. This involved collating data of booking fees and generating 100 excel sheets and then manually sending each excel sheet to various properties.

- Expense reimbursements: Expense reimbursement system and payment processing used up a lot of man hours and there were multiple reimbursement processing happening during a fortnight. This increase the inefficiency in the system.

I discussed the above inefficiencies and redundancies in the system with Dina and suggested alternatives ways that would ensure seamless flow of information. Certain changes that I suggested were as under:

- Create the bridge between two platforms, one that is used by the corporate office and the other that is being used by the hotels. Adequate controls should be put in place to ensure that sensitive and the excess information is not transferred to the properties. This would minimize human intervention and improve the accuracy of reporting systems.

- Automatic reporting: Instead of manually sending excel files, an automatic report should be presented to each property containing information about the booking cost. This should be made available to the hotels on their dashboard.

- Expense reimbursement: The reimbursement report ought to be run only once a fortnight in order to minimize the man hours spent on this process. Also, employees should be allowed to submit only one expense report every fortnight.

The above suggestions were highly appreciated by my manager and the reason I could evaluate the efficiency of the system and pinpoint the problems was because I consciously made an effort to apply the Balcony & Dance approach. This approach was briefly discussed by Professor Scott Rutherford during the introductory lecture and it came in really handy while I was interning at Four Seasons. Being reflective while working on assignments helped me not lose sight of the objective of the task I was trying to accomplish.

After considering my interest in the Change Management Project and my ideas to improve the system. I was asked to work closely with the IT Department in order to automate the reporting system of booking expenses to each of the properties. I made an elaborate note on how the reporting system should work, information sources and the way in which reports would be presented to the properties. After getting an approval from Dina, I started meeting with IT department. At this juncture, the principles learned in Leading People in Organization came in really handy. I ensured that I maintained strong group positions i.e., open communication channels and acceptance of diverse skill sets. With the help of David, a manager in IT, we laid out a detailed plan to execute the task. This allowed pooling task interdependencies and performing cross-functional tasks. The group structure was really flat and everyone was always approachable. This allowed us to figure out issues and produce solutions efficiently. By the end of my internship, our team was able to successfully setup the automated reporting system and from next year onwards the group would be working on the new reporting system.

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Section 3: Advice to yourself

- Don’t be afraid: I remember feeling ecstatic when I landed the internship but then I was scared thinking how I will be able to deliver. I would advise my past self to have trust and bank on my previous work experience. As all my knowledge and learning came in handy when I was working at Four Seasons.

- Ask questions: When faced with a problem, I tend to look for an answer on my own and there are times when I would be researching on a problem for days. Dina’s feedback to me was that I should not be hesitant to ask questions and approach seniors, this could save a lot of time and resources.

- Be updated and aware: In the corporate finance department at Four Seasons, almost everyone is a big Raptors fan. Being an international student I was not following the sport at first and it at times got difficult to be part of the conversation. My advice would be to follow the sports and be aware of what’s happening around. Such topics can be of aid when trying to have a light conversation with the group on the lunch table.

- Be reflective: While working on the projects, it is really important to be reflective. That allowed me to always be aware of the expectations from the job and it enhanced my efficiency and effectiveness.

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