Financial Analyst Project Manager
Resume:
LAURA M. QUARLES, CPA, MBA
Medina, OH 44256
*******@************.***
PROFESSIONAL SUMMARY
Results-oriented Senior Financial Analyst with extensive experience in the banking and telecommunications industries, government agencies, manufacturing, and the small business accounting field. Passion for reporting and analysis. Expertise in A/P and A/R reporting and FP&A. Experienced in SAP accounting and trend analysis. Known for the ability to collaborate across departments and functional areas, able to influence difficult personalities, and deliver outstanding results. Certified Public Accountant. Verizon award winner for work excellence. Areas of expertise include:
Capital Planning
Customer-Focused
Amortization & Depreciation
Fixed Assets
SOX Experience
Process Improvement
Month End Close
Detail Oriented
People Skills
PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE
First Merit Bank, Akron, OH November 2014 – Present
Sourcing and Analytics Officer
Analyzed and compiled multiple yearly financial transactions to enable analysis of spending trends, contracts and proposed financial transactions.
Analyzed complex contract for cost, modeling proposal for contract period to allow for better analysis and adjustment of variables to enable bank to better negotiate favorable terms. Allowing for multimillion dollar save.
Provide monthly analysis of expense reports to allow tracking and adjustments of various spending categories.
Provide ad hoc reporting as needed to all lines of business.
Creative Financial Staffing, Middleburg Heights, OH 2013 – April 2014
Contractor to Thyssen Krupp
Senior Financial Analyst
Analyzed monthly financial transactions to enable accruals, trending and journal entries to accurately portray financial position.
Performed financial analysis and general accounting duties including Monthly Closing, prepared various journal entries, inter-company, payroll related entries, reviewed month-end balance sheet, analyzed operating expenses, and calculated accruals; performed accurate and timely balance sheet account reconciliations.
Prepared quarterly corporate schedules and reports for management review.
Ran multiple SAP reports to reflect month end close and enabled reporting and book journal entries. Cleared blocked invoices in SAP.
Ran A/P and A/R reports in SAP, looked for aging account trends, and took corrective action.
Analyzed inbound and outbound freight accruals for possible adjustments.
Analyzed inventory and Net Working Capital trends and reported to management.
Elite Government Solutions, Germantown, MD 2010 – 2012
Subcontractor to the Department of Energy
Senior Financial Analyst
Analyzed historical data for revenue and expense trends, projected breakeven point. Created and presented report to Senior Management. Project was turned into a monthly Dashboard.
301-***-**** LAURA M. QUARLES, CPA, MBA *******@************.***
Elite Government Solutions, continued.
Reconciled Customer Payments to the User Funds Report and the All Activities Report for 2011 which had never been done before. Discovered and corrected numerous items, and recouped funds of ~$1M+.
Reconciled three-year old credit card statements and PO’s for BlackBerry purchases and cleared charges from the STRIPES database. Tracked all statements back to its original source, and avoided being audited and penalized for non-compliance.
Compiled and developed GL models to provide initial SAS data for actuals for the Energy Information Technology Services (EITS).
Analyzed Pricing Models for EITS which corrected pricing errors allowing for accurate pricing decisions, which added additional revenue of $16K per month.
Assisted Booz Allen in developing a price cost model including a business model to develop pricing strategies. Prepared final report to be presented to Governance Board with actionable items and was rolled out as the Price Working Group.
Compiled and analyzed data as one of the Presidential Directives, Data Center Consolidation Project, and submitted to senior management to determine which data centers would remain open.
Verizon Business, Ashburn, VA 2005 – 2009
Senior Financial Analyst, (2006 – 2009)
Verizon Business acquired MCI in January of 2006
Compiled Monthly Capital Summary Report and Monthly Detailed Corporate Reports that totaled $2B in capital expenditures for the year. These reports were segmented by line of business and top projects resulting in upper management’s ability to review capital projects by business category, delivery organization, sub-organization, corporate category, major projects and authorized capital that projects future revenue, costs and cost savings by project.
Prepared a daily report on the status of Capital Projects to determine the importance of the workflow for Finance to determine which projects had high priority status, saving the company funds by capturing discounts due to advance payments on ordered equipment up to ~$10M per year.
Analyzed P&Ls for 10-20 projects valued at $1M+ in capital expenditures per week for accuracy and financial viability, summarized project highlights, projected revenues, and capacity trend data, reducing the report from 12 pages to 1.
Coordinated and facilitated project approvals with other departments within Verizon Business. Assisted project managers on financial metrics resulting in acceleration of the approval process and implementation of Capital Projects.
Tested internal controls for SOX Compliance for Capital Planning systems.
Senior Staff Specialist, (2005 – 2006)
Analyzed and streamlined monthly depreciation, amortization, balance sheet, gain and loss segmentation models to support FAS 131 company reporting requirements. Prepared monthly close slides for management review, coordinated with Property Accounting to analyze and clarify monthly variances ensuring a timely monthly close.
Managed the monthly Global Transfer Pricing model accurately and efficiently and delivered the report to the Corporate Tax Department enabling them to file their taxes worldwide in an expeditious manner.
Reconstructed the 2006 Depreciation Activity Based Model, a complex product model that distributed the costs of the product and allocated the amortization and depreciation back to the lines of business using segmentation methodology. This process improved the method of reporting by one day, a 50% decrease in the time required to accurately produce the report.
301-***-**** LAURA M. QUARLES, CPA, MBA *******@************.***
Key Corporation, Cleveland, OH 1998 – 2004
Business Analyst, Key Education Resources, (2000 – 2004)
Developed monthly reports for Asset Quality, Business Letter, Product Offering Chart and Vintage Analysis for student loan portfolios at ~300+ colleges/universities. Continuously
enhancing the information that enables the Vice President to manage the business and formulate credit decisions on aging portfolios, delinquencies and charge offs.
Forecasted cash flow payback for Trusts that determine the amount that the bank could loan in the next term, and the amount that could be invested by corporate.
Project Manager for Power Play Cube development, an analytical tool that merged data from multiple systems into one database which allowed managers to perform financial analysis.
Discovered improperly coded DDA/checking account that was re-coded to the appropriate line of business, resulting in an additional 5% or $200K in interest being credited to the department’s monthly budget.
Tested internal controls for Education Resources in regards to student loan reporting to comply with bank regulations and SOX compliance.
Analyst, Financial Operations, (1998 – 2000)
Analyzed non-interest expense accounts for community and corporate lines of business and members of the close team that consistently closed the month end books in 3 days.
Reviewed income statement accounts, researched and explained variances to plan and reconciled general ledger accounts after month end close insuring accuracy and completeness.
Developed Oracle report to track payments to vendors to improve analysis of expenses.
EDUCATION
MBA, Baldwin Wallace College, Cleveland, OH
BBA in Accounting, Cleveland State University, Cleveland, OH
CERTIFICATIONS
Certified Public Accountant
AWARDS
Ovation Award for SLP Restatement, Verizon, 2006
Ovation Award for Corporate Planning and Analysis Program 3Q05, Verizon, 2005
Ovation Award for 2005 SLP / GTP models and delivering the 1Q05 results, Verizon, 2005
COMPUTER SKILLS
Microsoft Office: Excel, Word, PowerPoint, Visio, Outlook, Microsoft Access Database
Financial Systems: MSAS, Hyperion, Oracle Discover, Essbase, Ariba, SRM, nSAP, BI
SAP
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