First Blog! April 18th 2008

Hello World!

Well, I decided to join the progressives and start a blog. I would like to update this frequently. My plan is to include things I am working on with Advanced Placement Team and also sharing thoughts, ideas, and personal information so we get to know each other better. I welcome feedback! I am planning on writing a newsletter article soon on Google and creating your online image so I thought I should start some of my advice myself before telling others what to do!

Recently I listened to a Library of Congress series about Blogging and how it is changing history. I love technology and the impact it has on our lives! I didn't want to be left behind!

I hope the readers will enjoy the content and come away with more than they had before they spent time with me!

I will include my latest newsletter - I have been having a monologue with readers on a weekly basis using this forum and look forward to the dialogue a blog will offer!

APT NEWS
April 14th 2008

What is Your Strategy

Back when we were in university, we were told of the benefits of setting personal goals for our careers, personal lives, sports etc. Those who have taken to heart this advice have been able to achieve their goals. Variations in success lie in the articulation of those goals. Consistent goal achievers have a clearly defined personal strategy and work that strategy by focusing on the intermediate goals necessary to achieve their ultimate goal. I am going introduce to you a simple tool that can be used to assist you to make sure your path stays true.

The elements that represent a sound strategy personal or professional are the boundaries in which you act in order to achieve your goals and these include the answers to the following questions: What is it that you want to do or in other words what is your mission; What are the professional and ethical boundaries, your value set, which you will not cross?; What is your vision, where do you see yourself in 5, to 10 years from now?; How are you going to meet your mission and achieve your vision while ensuring that your values are maintained in other words, what is your strategy.

There exists nice, relatively simple and straight forward tool developed by Norton and Kaplan, the balanced scorecard, developed for business which can be adapted to you for your personal achievement of your mission, vision, values and strategy. When it was invented Norton and Kaplan were thinking of how organizations could make sure that their strategy is balanced. They did this by grouping strategic objectives into four perspectives and ensure that there was a cause and effect linkage between the objectives needed to achieve their vision. The number of objectives in total should be manageable, keeping them down to two or three per perspective. You can do this for yourself to have your own personal strategy map, laying out your strategy for personal and professional life.

The normal titles of the perspectives for a business’s balanced scorecard are the Financial, Customer, Learning and Growth and the Internal Processes. These are not set in stone, they are commonly renamed to better reflect the organization and you can do this as well. My suggestion is to keep the Financial and the Learning and Growth Perspectives, changing the Customer to Employer to reflect to whom you provide services and the Internal Processes replace with Family, to reflect balance between my private and work life.
With this in place you have put you have a basic tool representing what you think you need to do to achieve your vision, your long term objectives. To complete your scorecard you must define the measures and targets against your objectives. The measures should be reflective of the objective and be able to show trends; the objective measures in quantifiable rather than in a Yes or No outcome. Your targets should follow the SMART rule that is they should be Sensible, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic and Tangible

With this in place you have all you need to develop a balanced scorecard for your personal use, now go out and work your strategy, adjust when necessary and achieve your vision.
For more information I suggest you pick up a copy of Norton and Kaplan’s book “The Balanced Scorecard” and then think outside the box and adapt it to you.

~ Marc Neal CMA, provides internal consulting within NATO on financial standards, performance measurement and is the deputy Director of Finance for the NATO Maintenance and Supply Agency located in Luxembourg.


Current Resume Briefs

ACCOUNTING CLERK ~ SEEKS $14/HR
Fast paced problem solver has six years experience handling high volume payables and cash applications. Responsible for full cycle A/P including batching, matching and coding 200-300+ invoices per day, processed check requests and invoices, verified funds and placed stop payments, performed check runs, matched and audited checks and batches, entered journal entries. Proficient with Oracle, SAP, Lawson, and Great Plains.
BOOKKEEPER ~ SEEKS $32KBS. Fast learner has two years' experience handling a variety of administrative and bookkeeping duties for a small CPA firm. Kept office organized and functional. Prepared weekly payroll, A/P, invoicing, making deposits, bank and account recs for client companies using QuickBooks and Peachtree. Boss highly rated as "excellent, hard worker."

FULL CHARGE BOOKKEEPER ~ SEEKS $50K
Fast, friendly candidate has over ten years full charge experience with a CPA firms and engineering firm. Completes write-up work for 25 -50 clients including G/L recs and financial statements; reconcile bank statements, credit cards, loan balances monthly; reconcile client QuickBooks; reworked complicated spreadsheets to calculate year to date totals for processing-reviewing; prepared A/P, A/R, collections, and payroll. Also proficient with Peachtree, and EasyAcct. Efficient and accurate!

SR. ACCOUNTANT ~ SEEKS $55K
BBA Accounting, CPA candidate. Challenge-oriented communicator has ten years experience with property management, transportation, and technology services. Prepared monthly financial statements for VP's review; reconciled inter-company and bank accounts, tracked the daily cash position, budgets/forecasts analysis, maintained G/L, payroll, A/P, A/R. Versed in MAS90/200, ARGUS, Peachtree, and QuickBooks. Super flexible and knowledgeable!

CONTROLLER/SEC REPORTING MGR. ~ SEEKS $100K
CPA, BBA Accounting. Super sharp professional started career in public accounting progressing to Audit Manager then into industry as Controller and Head of SEC reporting of a multi-entity organization. Prepares Quarterly 10Q's and Annual 10K. SEC filings; oversees SOX compliance; reviews monthly operations, financial reporting, variance analysis, and budget; supervises and provides leadership for a team of six; coordinates external audit with public accounting firm. Highly proficient with multiple software. Fantastic skill set and attitude!

Advanced Placement Team
* Fees are on a contingency basis and 20% of the annual salary
* 120-day guarantee for replacement and refund
* Option of Temporary to Hire available

http://www.placementteam.com/

My hottest position I am working on is a Tax Senior for a multibillion dollar company. Here is the information:

Company: International Holding Company, Dallas, TX
Tax Senior
$65,000 - $100,000

Private employee owned (ESAP) Holding Company with great benefits and a wonderful retirement plan is seeking a Sr. Tax specialist to join this team. Company is extremely stable and has wonderful long-term opportunity! This position would be a great fit for a public tax accountant due to the multiple companies in this corporation. This is a multinational corporation with over 36 billion in assets. Light travel - around two weeks a year.

Requirements
* CPA preferred.
* 3+ years corporate tax experience in a high volume environment.
* Accounting degree required.

OK, I guess that is a pretty large blog for my first try. I will try to keep the next one a bit smaller!

Thanks for reading!