Manager Service
Resume:
JONI NELSON
Chanhassen, MN 55317
****.******@*******.***
SUMMARY
Goal-oriented manager with over 13 years experience of Accounts Payables
and 8 years of Accounts Receivables in a variety of industries including
retail, service, manufacturing, real estate, health/fitness and
construction. Extensive experience in team building/development, project
management, finance controls and collections, efficient and effective
process improvements, and selling ideas to upper management with a proven
track record of exceeding goals and timelines. Strengths include solid
communication, problem-solving skills, and ability to maneuver in large
matrixes organizations; working collaboratively and influencing without
authority, as well as dealing with ambiguity in a changing environment.
EXPERIENCE
BEST BUY CO., INC. Richfield, Minnesota
1998-present
Sr. Manager; GBS Warranty Receivables 2009-
present
Five managers were hired to handle all the new initiatives that were
hitting Best Buy receivables; including the growth of Mobile phones and our
Global Business Services initiative with the expansion in overseeing the
Canada operations as well as the announcement of handling the outsourcing
of daily operations to reduce our costs. Selected as Sr. Manager due to
services background and people skills to oversee the $1.08M Manufacture
Warranty and $2.4M Extended Warranty Claims from the Service Division to
Finance. Responsible for all aspects (contract negotiations, $2M budget,
and disaster recovery) of our Claim-ability Software.
. Restructured US Department of 14 to 6 people at the corporate office,
found efficiencies to reduce 2 head count and outsourced 6; reducing
cost to serve.
. Created Key Performance Indicators and Service Level Agreements with
our 3rd party provider. In the first year with the outsourced staff;
aging over 90 days was reduced from 15% to 3%.
. First leader to be accepted by Canada Office to run a Canadian
Operation.
. Reduced cost to serve in Canada by reducing 2 headcount and by
outsourcing to a third party; the operations is now run out of the US
Headquarters and other departments are now following.
Sr. Manager; Corporate Receivables 2008
- 2009
Interviewed areas within Best Buy and convinced upper management of Finance
and three different business areas to move functions to Finance under a
newly named finance team called Corporate Receivables. (Best Buy for
Business - 5 people, Warranty Receivables - 14 people, and contract
negotiations for a 3rd party Gift Card Fulfillment center.)
. Added more responsibility by supporting Geek Squad business partner
relationships. Installed a new system that billed business partners
monthly (OPEN CIS) and accomplished it without increasing headcount.
. Acquired Magnolia Company back-end credit operations; which includes
white glove customer care. Reduced risk and cleaned up 5 years of
aged items after 1 year of taking it on without adding additional
headcount.
. Passed all Sox 404 audits and used GAAP knowledge to create Finance
Policy and Procedures for Revenue Recognition and Reserve
calculations.
. Championed the solution between the business needs and finance
regulations for monthly subscription offers to customers on
Subscription Anti-virus Software in our stores by holiday.
Manager (level 2), Subscription, NSF and Coupon Receivables 2006 -
2008
Added more responsibility by moving accountants from Finance Operations
Dept to Marketing Receivables. Took on contract negotiations with 3rd
party check processors (for non-sufficient funds) and made the decision to
use a 3rd party to process our manufacture coupons which eliminated 1
position. Received a promotion/raise and changed the name of the
department.
. Reorganized the department and reduced the amount of people doing cash
applications by 5.
. Worked with the cross-functional teams to identify holes in the
subscription vendor contract negotiation process.
. Gained approval to add head count at the exempt level and hired 3
Senior Finance Analysts.
Manager (level 1), Marketing Receivables 2003 -
2006
Started with a department (25 people with 2 supervisors) that had no
development or team movement in 4 years. Included $41M cash application of
all Best Buy vendor subscription commission revenue for Mobile phones,
Satellite TV, Satellite Radio, Magazine, and Broadband customer contracts.
. After taking the job; the team had education goals, development plans,
and stretch goals. In the department restructure, new jobs were
created for lateral growth as well as promotional opportunities.
. Created electronic dispute process without system enhancements and
recovered funds that would normally be written off. Believing in the
dispute process; the finance controller and vice president over the
Mobile Phone business requested a 1 year goal to recover $5M. The
goal was exceeding by collecting $17M in 1 year by disputing two years
worth of payment shortages.
