Work or Life ~~ Commerce Valley Drive West ~~ 3 ~~ internal control risk

At AT&T, the Accounts Payable (A/P) team entered vendor invoices into the ERP system, and routed invoices to the requester for approval. If invoice items or tax lines did not match the order, I reported discrepancies and assisted in reconcilation of these discrepancies.

When comparing ordered items with invoiced items, it was difficult to identify tax related errors. For invoices with an error flagged, A/P team routes the invoice to a tax manager for further investigation. It usually takes one or two workdays to get feedback. This procedure is critical. If any invoice was paid with mistakes, it causes extra effort to notify A/P team and the vendor for correction. Sometimes this clean-up process takes more than two weeks or even a month. Delays in payment could result in contract breaches. With this lengthy process, Internal Control raises concerns as records or important information may be lost.

What I learned from the team was that the tax managers are not normally involved in the invoice approval cycle. Invoices are randomly checked for tax details. They would wait until a flag is raised for inspection. 

Therefore, I suggested for any new project (new PO), the first invoice must be routed to the tax manager for review. This helps set up traceable references for project's invoices and thus mitigate potential mistakes. For monthly recurring invoices that have fixed regular charges, this initial invoice review ensures that all subsequent invoices are processed efficiently and within audit requirements.

Work or Life ~~ Commerce Valley Drive West ~~ 2 ~~ Add value by the job aid

Because it was a job that supports reporting on multiple channels, I learned how to organize miscellaneous information into a form that whenever I was asked, I could respond right away. 

I spent the first couple days to learn and figured out the sale process and generating PO from the ERP system (Ariba). The application enabled users to transfer  quotation data from CISCO online ordering tools into Ariba. But not all the information is available online. For example, the financial expense codes are pending to be pulled and reviewed by the Finance department.

Finance department provided a job aid for how to apply proper expense codes for data entry. However, the support from the job aid is limited due to the complexity of assigning services items, such as buy or lease equipment, finance terms and etc. for multiple stakeholders. To tackle the challenge, I began to create my own spreadsheet knowledge base. For every PO I encountered, the information was extracted into my workbook. I tried to only include the most important piece to limit the file size.

Most of the services are recurring, i.e. the subscription service or software license. As time went by, I was able to accumulate certain amount of backup data. When I was creating POs and looking for the expense code again, I just need to refer to my "bible" index. This practice improved my work efficiency and accuracy.

As experience grew, I expanded the spreadsheet to include billing and invoice data. One of the advantages from keeping this was, whenever I was asked to provide a quick analysis, I could quickly filter by different criteria and present it in a minute.

With this single source, I was able to track, when and who has requested the PO, who the vendor is, invoice currency, how many vendor invoices have been paid up to date, project descriptions and other key fields used in the daily measures of work. This simple structure allowed all Engagement Managers with a no fuss and no training required access to the same data source.

From that on, I've kept a habit of maintaining my own knowledge base in any position.

Work or Life ~~ Commerce Valley Drive West ~~ 1 ~~ Net income or Network

In a cold morning of December 6th, 2010, I started my day one as a procurement specialist for AT&T, the name of a telecom giant. It is worth to mention that AT&T used to be the owner of Bell Canada. Today in Canada market, AT&T as a US subsidiary, is way smaller and working hard to compete with other service providers. 

The Network Integration team had solid business at that time. Since the first day I joined them, my everyday work is filled with quotations, orders and billings.

As I learned, majority of existing clients are having similar stories. In the US, AT&T is their network provider. When expanding their business in Canada, they used to ask support from AT&T Canada. By doing so, their Canadian children are able to take advantage of the relationship and financial shares from US head quarters. The name reputation of AT&T also earns them credit of other local engagements.  

So-called "The NI team", there was a funny story behind. One of my friends from Finance Department, ever asked me what NI is. Is that "NET INCOME"?  Aha, no, of course it was not the 'net income'. However, the revenue the team generated really brought a significant  portion of overall income. 

My direct boss, he is the director and department head. All other seven co-workers are engagement managers. They talked to every potential client, tried to analyze their network expansion needs, drafted a IT solution, and negotiated financial payments. I helped them pull a quotation from the suppliers, placed the order, tracked the shipping, validated the billing and reconciled the payment. 

If someone ever ask me how is everyday like working there, I would say that I feel like working in a busy news station. Why? Because all my co-workers were either talking on phone or online conference with their clients, one after another client. I was listening to multiple channels all the same time!

Work or life ~~ part time costing analysis ~~

Like a writer who works on the first novel, I was feeling sweet and spicy when tapping into the first serious finance analysis project two years ago that I really appreciated. I did not only practice the skills, but also realized something helped me to grow in career.

