Peter Karger

A not-for-profit organisation, Australia's largest specialist homecare company, providing high-quality in-home health and aged care services for nearly 130 years.

As the Group Financial Controller I am responsible for leading a team of around 25 staff, across Accounts Payable, Accounts Receivable, Systems and Accounting. This role supports the Group CFO and mainly focuses on the key areas of compliance, staff management, treasury, investments, financial sustainability, risk management and systems.

Key Responsibilities:

• Responsible for all Executive, Board, Audit and Risk Committee and Strategic Finance Investment Committee papers and proposals.R
• Responsible for compliance and acquittal reporting to funders including federal, state and private contracts.
• Managed treasury, working capital, investments, and compliance with the Board's capital policy.
• Project sponsor for system configurations, implementations and product advisory boards.
• Ownership of group's internal and external audits which consisted of 5 business units and 2 distinct divisions.
• Responsible for business case writing of group's projects, including the assessment to deliverables of major strategic projects.
• New system implementations, including the group's core care system, reporting, financial systems, and integrations resulting from M&A.
• Restructured finance (accounts payable & receivable) and accounting departments to improve efficiency and cut excess spending.
• Led annual financial audit and preparation of support for audited financial statements.

Achievements:

• Built a well-functioning and stable Accounting team, Accounts Receivable team, and Accounts Payable team that has delivered 96% of goals set for the 2023/24 financial year.
• Successful implementation of Finops system across the group, which included the roll out of Procurement, Leasing, Expense Management, and Workflows. This implementation is now being leveraged further to deliver the automation of Accounts Payable.
• Successful audits year on year with minimal misstatements reported to the Audit and Risk Committee. Audits have regularly finished 2 months from the end of the financial year, with yearly funder acquittals completed one month after the audit.
• Successfully leveraged ACNC's reporting requirements of producing one financial report on behalf of the whole group. This led to a reduction of 3 financial reports across 2 years, which has significantly reduced the audit schedule and audit fees.
• Successfully led the organization through challenging times of legislation changes, including Improved Payment Arrangement, and now the impending Support at Home reform. This included consultations with internal and external stakeholders, discussion papers, forecasting and proposals to the Board on a range of issues, including the treatment of unspent funds, payment in arrears and Fair Work changes.
• Successfully managed working capital requirements and liquidity demands. This included implementing payment terms across the group, consolidation of pay runs, and refinement of the cash forecast model. The result has resulted in much improved cash conversion cycle which enabled the group to invest cash surpluses into investment products.
• Successful transition away from full-time work-at-home model to a minimum of 3 days a week, with 2 days of team contact across Finance.

As the Finance Manager I was responsible for leading a team of around 10 staff, in the Accounting and Systems functions. Reporting to the Financial Controller the key focus of this role was on audits, process improvements, efficiency, compliance, treasury and staff management.

Key Responsibilities:

• Responsible for Audit and Risk Committee, and Strategic Finance Investment Committee papers and proposals.
• Responsible for compliance and acquittal reporting to funders including federal, state and private contracts.
• Managed treasury, working capital, and compliance with the Board's capital policy.
• Subject matter expert for system configurations, implementations, and process improvements.
• Responsible for business plans and goal setting for both the Accounting and Systems teams.
• Led annual financial audit and the preparation of financial statements for 5 entities.

Achievements:

• Successfully restructured both teams of Accounting and Systems, and established succession planning.
• Successfully implemented over 20 contractual system configurations, 2 business integrations, and key billing enhancements, i.e. rollout of billing for travel and cancellations.
• Successfully implemented segregation of duties checks and balances in the form of reports and compensating controls. This was in response to previous concerns raised by internal audit. The resulting measures have subsequently withstood both internal and external examinations.
• Delivered external audits on time and with minimal misstatements reported to the Audit and Risk Committee.
• Played a pivotal role in driving the implementation of strategies within operational leadership to achieve better financial results and enhance revenue collection. Key actions included establishing a national pricing model, streamlining billing procedures, benchmarking analyses, and consolidating support functions.

Reporting directly to the Financial Controller, with a focus on financial systems and supporting applications.

Key Responsibilities:

• Manage and configure finance systems in accordance with operational and contractual requirements.
• Research trends and best practices, and recommend system optimizations and process improvements.
• Subject matter expert for group system projects, including planning, testing, and implementation.
• Provide specialist technical advice to key business stakeholders.
• Implement system changes resulting from updates to accounting standards, contracts, and legislation.

Achievements:

• Successfully improved data latency issues for key funding programs of CHSP and HCP programs which resulted in optimal conversion of revenue to cash.
• Successfully implemented around 100 system configurations, program expansions, and enhancements across government and privately funded programs. These included changes to the group's care system and integrations to Finops.
• Successfully led a small team of project and specialist staff while delivering group projects and business integrations resulting from M&A.
• Developed training materials, manuals, procedures, and visual aids to effectively plan for role succession.

Contract role, reporting directly to the Principal Business Partner. Focus of this role was solely on reporting and decision support.

Key Responsibilities

• Responsible for four business units with combined turnover of $70mil.
• Data modelling and visualization.
• Budgeting, Forecasting.
• Business case writing.
• Supporting decision making with data analysis.
• System and processes for improvement.

