Vanessa T Tu
Blackburn,Victoria
Summary
With a Bachelor of Business majoring in Accounting and Finance and a CPA member since 2009, I am an experienced professional with many year experiences working in Accounting and Finance areas for the State Government Departments, Universities, Corporates, Medium & Small Businesses. I have successfully supported business operation and decision making by providing accurate monthly financial reporting, data analysis and modelling, budget and forecasting, chart of accounts management as well as consultancy services to key stakeholders in accordance with relevant legislation (FMA1994, Standing Directions) and Australian Accounting Standards.
I am a well-regarded professional recognised for the ability to partner with the business and its stakeholders to help resolving their issues using my knowledge of relevant legislation and Australian accounting standards while providing authoritative advice and recommendations aligned with the broader organisational strategic plan.
Overview
19
19
years of professional experience
Work History
Business Analyst
Victoria Police
08.2020 - Current
- Working as a Financial Analyst in Operational Infrastructure Department within IT IS Portfolio, proactively provided support to divisional director in managing the finances for 3 divisions of which Property Services is the OID’s largest division providing Infrastructure, buildings, and asset investment programs to support Victoria Police’s operation.
- Managed total budget (Operating & Capital budget) $433.6m worth of infrastructure, building capital/ asset investments and operating to ensure smooth policing activities, equipment/ firearms, and accommodation (400+ police stations) for thousands of Victoria Police members.
- A Government Agency as a law enforcement mechanism to ensure safety and well-being of the Victorian community.
- Identifying the problems and pain points (impacts) in policing operation so that Information Communication Digital Technology (ICDT) division can provide suitable IT solutions to address the issues.
- Managing multiple IT projects for process improvement and identifying possible IT solutions to improve policing operation.
- Leading and providing financial management services including the design and implementation of a financial accountability framework.
- Proactively identified problems with historical booking practice which didn’t help key stakeholders to be accountable for their budget.
- Restructured and maintained the chart of accounts to ensure efficiency and transparency with clear reporting structure and the integrity of financial transactions in accordance with accounting framework and public reporting.
- Successfully build the yearly budget from bottom up by working closely with key stakeholders on the business plan, operational strategy and governance including risk mitigation on cost pressures.
- Promptly factor budget updates, midyear updates, carryover requests to the next financial year.
- Assist management to prepare business cases, issue cover sheet, funding request templates to be submitted to the Financial Services Department and the Cost Control Board (CCB).
- Assist Operational Infrastructure department (OID) to distribute the budget across 6 divisions (3 are managed by me) and ERC projects.
- Liaise with Department of Treasury and Finance (DTF) and other agencies for monthly recoups on the leasing and accommodation costs to reduce the impact of cost pressures (risk management strategy).
- Technical expert in financial management and accounting including monthly budget and financial reporting (monitoring actual expenditure against budgets for capital and output funding), with variance analysis and providing authoritative advice and consultancy services to management and key stakeholders, particularly in revenue generalization, procurement, asset capitalization and trust project establishment and management.
- Manage recoups of maintenance and utility costs to other Departments/ Commands and regions (D/R/Cs) to save costs for Property Services Division.
- Liaise with DTF on the accounting treatments on the sales of old properties and the funded acquisition of new Police Stations as well as obtaining available funding information from DTF’s trust account for Victoria Police.
- Being a lean SME, provide technical advice and assist the team with process improvement report for approval after considering risk assessment and 5 whys method to identify the root cause of the problem.
- Build automatic dashboards for accurate reporting.
- Identify opportunities for improvement by working with technical expert at Finance Services Division (FSD) to build a new system project report (for 500+ project codes) to address stakeholders’ needs.
- Write and document Standard Operational Principles (SOPs) to ensure consistent policies/ guidelines and practices after reviewing existing processes.
Business Analyst
Department of Environmental, Land, Water and Planning
07.2018 - 08.2020
- A business conceptual and result orientated analyst with the desire to support not only my 4 Divisions (Climate Change- CCD, Wastes and Recycling- W&R, Office of the Commissioner Environment Sustainability- CES and the Office of Deputy Secretary- ODS) but the whole group Energy, Environment and Climate Change (EECC). Providing business and analytical support to the management team, assisting them in managing the finances, minimizing risks, enhancing business decisions, and delivering election promises to the Victorian community.
- Effectively assisted with the budget build and development, mid-year budget updates, forward estimates and provided monthly financial reports (monitoring actual expenditure against budgets for operating and capital funding) to 4 divisions in a timely manner.
- Analyzed, planned, and provided budget information to Divisions for decision making on risks mitigation strategy in the current year and next 5 years (Business modelling and bench marking).
- Data analysis on information drawn from different systems, used the insights from stakeholders to design, build automated Dashboards and convey the whole picture of business operation to facilitate strategic decision making.
- Successfully designed and delivered several dashboards to improve business process and system reporting for the whole EECC group to meet the Deputy Secretary office’s reporting requirements.
- Delivered significant reconciliation and quarterly reporting on sustainability funding projects (going back to the past 5-6 years) to meet the audit requirements, Government’s funding agreements and standing directions.
- Provided technical financial advice to divisional staff on the Financial Management Act 1994, chart of accounts, sustainability fund, contract register, procurement policy and processes.
Finance Manager
RMIT University
10.2008 - 07.2018
- Managed the schools’ finances and administration for multimillion schools for nearly 10 years. School of Media & Communication ($78m) and School of Architecture and Design $65m in accordance with Accounting Standards and reporting framework.
