Kristina Watkinson
Tempe,NSW
Summary
With over 25 years experience working as an accountant in both Practice and Commerce I am a fully qualified member of the ACCA, achieving Fellowship status in 2012.
I began my career working in general practice on accounts and audit assignments for small and medium sized private companies in the UK. I spent 5 years in practice during which time I spent 18 months working as assistant manager of the audit team at Princecroft Redman Chartered Accountants.
In 2006, after some time travelling, I began working as a management accountant for a company that assembles and sells commercial boilers and heaters in the UK. I was in this role for 3 years, which enabled me to build on my commercial experience and gave me the opportunity to gain a number of valuable new skills in the commercial space.
In 2008 I moved permanently to Sydney. I initially spent 3 years working as the Company Accountant for William Buck, a firm of chartered accountants in the CBD before moving to BRI Ferrier, a company specializing in Business Insolvency and reconstruction, where I was employed for 4 ½ years, initially as Finance Manager and then as CFO.
In 2016 I left BRI Ferrier to begin running my own online retail business, which I grew to a 6 figure turnover over 6 years and for the past 3 years I have been working as a bookkeeper for Tanjiro Pty Ltd, working on high net worth, Family Office Clients.
I am a highly motivated and ambitious person who achieves results and I am now looking for my next challenge. With valuable skills and qualifications I would be an asset to any business.
Overview
20
20
years of professional experience
Work History
Bookkeeper
Tanjiro Pty Ltd
12.2022 - 04.2026
- Maintained financial records using Xero, for a number of High Net Worth, Family Office Clients.
- Reconciled bank statements with internal records to maintain financial accuracy.
- Developed and implemented streamlined bookkeeping procedures for increased efficiency.
- Analyzed financial reports to identify discrepancies and recommend corrective actions.
- Calculated profits/losses on disposals of investments.
- Worked in multiple foreign currencies, including USD, EUR and GBP.
- Prepared monthly bank reconciliations to ensure accurate representation of company's financial position.
- Reconciled and corrected issues with financial records.
- Monitored incoming payments from clients, ensuring prompt application of funds against outstanding invoices.
- Supported year-end closing procedures by preparing adjusting journal entries as needed.
- Reduced errors in financial reporting by conducting thorough reviews and ensuring accurate data entry.
- Provided support during audits by supplying requested documentation promptly and accurately.
- Improved tax preparation efficiency, organized and reviewed all relevant financial documents.
- Input financial data and produced reports using Xero.
- Liaised with external stakeholders confidently and professionally.
Founder
Oakie Baby
Maroubra, New South Wales
08.2015 - 06.2023
- Carrying out all duties associated with running an online retail store.
- Growing business from a start up to a 6-figure business.
- Creating and managing social media posts and EDMs
- Building an email database of 10,000+.
- Running online advertising campaigns on Facebook and Google ads.
- Corresponding with customers across all platforms to provide an excellent customer experience from cold enquiries through to after sales care. Responding to enquires, complaints, exchanges and returns and cold enquiries to generate sales.
- Targeting campaigns to encourage repeat customer sales.
- Building excellent, long term customer relationships through regular engagement to create a loyal customer base.
- Packing and shipping orders.
- Managing stock levels and supplier relationships.
- Bookkeeping and accounting and BAS lodgements.
- Working with influencers and micro influencers to increase brand awareness.
- Negotiating collaborations.
- Developing exclusive products with suppliers for store.
Chief Financial Officer
BRI Ferrier (NSW) Pty Ltd
Sydney, Australia
01.2012 - 04.2016
- Initially employed as Finance Manager I was promoted to Chief Financial Officer in July 2013.
- Responsible for the management of the finance department and office administration staff (7 members of staff) and reporting directly to the Principals and CEO. Responsible for all aspects of the Company’s internal finance and accounting function and office management.