Data:
The owner, Natalie was looking for a part time analyst to initial her costing optimizes project. It's a task starting from scratch. All she had were original paper invoices. They are so raw to be digitized, grouped and organized into a manner to be analysed. My first step was to set up an Excel framework and act on data entry.  When more and more data were gathered, I had a basic shape for how to forecast the cost growth ratio. This is also the initial stage that vendor and production management concept is identified. Gathering meaningful data paves the way to success.

Model:
The second task was to build a sales number tracking model. Natalie has very good mindset. Her goal is to launch the online ordering and sales tracking tool. However, there is no maturated data to support yet. In a good office talk, we agreed with the spreadsheet framework. There were trials and errors in several iterations, multiple meetings and email exchanges, before the formulated model was finalized. Considering to simply the daily operational process, I tried to use sets of fomulas such as IF or SUMIFS,  as much as possible, and created hyper links for navigation. In my view, the most important thing is traceability, so that my successor can put hands on quickly.

Sweet:
This is an excellent part-time job experience. I learned how to communicate my thoughts in words and numbers. More than that, I learned from Natalie, how she organizes her work, leads a small team, communicates with clients, and deals with trouble vendors. I admired her courage and vision to run small business. Like many of us, she also needs to take care of family and especially, her new born baby.

Spice:
The office is far from where I live. I used to come a long distance to meet and talk, although we communicated mostly by emails. Sometimes there is delay and confusion. For the concern of commute, I finally declined her full time job offer.

New ideas are always in need to solve challenges. When looking back, I realized that better solution on presenting financial data in a slick term called 'data visualization'. That should make the whole model easy to build and follow. I am on my way to achieve goals.

Work or Life ~~ Where is the variance ~~

~ Will I break my record to do a write off for this month? This is always a scary question. I never since I've taken on this job more than a year ago. As long as I am allowed, I would keep searching until the very last minute. For me, this process means giving in to the error. And that flags an error hidden somewhere, if we don't fix it, sure it will show up again.

The story begins that I only have less than 2 working days to complete all the bank reconciliation reports before month end closed. Usually I have at least 3 to 4 full days to knock them down.

Lucky enough, I spent some good time beforehand. I already ran sets of back up data. And I helped fixing my co-worker's spreadsheet and formula. She used the file to upload her entries to SAP. They are critical to the month end data. I believe this proactive actions could save me time and prevent errors.

I was right. Half of the accounts are reconciled right away when the data were released. Also I could quickly figured out one bigger amount and one smaller number mistakes came from three major accounts. So after first two hour of very intensive calculation, I was able to narrow the variances to one major business account now.

But then I realized the harder part was following. This weird variance was a number that itself could not be found anywhere. It could mean anything, maybe a typo, maybe a combination of more than 2 numbers, maybe somebody's error...maybe..maybe... The thoughts terrifies me. It may cost me hours after hours to search and get nothing at the end.

I tried to follow up the suggestions and recommendations from co-worker and leader, searched around any piece of record in the office. The work day was ended, and I was still struggling for the variance. It's a little upset during the night, so I tried to relax and watched a novel before going to bed.

The next morning before to begin anything, thinking about the afternoon was the deadline already. I made the decision to draft the report first. In case if I finally end up could not knock it down, I will need to write off, then I need to submit a very well written report to explain what happen. I would need time and energy later on. This was one of the practice I heard from somewhere, do most important things first, and choose between 20/80.

However, one thing I did not expect was happened. I was required to post an adjusting entry. The story then turn to another direction because of the change of variance itself, it's another number!

It's almost 11 am, I don't have much time left. My leader stepped in and tried to help. I know that I am feeling desperate already. Then suddenly I wanted to run a payment subtotal related to monthly payroll, I just talked to myself that it couldn't be the case, the top 3 numbers in three individual dates may sum up as that variance... but I was wrong! It's the subtotal, they are the variance.....how could that be...

Well, I got my answer from my leader, these are the manual adjustment. The payroll agent deducted the expenses directly from the bank account during those dates and no one in the office taken care of them during the whole month long.

What a good learn! I quickly record the finding first to my notebook. I am thinking if I keep collecting these scenarios, I maybe able to build up my own audit bible, one day will I use that to track down the clues like a detective?

Edge 2: Hang Tight - Keep in mind 7 principles

P7. Smile when you are under stress
During stressful meetings, keep on smiling to reduce your stress and stay focused on getting the work done. 
answer quetions and cordially withdraw from the current distress:

• What is the big picture?
• Are we trying to solve the same common issue just from different angles?
• Can I separate the problem from the person?
• What is the root cause of the hostility?

