Accounts Payable Financial Operations

Deidra D. Hooper

**********@*****.*** / 770-***-**** / Alpharetta, GA 30004

Professional Summary

Accounting and Finance expert with over 17 years of experience, including 15+ years in SAP ECC and 6+ years in S/4HANA environments. A key contributor in five full lifecycle SAP implementations, improving financial operations through technology integration. Collaborated with global teams to manage SAP Change Requests and develop training programs, enhancing user engagement and operational efficiency. Former Global Director of Finance at Black Box, focused on aligning financial strategies with corporate goals and automating key processes. Experience

Box Network Services - Global Director of Finance Accounts Payable 04/2023 – 03/2025

Lawerence, PA

• Spearheaded cross-functional collaboration between IT, Treasury, and Accounts Payable departments, aligning financial operations with corporate strategy and closing longstanding operational gaps.

• Led workflow automation and system integration initiatives, enhancing financial processing efficiency across multiple global business units.

• Served as the primary liaison between US-based financial operations and the India-based S/4HANA Global Implementation Team, ensuring streamlined communication and alignment with global business objectives.

• Oversaw end-to-end financial transactions, treasury support, and A/P processing, ensuring seamless execution of bi-weekly payroll, union payments, and vendor settlements.

• Led the execution and approval of User Acceptance Testing (UAT) for SAP FICO enhancements, ensuring system integrity and compliance with corporate finance policies, and provided comprehensive test documentation.

• Managed month-end corporate reporting, yearly 1099 tax compliance, and vendor risk assessments, improving financial transparency and accountability.

• Authored detailed process documentation for financial transactions, including bi-weekly expense payments, union payments, and vendor settlements, ensuring clarity and consistency.

Areas of Practice

• SAP FICO & SAP S/4HANA

• SAP Implementation Techniques

• SAP Migrations & Conversions

• Break/Fix Analysis

• Master Data Management

• Accounts Payable – Leadership,

Oversight & Optimization

• Treasury Management

• Client & Vendor Relations

• Variance Reporting

• Error Resolution

• Data Analysis

• Power BI

• Data Migration Techniques

• Project Management

• Requirements Gathering

• Cross-Functional Collaboration

• Stakeholder Communication

• Continuous Improvement

Initiatives

• User Acceptance Testing (UAT)

• End-User Training & Support

• Business Process Automation

Education

Southern University A&M

Baton Rouge, LA

BS: Accounting

Certifications

• SAP-FICO, Atlanta, GA

• Silicon Giant COC, Atlanta, GA

• Directed SAP FICO Change Requests (CRs) and ServiceNow case management, driving operational efficiencies in finance, procurement, and compliance workflows.

• Designed and implemented process improvement strategies, including ACH vendor conversion initiatives, intercompany billing optimizations, and digital payment support.

• Led workflow upgrade initiatives, automating key Treasury & A/P functions and reducing manual processing time.

• Led teams of 8-20 professionals, including contractors, external banking partners, and IT teams, ensuring alignment with corporate finance goals.

• Managed vendor relations and resolution research, overseeing global vendor vetting, onboarding, and credit application processes for compliance and financial risk mitigation. Box Network Services - SAP FICO Expert AP S4 Hana Implementation / Situational Testing 02/2021 - 04/2023 Lawerence, PA

• Served as the dedicated SAP FICO resource in the US, facilitating communication and alignment between the India- based S/4HANA Global Implementation Team and domestic operations.

• Conducted interviews and gathered requirements to bridge understanding gaps between IT and business stakeholders, identifying resolutions for long-standing issues that hindered progress.

• Led the completion of long-stagnant SAP Change Requests across multiple business areas and company codes, acting as the primary liaison between IT, business stakeholders, and external banking SAP IT teams.

• Provided critical support to the Black Box S/4HANA US Implementation Team, ensuring thorough testing and validation despite resource constraints.

• Executed end-to-end transactional testing in SAP S/4HANA to validate data integrity, ensuring accurate debit/credit postings, general ledger (GL) entries, and financial reporting. Accountable Consultants - Consultant/Contractor 04/2020 - 02/2021 Alpharetta, GA

• Utilizing 17 years of blended experience in Accounting, Finance, Auditing, and IT to provide clients solutions on an ad- hoc basis in the areas of Accounting, Financial Analysis, Project Management, Business Development, SAP, Client/Customer Service, and Vendor Relations.

Paradies - Interim Treasury Manager 05/2019 - 04/2020 Atlanta, GA

• Managed relationships with our banks and merchant services in all aspects of cash accounting (incl. optimization of cash reconciliations process) and cash management (optimization of cash forecasts) for 100 airport locations with over 1600 stores.

• Managed the day-to-day activities of 8 direct reports.

• Acted as SME/Liaison for S4 Hana Implementation related to Treasury function.

• Served as Project Manager for 14 major initiatives.

• Responsible for month-end close reporting and analysis.

• Liaison for quarterly/yearly external audit.

