Tom Drake

Financial Analyst and Blogger in Airdrie, Alberta, Canada

Financial Analyst Career

Financial Analyst Career

I’m an experienced Financial Analyst who has taken on many of the major reporting projects over the past decade and has delivered exceptional results. Was instrumental in the transition and launch of SAP, SAS, and Khalix (now Longview). Adapts to change and is committed to continuous improvement of the budgeting process and report development to meet the needs of the business.

Core Competencies

Financial Reporting – Financial Analysis – Budgeting – Forecasting – Market Analysis

Technical Skills

advanced SAS Enterprise Guide – advanced Longview – SAP Report Writer – SAP BW

Proficient in Microsoft Office: advanced Excel – Word – Outlook – PowerPoint – Access

Employment Experience

Finance Experience in the Retail Industry, along with five years’ relevant retail experience

  • Over 13 years in retail finance, along with three years at the store level
  • Oversaw and consolidated the retail budget and forecast templates provided to the business partners for each banner
  • Prepared retail store budgets, forecasts and analysis
  • Was independently responsible for retail budgeting and forecasting for all corporate stores
  • Consolidate weekly sales from stores to report to through Cognos / BMR
  • Report department KPIs on a scheduled and ad-hoc basis

Advanced analytical and problem solving skills

  • Fundamentally changed how executives view the business by independently creating End to End Statements as well as End to End budgeting and forecasting that mimics the period end COPA process
  • Saved hundreds of analytical hours by creating a new budgeting/forecasting process that was focused on task-based budgeting by margin, salaries, and expenses, instead of by store
  • Saved over $250,000 annually in retail admin salaries by replacing both a weekly operating report and gross profit analysis with the creation of a SAS finance data project
  • Provide Retail Store, RSC, Franchise & Property and SG&A budget, forecast and analysis infrastructure
  • Was instrumental in developing a process to convert ACCPAC data to load at SAP go-live. Created initial load files for RAW and RCS
  • Removed entry duplication across stores by merging the weekly sales report and weekly operational report into a single reporting package
  • Improved the efficiency of retail/financial analysts by researching and installing Excel add-ins to remove many manual tasks
  • Tracked results of advertising initiatives such as discount days and weekly flyers
  • Prepared department analysis to determine profitability and pricing strategies
  • Track competitor activity for the region

Ability to build relationships and influence

  • Have participated in and led employee engagement meetings within my department
  • Proven ability to collaborate effectively with other lines of business; adept at understanding business partner needs and open to requesting and providing timely feedback

Proficient in the use of Microsoft Office Suite

  • Advanced skill in all MS Office products, including Excel capacity using complex formulas, macros, and user-defined functions

Knowledge of SAS, SAP and Khalix/Longview

  • Independently created the process of using SAS to pull store data and compile it up to sales, margin, shrink, customer count, and item count on a daily and weekly basis, and am currently the only user with the ability to run and manage this process
  • Improved internal reporting of store results and budget analysis with the creation of a store statement, which provides financial details within two clicks for any store, banner, or province by period and year

Effective communication and coaching skills

  • Provided training of our retail budget process, resulting in improved employee capability and efficiency
  • Successfully trained employees in the use of Retail Accounting Web prior to SAP launch
  • Trained others in the use of SAS, both the Enterprise Guide and Office Add-In

Ability to work in a team environment, with multiple priorities under minimal supervision

  • Valued member of both a reporting committee and a shrink improvement committee
  • Works on multiple new reporting projects while also meeting the needs of the business with weekly reports coming in on time.
  • Independently reviewing budgets and forecasts throughout their cycles, working with lines of business to produce accurate forecasting while meeting deadlines

Proficient in the use of Longview, SAS, SAP, SAPBW, WFM, FIM and CAO

  • Unique systems knowledge, with formal training in Longview and SAP Report Writer
  • Developed and enhanced sophisticated finance reports, applications and systems within Khalix, SAS, SAP, COPA, BW
Education and Courses

Business Administration, Marketing – Northern Alberta Institute of Technology

Longview (Khalix)

  • System Administrator – Consolidation
  • Khalix Analyst – Consolidation
  • Application Framework

SAS

  • Querying Data Using SAS Enterprise Guide
  • Creating and Customizing Reports Using SAS Enterprise Guide
  • Querying and Reporting Using SAS Enterprise Guide

SAP

  • Financial Reporting
  • Basics of Report Painter / Report Writer
  • Advanced Functions of the Report Writer
  • CO-PA Profitability Analysis
  • SAP Basic Navigation
  • Finance – SAP Finance OverviewFinance – GL Posting & Financial Reports
  • Finance – RCS / RAW
  • Merchandising – Business Warehouse Basic Navigation

Microsoft Office

  • Excel 2000-2003 Level 3 – Data List management
  • Advanced Microsoft Excel For The Power User
  • Microsoft Access I
  • PowerPoint

Other

  • IFRS Overview Training
  • Thriving Under Pressure: Resiliency at Work
  • Successful Public Speaking
  • Mastering Public Speaking