- My significant achievement in this role was implementing process improvements across the firm, including:
- Establishing monthly board meetings to improve timeliness of information to the Board.
- Developing monthly board reports, cash flow statements and dashboards and preparing a monthly CFO report for presentation to the Board to improve clarity and meaningfulness of information provided to the Board. This information was prepared to strict timeframes.
- Preparing an annual budget based on staff chargeable time to monitor the Firm’s and staff’s performance against.
- Establishing a centralized team within my Finance Function to handle some of the routine tasks performed throughout the firm with each new assignment, freeing up chargeable staff to focus on the more demanding aspects of the job.
- Developing strong relationships with key suppliers.
- Moving the company onto a cloud based IT platform.
- Other duties in this role included:
- Rolling over APS each month and carrying out month end processes.
- Preparing the monthly management accounts from Quickbooks for all group entities.
- Preparing the monthly board reports and WIP dashboards.
- Maintaining the daily cashflow.
- Working with each team to set monthly cash collection forecasts, reporting on progress during the month and following up with teams through the month to ensure collections are met.
- Regularly reviewing WIP ledgers to establish recoverable/non recoverable WIP levels and reporting on this monthly.
- Preparing the annual firm budget and maintaining the rolling budget throughout the year.
- Preparing the year end accounts for all group entities including calculating and processing all year end adjustments and calculating the profit distributions.
- Authorizing twice weekly payment runs on our online banking platform.
- Reviewing payroll and payroll tax calculations and authorizing monthly payments to employees and OSR.
- Preparing employee contracts for signature.
- Ensuring the company’s tax and statutory obligations were met, calculating quarterly BAS payments and lodging the BAS’s through the ATO portal, calculating the annual FBT liability and, as a large withholder, ensuring our PAYGW payments were made on time.
- Preparing information for annual Export Marketing and Development Grant submission to Austrade.
- Pulling together all information for all annual insurance renewals including PI insurance and workers comp renewals and liaising and negotiating with our Broker to ensure the best deal for the Company.
- Switching our external IT support and working with them to improve our IT systems to improve the IT experience for users across the firm and ultimately moving our IT platform onto the Cloud.
- Developing and maintaining strong relationships with key external suppliers.
- Drawing up a shortlist of potential business premises when it came time to renew our lease, visiting all of them and presenting options to The Board for their decision. Managing relationship with our Tenancy Advisors who negotiated new lease on our behalf.
- Overseeing office renovations after signing new lease, liaising with the designers and contractors, making design decisions and being the go between between the Principals and Designers to ensure the project was completed on time and within budget.
- Ensuring all back office processes were set up when we started our new Melbourne office. All back office functions for this office were carried out by my team.
Accountant
William Buck Chartered Accountants
Sydney, New South Wales
11.2008 - 01.2012
- My role within this company was that of Company Accountant, with responsibility for all aspects of the company’s internal finance and accounting function, managing the Sales and Purchase Ledger Clerk and reporting directly to the Directors of the Firm and to the Office General Manager
- My duties in this role included:
- Closing off Vistopia each month and exporting data into Solution 6.
- Preparing monthly management accounts for each of the group entities and various other consolidated financial reports as part of the monthly reporting pack, which I then presented to the Board of Directors in the monthly Board Meetings.
- I significantly developed the monthly reporting pack, both by enhancing the reports that were already in existence in order to provide clearer, more relevant information to the Board and by adding new reports that I felt were necessary.
- I developed monthly KPI reports for each division to help deliver meaningful information to the board and assist them to monitor performance across the firm.
- I completed monthly HR metrics reports for the General Manager on a monthly basis.
- I was also responsible for preparing various ad hoc reports for management during the month.
- At year-end I was responsible for preparing the annual statutory accounts for all companies within the group, as well as the consolidated set of accounts.
- There is a Financial Services Company within the group which requires auditing and FS70 and FS71 forms to be filed with ASIC in order for the company to retain its license, I was responsible for preparing the year end accounts, managing the audit, assisting the auditor with any queries he may have and then seeing that the forms were filed with ASIC once signed off.