Workout Anytime Fitness - Interim Controller 01/2019 - 05/2019 Alpharetta, GA

• Managed and lead all accounting and human resource operations of the company and its subsidiaries.

• Managed and mentor personnel in the accounting department.

• Maintain a comprehensive system of accounting records.

• Maintain an adequate system of budgets and controls created to mitigate risk.

• Generated financial reports daily, monthly, quarterly interim as required.

• Ensured the accuracy of the organization's financial results and reports.

• Ensured that financial reports comply with current accounting principles and financial reporting standards- GAAP and SOX.

• Published complete and timely financial statements to company executives, shareholders, and the Board.

• Accounted for any budget variances and report significant discrepancies to management.

• Completed bank reconciliations monthly.

• Maintained a system of controls over all transactions.

• Recommended benchmarks for the measurement of company financial performance goals. Tire Hub - SAP FICO Consultant 10/2018 - 01/2019

Atlanta, GA

• Monitored and confirms financial condition by conducting audits, providing information to external auditors.

• Prepared budgets by establishing schedules; collecting, analyzing, and consolidating financial data; recommending plans.

• Prepared all franchisor/franchisee royalty calculations and reports - monthly and year-end.

• Prepared special reports by collecting, analyzing, and summarizing information and trends. Protective Life - SAP FICO Functional Consultant 05/2018 - 10/2018 Birmingham, AL

• Configured hierarchy between the branches to enable group-wise reporting.

• Utilized the Intercompany trade process between the branch companies.

• Replicated master data between companies.

• Allocated expense and income amounts to other branch companies.

• Centralize payments.

• Run cross company reports and user queries.

SANY America Corp - A/P Subject Matter Expert SAP FICO Consultant 01/2018 - 06/2018 Peachtree City, GA

• Worked with the plant managers to identify and correct goods receipt entries in the MM module.

• Reviewed, verified and documented the correct processing of PO transactions to convert properly to JD Edwards.

• Analyzed and processed PO exceptions giving guidance on GR/IR resolutions as it related to tolerances, price/quantity mismatch.

• Developed and implemented an interim exceptions queue to consolidate, prioritize and monitor A/P processing requests from multiple sources.

• Prepared documentation for PO/GR/IR processes.

WestRock - A/P Subject Matter Expert SAP FICO Consultant 08/2017 - 12/2017

• Reviewed and verified on the correct processing of PO transactions to convert properly to JD Edwards.

• Analyzed and processed PO exceptions giving guidance on GR/IR resolutions as it related to tolerances, price/quantity mismatch.

• Developed and implemented an interim exceptions queue to consolidate, prioritize and monitor A/P processing requests from multiple sources.

• Created desktop procedure manuals for undocumented processes.

• Successfully collaborated to research, retrieve and correctly process PO invoices. CSM Bakery - Accounts Payable Manager SAP FICO Consultant 09/2016 - 07/2017

• Managed the process of over 3700 invoices weekly in SAP.

• Instrumental in the 'Procedure to Pay' cycle in 'NO PO-NO PAY' initiative.

• Managed spend of $11-23 million and paying over 1100 vendors weekly.

• Provided cash forecasts to treasury and reducing spend where necessary.

• Analyze data output to identify system issues, identify problem areas which led to the realignment of the department to be more consistent with 'best practices'.

• Analyze the workflow to ensure that the OCR system is properly capturing data and translating correctly into SAP.

• Controlled the W9 and 1099 process and reporting of independent contractors.

• Run SAP reports to research and recover lost money due to chargebacks. Accountable Consultants, Inc. - SAP Financial Consultant 07/2011 - 08/2016 Alpharetta, GA

• Responsible for driving Axiall Corporation's GL Data Conversion Project to migrate the 2014-2016 transactional data, to a new SAP platform.

• Acted as a liaison between IT and Plant Accounting managers, in the upgrading/maintaining, SAP's functionality, in the FI/CO modules, General Ledger, CO-PA, Accounts Payable and Fixed Assets.

• Designed and implemented functional business processes in a corporate environment, including monthly and quarterly reporting for a public company, as required.

• Responsible for making daily payments to the critical CASS Information Systems, Inc.

• Responsible for writing financial statement footnotes for the 2010-2011 audit, preparing financial statements, preparing consolidated tax worksheet and writing tax footnotes for 2010-2011 audit, reviewing GL Managers work, filing sales and use taxes, annual reports, franchise taxes and any license requirements, month-end reconciliation of all accounts for the complete year 2011-current, analyzing financial statements on a monthly basis and reporting on variances and the monthly account analysis of balance sheet and income statement accounts.

• Managed and documented Fixed Assets, Sales and Use Tax, General Ledger Accounting and Reporting process policies and procedures.

• Monitored internal controls and documented the internal and external financial and tax audit and examination processes, assisted the CFO finalizing the 2012 forecasts and budgets.

• Created reconciliation dashboard to reconcile daily Cass freight payments for third party shippers.

• Identified 60K in overpayments for the past 6 months in broker commissions.