Smile reduces stress, creates positive emotions and shows more confidence. Keeping a smile inevitably enables you to not lose your temper, think more logically and tend to be ahead of other person. The effort to keep things in control, for you and for your counterpart, is what counts. It's much better than having a stern, negative, or even dismissive facial expression.

P8. Go beyond your self-perceived limit
Growth is not glamorous but painful, you need patience and action: reach out to think outside the box, and focus on the now.
"A strong will is an unspoken art."
First, when you are stretched you need to acknowledge this.
Second, you need to be aware that developing a new capacity to handle things requires patience and action.
Third, reach out. Share your pain points with others. If you hold it in, you will dive into a negative spiral.
Fourth, you have to stop thinking about past failures and future uncertainties. In tough situation, go into the "ticking the checkbox" mode.

Show your vulnerability, but have faith. You will succeed. Growth is not glamorous.

P9. always imagine the worst-case scenario

Imaging the worst-case scenario will enable you to make decisions more quickly and think about the next-step actions. 

To help you keep going, learn to overcome the fear of failure by imaging the worst. Two major aspects of the job:

1. Visualizing and ghosting out the ideal end output of the project, which later transforms into foreseeing higher strategic missions for clients - see a better, even a crisper ideal state
2. Having a ready-made countermeasure in place or prearranged team problem-solving meetings with something flares up - what we can do right away when the bad-case scenario hits home

Benefits of defining worst case scenario
First, you control your emotions better, hence allowing a healthy state of mind.
Second, it allows you to cover more ground.

Expectation is the best done at the beginning of the project and right before the final or important milestone. The beginning is crucial to set expecation and be mentally ready for any bad outcome. The timing before final or important milestone is to focus on risk mitigation as much as possible.  

P10. Start following up

Following up is an important skill to boost your credibility and stay on top of your game; codify to-do items to make it possible.

It's because you don't want to miss any important opportunities and want to avoid major losses. You want to show presence, awareness, and a solid reputation. It's a way to reach higher matury and build stronger credibility fast. 

But only a handful people grasp it well, why?

1. Following up is perceived as a minor theme.
2. rereading notes, unless you have made it a habit, is cumbersome
3. Overreliance and confidence in memory - "it's better to take notes and free your mind for problem solving"

Use codification for follow-ups: "the note-taking skill is the prerequisite to become good at following up". use simple codes, such as highlight in different colours or use symbols and set minor rules, such as sending back key learning and summaries into neatly three or four core themes. It helps remember particular details effiectively.

Make follow up a habit.

P11. Push back with less emotion

Use the 24-hour rule and an evaluation mechanism to push back logically; don't listen to anyone cruising at 33,000 feet!

24-hour rule: Every time at work someone gives you something outrageous to do, wait for 24 hours before you act upon it with a counteroffer.
Two basic underpinnings:

1. People (usually senior leaders) have the best interests of you and the company at heart
2. You will tend to regret any negative or rebuking answers you make when yu're under emotional siege. 

When having an assignment, try to take a step back and ask yourself a simple queston: "What is the objective, or why are we doing this?"

Second, assess the value of your efforts by quickly doing a back-of-the-envelope calculation to see if the impact is big enough. This will help you drill down into the why question with more precision. It should be a number-driven effort if possible. Both figuring out the objective and estimating an impact number should give both parties a clear idea of the task's relative significance. 

Only when both objective and impact are relevant, then you move on to the required people, capability, and timeline validation - the how effort. 

You start with the objective, then measure the impact, and follow it up with a question of personnel fit and the required level of urgency. This process will assert more control over the project and a sense of reliability for you as a leader

Cruising at an altitude of 33,000 feet

"Great project leaders receive 10 inputs and make that into 5 on the spot. Mediocre ones take all 10. The worst ones make it into 20. It is always better to deliver on three and produce a 120 percent output rather than deliver on 10 and produce a 60 percent output.”

People who are great at pushing back get a lot of work done, formulate their own approach such as the 24-hour rule or an evaluation process, focus on the positive side of things, and respond less emotionally. 

Work or Life ~~ do something while waiting ~~

I have a similar working dilemma like most people do, that is I need to wait for other people's work before I can begin my real "task". During this waiting time, we play our fingers, drink, eat snack, take a walk and show our faces everywhere...Does not help.

Anyhow, I need to maintain optimism. So I list supporting activities that will keep me busy and take a good use of the waiting time. 

Here they are:

To my point, no matter what activities the list has included, as long as they can cheer me up, I will do. Sometimes I just simply push myself to a 15 minutes nap to re-charge.