- A change agent with customer focus, risk management and someone who can be relied upon for action and coordination of initiatives/ projects for continuous improvement across Schools, Colleges, and Shared Service Groups at RMIT.
- Built business modelling to support informed decision making of generating additional income from commercial activities ($1.5m from global study tours to 9 countries, corporate training, ABC project, VN HTV program) and offshore ($5m from Vietnam, Singapore, Indonesia, and Spain) operation.
- Provided trusted advice on the opportunity and threat as well as business sustainability overseas.
- Provided, reviewed, tested, and assessed 5-year business modelling on onshore/ offshore programs for opportunity and risk analysis and advice to assist Senior Management’s strategic decision making.
- Assisted in the analysis of staffing costs for Practice Research Symposium (PRS) in Barcelona to compare with ongoing benefits (KPI) provided to high degree research (HDR) students (Brand positioning), which contributes to the ranking 17th globally for the school of Architecture & Design in 2017.
- Assisted the school in the discipline/program restructure MC2015 in Australia, that involved abolishing Majors and Communication Strand areas, phasing out old Graduate Diploma programs and offering 7 new Master programs, leading to an increase in income for the school in 2016 and future years.
- Successfully delivered a range of system changes, business processes and policy compliance i.e. the three-year Redline project (managing Academic Workload Model- AWAM and cost containment), Procurement, credit card, Report Planning Tool, and Google site reporting.
- Managed a team of four staff members and delivered the schools’ strategic plans in nearly 10 years. The team was awarded for outstanding customer services and received accolades over 2010-2012 and 2016.
Customer Service Accountant
University of Melbourne
06.2006 - 10.2008
- Internal consulting: Acted as a conduit between central services, Faculty and Schools to ensure consistent accounting practices according to the University’s policies & procedures.
- Delivery of effective financial and administrative support, system training, governance, and compliance at the University of Melbourne across its business activities; strengthening policy governance and research management; increasing the revenue opportunity through research quality and student experiences.
- Using the insights from key stakeholders, proposed changes to modify existing policies (old/ obsolete) to suit the business needs at the Departmental level.
- Provided advice on the University’s policies and procedures i.e donation /bequest, scholarship, GST/ FBT, travel, research etc.
- Provided technical financial advice to department managers regarding budget build and financial reporting.
- Managed research projects’ acquittal reports, grant applications to the Funding Bodies (pre-award support in costing) and milestones monitoring including contract variation/ coordination/ audit assessment (post-award services) in liaison with Researchers and the University’s Research Office.
- Assisted in new policy/ protocol development in the departments to ensure accounting standards compliance.
- Provided new system (Themis) training to the Faculty of Medicine (18 departments/ Schools) and assisted them in budget build and management, administrative operation, strategic decisions and research project monitoring and reporting.
Education
Power BI - Power Bi
Victoria Police
Melbourne, VIC01.2023
Lean Core Competency Qualification - Lean Core Competency
Victoria Police
Melbourne, VIC06.2022
Certified Practicing Accountant - CPA Program
CPA Australia
Melbourne, VIC09.2009
Bachelor of Arts - Bachelor of Business (Accounting & Finance)
Swinburne University of Technology
Melbourne, Victoria, VIC06.2004
Skills
- SKILLS & ATTRIBUTES
- Operational support/ Advice and financial management
- Ability to manage the finances (multimillion-dollar businesses) and provide operational support to the management, including budget development and forecasting (on both capital and operating budget), monthly financial/performance reporting, workforce planning and cost pressure mitigation using Oracle/ BOA
- Ability to manage trust accounts and projects’ financial reporting Prepare, interpret accounting standards and standing directions when applying to business decisions, operations, and practices to support audit requirements
- Ability to interpret financial and non-financial figures to provide commentaries/notes to convey the whole picture of the business operation in the monthly performance reporting eg monitoring Year to Date (YTD) Actuals against budget and forecast estimates Provide reports on salary analysis and workforce demographics, and leaves
- Stakeholder management and people management
- Build strong stakeholder relationships by listening empathetically and objectively, while promoting and representing the organisation for positive outcomes
- Ability to liaise with key stakeholders to research the issues, policy interpretation and consult them regarding complex business issues, accounting concepts and treatments to obtain workable solutions
- Provide authoritative advice and suggestions on issues to facilitate informed decision-making Ability to explain and train non-financial stakeholders in relation to the interpretation of accounting concepts, standards, and practices
- Assisted in preparing business memo, Issue cover sheets, and funding requests (to be submitted to the Cost Control Board) which yield excellent results on behalf of Program Managers
- Led a team of 4 staff members at RMIT to deliver excellent services, recognised by the Dean in 2010-2012 and 2016
- Continuous Improvement & System experience
- Graduated in Lean Core competency at Victoria Police, being a subject matter expert in Lean and continuous improvement, who has implemented several process improvements in the workplace
- Proficient with a range of information technology systems: Office 365, SAP/Oracle, BOA, data management (using Power BI/ Power Pivot)
Timeline
Business Analyst
Victoria Police
08.2020 - Current
Business Analyst
Department of Environmental, Land, Water and Planning
07.2018 - 08.2020
Finance Manager
RMIT University
10.2008 - 07.2018
Customer Service Accountant
University of Melbourne
06.2006 - 10.2008
Power BI - Power Bi
Victoria Police
Lean Core Competency Qualification - Lean Core Competency
Victoria Police
Certified Practicing Accountant - CPA Program
CPA Australia
Bachelor of Arts - Bachelor of Business (Accounting & Finance)
Swinburne University of Technology