• Reduced CFM's 2012 budget over $76,000 by consulting with managers to identify and eliminate ineffective spending from prior year's actuals.

• Significantly increased efficiency and decreased tax payment errors by ensuring that Corp. Environments of Atlanta status as third-party resellers was current and clear to the key business units and wholesalers.

• Recovered over $35,000 for in unreal tax liabilities researching prior sales and use tax payments and correcting prior errors.

• Greatly increased CFO's productivity and creating a solution which automated monthly, quarterly, and yearly reports and presentation charts.

• Saved the OneCare Company over $140,000 in erroneous broker payments by conducting an internal audit of broker contracts, shipping contracts and customer fee contracts.

• Conducted risk assessments of Accounts Payable department. The Coca-Cola Company - Principal Financial Analyst 05/2008 - 06/2011

• Ensured deadlines were met by developing and implementing a management tool which provided transparency and reported the team's daily activities, responsibilities, and the time requirements for each associate.

• Monitored costs, schedule and technical performance of component projects and operations.

• Worked and ensured ultimate success of the department's master data cleansing project.

• Controlled costs by performing monthly financial analysis for SAP projects in Accounts Payable, Vendor Purchasing and Invoice Management departments to ensure they were progressing according to plan and budget.

• Implemented SAP Applications ECC 6.0 (R/3) by driving the direction, planning and application functional support.

• Managed project risks, issues, financials, change management, ROI analysis and project governance for the P2P, Master Data cleansing, IAT Implementation, 1099 SAP Implementation, BA Off Shoring and various other TCCC projects.

• Directed multiple project teams across multiple departments, maximizing resources and ensuring deadlines were met for the 1099, wire transfer and other process improvement initiatives.

• Establish and conducted risk-based audit programs for SOX audit.

• Conducted audit testing of specified area and identified reportable issues and dimension of risk. The Coca-Cola Company MDI - Accounts Payable Manager 03/2007 - 04/2008

• Managed clean-up of over 9K master data records for a P2P project to ensure that project was progressing according to plan.

• Managed the relationship between the business community and IT for the SRM module.

• Supervised 10 associates in the Vendor Master/Cash Team in the Analysis & Controls Group.

• Facilitated the Vendor Master Group's portion of the internal audits.

• Developed management tools which created transparency into the Analysis and Controls Group by providing detailed information regarding the team's daily activities, responsibilities and the time requirements for each associate.

• Reviewed year-end Performance Development Plans and worked with staff to develop their objectives.

• Triaged Vendor Master Group urgent requests, calls and incidents during critical times, preventing escalation in 100% of the cases.

• Supervised the 1099 process for over 9500 vendors and contractors. Cellnet Technology - Accounting Manager 08/2005 - 01/2007

• Initiated and implemented research projects that extracted necessary information to provide executive management with accurate, timely and relevant financial data to increase effectiveness.

• Managed Fixed Asset and depreciation of capital for equipment.

• Oversaw the calculating, posting, and verifying duties to obtain and record financial data.

• Worked with outside auditors to help reconcile discrepancies.

• Developed and implemented policies and procedures. MedQuist/Lanier Healthcare - Accounts Payable Supervisor 05/2002 - 07/2005

• Managed all Accounts Payable functions and month end close processes, including accruals, report generation and journal entries.

• Managed the 1099 process for over 200 vendors and contractors.

• Managed group in calculating, posting, and verifying duties to obtain and record financial data.

• Performed monthly internal audits of accounts payable.

• Audited the accounting and financial data of various departments within the organization. AWD Consulting, Inc. - Accounting Manager 02/1999 - 04/2002

• Responsible for month-end close process.

• Managed Fixed Assets.

• Performed monthly audits of various regional administrative accounting departments.

• Prepared dividend, interest, and other income transactions for approval.

• Performed Cash disbursements, cash receipt journals, report generation and refinement.

• Generated Financial statements and reports.

Sema Group, Inc. - Accounting Manager 04/1998 - 01/1999

• Managed G/L, A/P, A/R, billing and payroll processes for Atlanta division.

• Produced monthly financial statements.

• Provided monthly variance reporting on financial activity.

• Provided cash activity reports.

• Responsible for month end close process including balancing account schedules, purchase journals, journal entries, journal vouchers and the general ledger.

IMPAC Hotel Group - Accounts Payable Manager 01/1997 - 03/1998

• Supervised 10 associates in accounts payable processes for 144 Hotels.

• Provided hotels, investors, lenders and managers with accurate, timely and relevant financial data.

• Researched and recovered $45,000 in overpaid franchise fees.

• Managed the 1099 process for over 150 vendors and contractors. Mortgage Recruiting Consultants/FDIC - Accounts Payable Manager 01/1993 - 12/1996

• Coordinated $1.5 billion asset portfolio.

• Developed prototype of other asset processing which became the FDIC regional standard.

• Managed investor-reporting function for $250 million loan servicing portfolio. Personal Information

Title: SAP FICO SAP S/4HANA Financial Consultant

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