19Semester 2

IBL PLACEMENT PROJECT REPORTMARETA PYE ID: 1329471HIGH PERFORMANCE SPORT NZ

UNITEC, MT ALBERT CAMPUS

Table of Contents

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY 2

INTRODUCTION TO HPSNZ 3

PROJECT PLAN 3AIM 3THE ROLE 4

METHOD OF OBSERVATIONS & RESEARCH 6

RECOMMENDATIONS 6

CONCLUSION 7

REFERENCES 8

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

High Performance Sport NZ (HPSNZ) is an organization with the main office

based in Mairangi Bay, North Shore, Auckland with a purpose of providing

support for high performing New Zealand athletes competing on the world

stage.

There are 200+ employees and a further 100+ contractors that make up the

multi-national, diverse and unique pool of talented individuals in the

organization where the high expectations of the athletes is also expected from

the support team and wider organization. It has made working at HPSNZ for

the IBL placement a fulfilling and rewarding 3 months.

The project report is on the functions of the Senior Finance Advisor role that I

was contracted to cover for three months while HPSNZ were recruiting for a

replacement. The report will analyse the different functions of the role, the

impact and interactions within the role and the wider organization, research

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element will be to look at ways to improve the functions of the role. The

project is in line with the ethos at HPSNZ of continuous improvements and

always looking at ways to improve.

INTRODUCTION TO HPSNZ

HPSNZ provides support for high performing New Zealand athletes who

compete on the global stage of their chosen sports and the support provided

ranges from medical services, physiotherapy, massage, physiology, nutrition,

psychology, coach specialist help & much more.

Within the team of 300+ staff and contractors, HPSNZ has a finance team that

consists of eight team members which is lead by the Finance Manager Rachel

Williams.

The structure of the team is as below;

Finance Manager – Rachel Williams

Financial Accountant – 1 team member

Finance Analyst – 2 team members

Assistant Accountant - 1 team member

Senior Finance Advisors - 3 team members

My IBL placement at HPSNZ was a role I was contracted to do was as a

Senior Finance Advisor on a part-time basis from the 04 July 2019 to 08th

October 2019.

PROJECT PLAN

AIM

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The aim of the project is to outline and analyse the role of a Senior Finance

Advisor and research recommendations to further streamline the role to add

value to the organization.

THE ROLE The Senior Finance Advisor role encompasses the Accounts Payable,

Accounts Receivable, monthly management reports and monthly

reconciliations for certain suppliers. HPSNZ uses Sage AccPacc accounting

software, monthly reconciliations and monthly management reports are done

using Excel.

Accounts Payable Function: This part of the role entailed looking after the

Business Operational Expenses for HPSNZ, processing of invoices, processing

of purchase orders, following up approvals, cross checking contracts and

checking and processing staff expense claim forms in time for the weekly

payment runs.

The approval process is very rigid with a delegated authority list that is

regularly updated to ensure the correct approvals are obtained and within

approval limits. HPSNZ being a government organization has strict sensitive

guidelines which the Senior Finance Advisor needs to refer to when checking

employee expense claims to ensure the claims are within the sensitive

guidelines. The accounts payable role itself is not a difficult role, however

needs a high level of attention to detail and a lot of checking and cross

checking for approvals and/or sensitive guidelines.

Accounts Receivable Function: The accounts receivable function for HPSNZ is

a small part of the role where recharges are raised to certain sports if there are

expenses that are not covered by the contract between HPSNZ and the sport,

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monthly facility invoices for rental of space to sports and also contracts

purchased by the sports for certain services that HPSNZ agrees to provide.

At the end of each month an aged trial balance is run and any aged debtors

sitting in the 60-90 days overdue need to be followed up for payment.

Monthly reconciliations is done monthly as part of the end of month

management reports for the phone and data usage for HPSNZ. The

reconciliations done in this role is for the staff phone usage for the phones

provided and paid for by staff. This is done monthly using excel, following

the steps below:

● The data is downloaded in CSV format from the phone provider portal

● The data is transferred to the macro enabled excel file that is used

monthly for the phone reconciliation

● V-look up formulas are updated to ensure that the correct data is being

reviewed as the file is an on-going monthly file that keeps one years

worth of data.