- On a daily basis I was responsible for using internet banking, entering all client receipts into Vistopia, reconciling the bank account, updating a daily rolling cash flow forecast and preparing the daily banking
- I had responsibility for preparing all of the BAS and IAS’s for each of the group companies and for preparing the annual FBT return, as well as making sure that all PAYGW, Payroll Tax, Company Tax, GST and FBT liabilities were met on time.
- I prepared all annual tax returns for the group and also prepared the tax returns for a number of the individual Directors personal tax
- I had responsibility for consulting with the Managing Director about expectations for the year ahead and preparing the annual fixed budget and was responsible for maintaining the monthly rolling budget and updating it for production or staffing changes as necessary.
- I prepared the twice yearly compliance certificate for presentation to the bank to ensure the company was meeting its covenants.
- I was responsible for liaising with the bank and the ATO as required to resolve any issues that may occur.
- I was involved in an ATO audit of the companies PAYGW, FBT and Superannuation obligations, with responsibility for getting all the information the ATO required together and liaising with them on their site visit.
- I provided cover for the Payroll when needed.
- When necessary, I also covered for the Sales and Purchase Ledger Clerk in her absence, entering accounting transactions into Vistopia, posting disbursements, making payments to Suppliers and Super Funds and taking calls from suppliers or customers as required and carrying out any other ad-hoc duties that may be necessary.
Financial Accountant
Hamworthy Heating Limited
Poole, Dorset, UK
02.2006 - 08.2008
- Time hours, Monday to Friday 8.30am to 5pm
- Working as part of the accounts team for this medium sized limited company as an assistant accountant reporting directly to the Finance Director
- My month end duties in this role included:
- Assisting to prepare monthly management accounts, preparing monthly balance sheet reconciliations and completing the month end procedures
- I was also required to compile weekly sales information for management and prepare monthly departmental expenditure against budget analysis
- My duties at year end included:
- Assisting with the year end stock counts,
- Putting together an audit file based on the auditors working papers file index and liaising with auditors during the audit fieldwork, resolving any queries they may have
- I was also responsible for preparing the annual financial statements for all group companies, including the consolidation and cash flow and completing all tax analysis and the various group company’s year end tax computations
- My day to day responsibilities involved reconciling the company’s bank accounts daily within sage line 500, entering purchase invoices onto sage line 500 and preparing BACS runs in the absence of the purchase ledger supervisor, raising cheques as required, managing the car fleet, generating and reconciling agent’s and salesmen’s commission claims on a monthly basis and arranging for payment to be made.
Education
Accounting
Association of Certified Chartered Accountants (ACCA)
London, UKA Levels -
Ferndown Upper School
Dorset, UKGCSE's -
Ferndown Upper School
Dorset, UKSkills
- Excellent inter personal skills
- Attention to detail
- Self starting and pro active
- Great at multi tasking
- Highly motivated and results driven
- Experienced in process improvement
- Extensive experience in both Practice and Commercial environments
Timeline
Bookkeeper
Tanjiro Pty Ltd
12.2022 - 04.2026
Founder
Oakie Baby
08.2015 - 06.2023
Chief Financial Officer
BRI Ferrier (NSW) Pty Ltd
01.2012 - 04.2016
Accountant
William Buck Chartered Accountants
11.2008 - 01.2012
Financial Accountant
Hamworthy Heating Limited
02.2006 - 08.2008
Accounting
Association of Certified Chartered Accountants (ACCA)
A Levels -
Ferndown Upper School
GCSE's -
Ferndown Upper School
Hobbies
My hobbies include traveling, scuba diving (PADI certified), reading, yoga and running. I have taken part in four City2Surf events as well as the Sydney Bridge Run. I have also taken part in the BRW Corporate Triathlon.