Achievements

• Effectively managed a portfolio of diverse business units and provided timely and accurate performance analysis to finance and operations leadership.
• Developed forecasting tools and dashboards to consolidate key data used in performance analysis.
• Developed trusting relationships with multiple stakeholders at all levels of the business.

A global FTSE 100 company with a turnover of over GBP£2 billion.

In this role, I reported directly to the Regional Finance Director.

Key Responsibilities

• Partnering with divisional managers, supporting operational decisions making, preparation of budgets and strategic plans.
• Manage ERP system conversions resulting from acquisitions and mergers.
• Manage ERP system implementations of new modules, and upgrades.
• Research and implementation of best practice methodologies for transactional processes of AP, AR, Billing Payroll, and Procurement.
• Presenting performance results to business line leaders, committees, and regional finance leadership.
• Manage statutory and tax compliance of 3 international business units and local joint venture company.
• Training and mentoring of financial and non-financial users.
• Coordinate project teams, transactional and support staff.

Achievements

• Directly influenced and improved the group reporting for regional subsidiaries to facilitate shorter reporting timeframes, from 3 days to 1 day.
• Project managed 5 ERP system conversions resulting from M&A activity.
• Successfully managed ERP upgrades, ERP module rollouts internationally and locally.
• Led the review and redesign of the company's billing process. This project resulted in the implementation of a centralized contract management system, which delivered processing efficiencies, improved controls and data quality, and reduced compliance risk.
• Led the consolidation of the organization's payroll function to a centralized payroll team servicing the entire region. This project delivered significant cost savings, reduced compliance risk, and enabled faster data processing.
• Facilitated the establishment of a national finance shared services center in Perth by automating key finance processes and training the newly established team.
• Led the redesign of the procure-to-pay process for the region, reducing control deficiencies and significantly improving forecast accuracy.
• Regional finance system specialist for procure-to-pay, order-to-cash, and record-to-report processes.

Key Responsibilities:

• Divisional reporting for local and overseas entities.
• Business partnering with divisional managers, supporting operational decisions making.
• Data modelling and visualization.
• Finance systems and process improvements.
• Development and implementation of reporting processes.
• Manage a team of 3 staff.
• Statutory reporting for local and overseas entities.

Achievements:

• Integral member of the finance team in Australasia managing all aspects of financial and management accounting of 3 business units.
• Project managed 2 conversions of legacy accounting systems within 6 months of joining the company.
• Reduced control deficiencies, identified by internal audit, from 10 to 1 within 6 months of joining the company.
• Integrated 1 acquired overseas business unit within 12 months of joining the company, while project managing 2 legacy system conversions.
• Managed successful restoration of GL ledgers of one overseas business unit following a historical data loss.
• Worked successfully with diverse group of coworkers to accomplish goals and address issues related to finance processes.
• Performed audits of operational and financial areas to check compliance.
• Demonstrated self-reliance by meeting and exceeding workflow needs.

A global listed company specializing in the development of advertising, editorial, and web content management systems.

Reported directly to Regional Financial Controller.

Key Responsibilities:

• Responsible for financial/management accounting of 2 business units in Australia and New Zealand.
• Cash flow forecasts and modelling.
• Revenue recognition and maintenance of project revenue models.
• Intercompany loan accounts, including refinancing.
• Manage payroll of 150 staff and all aspects of payroll reporting for Australia and New Zealand.
• Co-ordination of internal and external audits for Australia and New Zealand.
• Coordinate local and overseas support staff.

Achievements:

• Developed and established cash forecast models, ensuring greater accuracy and better cash management controls.
• Drove improvements to accounting oversight by preparing and presenting monthly and quarterly performance reports.
• Streamlined regional payroll processes, which resulted in improved reporting and reductions in processing time.
• Assisted in the evaluation of regional transfer pricing policy and established controls in line with the new policy.
• Developed strong relationships with key figures across the organization.
• Reduced process gaps by successfully training employees on best practices and protocols.
• Commended for timely and accurate reports required by audits and period-end reporting.

AMCS is a government funded not-for-profit organization, predominantly funded by the Department of Health & Ageing to provide in-home care services.

This role reported directly to the CEO and the Board.

Key Responsibilities:

• Performance reporting to the Board of Management.
• Budgeting and forecasting.
• Complete and maintain balance sheet reconciliations.
• Statutory and compliance reporting.
• Systems and process improvement.
• Manage a payroll of 50 staff.
• Coordination of year-end accounting audits and ad-hoc funding compliance audits.
• Training and mentoring of volunteers and trainees.

Achievements:

• Restructured the company’s accounting function to on time and accurate through automation of key processes.
• Reduced monthly reporting processing time by 2 days, delivered reports in half the time, and significantly improved reporting accuracy by automating general ledger closing procedures.
• Implemented cost controls and performance KPIs for Home Care Packages and HACC program.
• Achieved greater cost transparency and generated cost savings in the area of staff rostering by introducing automated purpose build rostering system.
• Liaised with leading organizations and government bodies in the development of best practices model for non-profit organizations.
• Commended and recognized by the organization and the industry as a leader for business process improvement.