● When the v-look up formulas have been updated, you will need to

review the data to ensure that the reconciliation total matches the total

of the invoice, if the it balances, you have reconciled the file, if it

doesn’t you will need to go through the data to see what is missing. Ie.

a new staff member has started and needs to be added to the file.

By doing the reconciliation you are making sure all the phone charges are

correct and this gives you the opportunity to look at each phone holders

account charges. If they are too high, the next part of the job is to contact the

phone user and ask them why the phone bill is high and if this was personal

or work use. If personal then you are asked to reimburse the personal

amount, if it for work, you need to provide an explanation for the high bill.

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Monthly management reports are compiled also using Excel, after month end

Accounts Payable and Receivable has closed off at day 3. We begin to prepare

our monthly management reports for the certain budget holders that each

Senior Finance Advisor is tasked to look after. In this role, I was responsible

for 8 reports and sent the reports on day 6 of month end to the budget holders

with the excel report attached and a commentary on how each budget is

tracking against forecast throughout the financial period, whether there were

risks to the budgets being overspent, if there is an opportunity for savings

and whether they could re-invest allocated budget.

The monthly reports are compiled by running a pivot table in Excel from Sage

Accpacc to draw out the data required for the budget. The pivot tables are set

up to draw out the data using the general ledger codes so you can go through

the data and ensure everything has been coded to the correct general ledger

code. If a transaction has been coded incorrectly, a recode is raised in sage

accpacc to correct the coding error and the pivot is re-run for the report. After

all corrections have been made, the transactions from the pivot is transferred

to the monthly report file that is a running yearly file for each financial year,

the actuals are reported on against the budgeted forecast and the report is

sent with a commentary to the manager responsible for the budget. Ie. The

recruitment management report is sent to the human resources manager, the

business operations report is sent to the administration manager.

METHOD OF OBSERVATIONS & RESEARCH

The methods of observations used for this project was working within the

team and doing the role and reading through HPSNZ handbooks and notes.

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During the last month of the contract I did the training for the replacement

staff who was hired to take over the role so I was able to reflect during the

training on what recommendations to make to ensure the success of the role

and the staff member.

RECOMMENDATIONS

During my time in the role and then training the new staff member who was

hired, I spoke to Rachel Williams (Finance Manager) about doing Excel

training for new staff as excel is used daily and is a vital tool at month end for

the management reports and reconciliations. I would recommend an

intermediate day course with ACE training that specialises in V-look up

training, pivot tables, creating and running macro and IF formulas. This

would increase confidence for the Senior Finance Advisor and also add value

to HPSNZ by ensuring the staff are well trained in the everyday financial

tools required for the role.

I would also recommend a leadership course to build confidence as the role is

not just a number crunching, paper pushing finance role where the Senior

Finance Advisor sits in a corner, there is a lot of intercompany relationship

building and interacting where I believe a leadership course would benefit a

new staff member, the course I would recommend is with Bright Star

Executive Leadership Course.

CONCLUSION

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High Performance Sport is an organisation that prides itself on the service

provided to the athletes and expects excellence not only from the athletes but

the staff that contribute to the running and success of the organisation.

The three months spent at HPSNZ during my IBL placement as a Senior

Finance Advisor was a great opportunity to analyse the role and make

recommendations that would add value not only to the role but also the

HPSNZ as an organisation.

The brief was completed and the recommendations made to HPSNZ was that

the Senior Finance Advisors are enrolled in an intermediate Excel training

course and also invest in a leadership course. Both courses would build

confidence for the role and also add value not only to the employee but also

to HPSNZ.

REFERENCES

● ACE Computer Training, (N.D), Excel Essential Skills. Retrieved from:

https://www.ace.co.nz/excel-essential-skills

● Bright Star Training, (N.D), Executive Leadership. Retrieved from:

https://www.brightstar.co.nz/training/executive-leadership/home

● High Performance Sport NZ, (July, 2019), Senior Finance Advisor

Training Manual. Retrieved from: High Performance Sport NZ Staff

Intranet (no URL as only staff access allowed)

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