Manager (level 1), Service Parts Payables 1998 -
2003
Created and hired a new payables department of 20 people (3 supervisors) to
pay the parts invoices for the Nation-wide Service Centers that repaired
customer broken products, reconcile vendor statements (covering 3 years of
activity), and dispute invalid charges (variances and core charges)
. Worked on requirements for a new in-house system called STAR (Service
That Add Revenue) on the first day of hire at Best Buy.
. Started cross-functional meetings to understand the complete process
flow of parts.
. Identified a way through EDI (Electronic Data Information) to submit
invoices and purchase orders of part prices electronically, this
process improvement ultimately reduced the staff to 5 and allowed the
team to be combined with other AP departments.
GRACO INC., Minneapolis, Minnesota
1997-1998
Billing and Accounts Payable Supervisor
Oversaw two departments, the Payables department of 16 was located at the
Main Plant in NE Minneapolis and the Billing Dept of 3 people was located
in Rogers Minnesota. The Corporate Office was located in Golden Valley.
Received additional responsibilities after 6 months to oversee Travel
Policies and negotiated hotel and car rental contracts for national sales
staff. Presented the concept of Procurement Cards to the company president
and after a short pilot, the employee cash advances were eliminated.
COUNTY SEAT., Eden Prairie, Minnesota 1987-
1997
Expense Payables Supervisor 1990 - 1997
Processed all operating invoices for 250 nationwide clothing stores as well
as two new concept stores called The General Store, which sold
miscellaneous household and gardening items. Produced and mailed 1099
statements yearly. Created process flow and procedure forms for a team of 6
to document steps. Opened the process flows to outside departments to
spread efficiencies over multiple departments. Coded system reports to
pull all merchandise and expense payable vendor balances before the company
filed Chap 11. Only a few people in finance were aware and I was entrusted
to create the report rather than include IT in the financial knowledge.
Cash Receipts Accountant 1987 - 1990
Created cash forecasting tools and process to call into parent company
(Carson Pirie Scott) for weekly cash releases. Lead a team of 6 people to
oversee all credit card charge backs; recognized a control weakness and
requested a control report for entering off-line returns on credit cards.
The report was later used to prove abuse by a corporate employee.
Responsible for making the first collection call on merchandise vendors and
received 100% reimbursement on the balance of $20k.
OPUS CORPORATION, Hopkins, Minnesota
Joint Venture Accountant 1985 -
1986
Provided financial reporting on building construction costs compared to
budget on all Opus Joint Venture Partnerships. Visited construction sites
to discuss timelines with site managers and to gain understanding of work
being performed, to improve the quality of P&L variance comments.
ADDITIONAL SKILLS/ACCOMPLISHMENTS
. Finance Representative for Continuity/Disaster Recovery Team: Responsible
for responding quickly to e-mails on disasters that have struck our
retail stores, district offices or corporate campus.
. Participating in Best Buy WOLF (Women of Leadership Forum) pack located
in Austin TX for 3 years. Presented the idea to the Field Wolf for
support which ultimately doubled anticipated sales.
. Contributed on the Development Review Council for 3 years (mentored 15-20
exempt people per year outside of my department on other finance career
options at BBY)
. Created and developed the Opportunity Review Council for non-exempt
finance employees at BBY. To help develop/mentor 250 hourly employees
and help them get to their next level or provide guidance to lateral
positions that would expand their knowledge and stretch their skills.
. Attended National Black MBA conference in Atlanta Georgia with 5 other
Finance managers and directors to recruit Senior Finance Analysts for
Best Buy.
. Proficient in Microsoft software including Word, Outlook, Power Point and
Excel.
. Used many home grown systems build specifically for the business and
tweaked to support financials.
. Experienced with SAP and Oracle. Helped implement SAP AR in Mexico for
BBY Mexico (2008).
. Coached Best Buy Canada (2006) and Car Phone Warehouse in Europe (2007)
to set up subscription collection efforts to bring some consistencies
with the US standards and metric for Cell Phones.
. St Thomas, Certificate of Project Management
EDUCATION
Bachelor of Science, Accounting/Finance, Moorhead State University
1981-1985
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