Candidates About

Alex Cepeda

ERP Application Manager/ERP Business Analyst

More than 15 years experience in managing accounting and financial controls systems in complex corporate environments in the manufacturing, retail, not for profit, media and marketing research, and construction industries. Clear and consistent record of successfully introducing automated systems to improve control and reporting processes and generate major cost and time savings. Adept in assembling and managing the work of talented teams of accounting and bookkeeping professionals. Thoroughly knowledgeable of GAAP standard and compliance issues; direct experience in managing finances and reporting through a complex bankruptcy reorganization. Excellent interpersonal communication and presentation skills.  Experience writing functional/technical documents e.g. specification design, unit test, release doc, etc. Bilingual: English/Spanish.

Finance & Accounting Management · Strategic Planning · Financial Statements & Reports
General Ledger Analysis · Balance Sheets · P&L · Account Reconciliation · Income & Cash Flow · Accounting System Migration · Cost Controls · Savings
Payroll Process · Staff Development · Training · Change Management
Process Improvement · Mentoring · System Migration Management

Birchill Partners -Vancouver, Canada                                                                      2008–Present

A Venture Capital Group with over $10 Billion dollars in assets, 150 subsidiaries in various sectors including: Manufacturing, Pharma, Managed Care, Construction and Real Estate Management)   In lieu of a 60% growth over the last 2 years it has been a challenge in accommodating key personnel and in terms of reporting capabilities the firm has grown quicker than personnel can accommodate.  Particularly due to recent acquisitions reporting on a cash basis, ownership and board members have been eager to change it to accrual. 

Financial Systems Analyst

Responsible for the deployment and system implementation of more than 60 acquisitions in various sectors.  (Pharma, Managed Care, Infrastructure, Manufacturing) Train the staff in organizing preparation of financial reports, P&L statements, balance sheet, cash-flow statements, public filings, and bank account reconciliations Assist in the initial budget and forecast process, using existing models and reporting applications. Ability to interpret enterprise solutions into plain English terms.  Intermediary between IT and Finance.

      Peoplesoft HCM

      •Lead team of business stakeholders and subject matter experts throughout the PeopleSoft Financials implementation life cycle, including gathering business requirements, explaining out of the box use cases and configuration options, designing core business processes in Financial Reporting and Accounting areas, documenting configuration and performing fit/gap analysis

      •    Design, standardize, and manage development of functional specifications (software configuration, design of reports, interfaces, customizations, extensions, workflows, etc.) for PeopleSoft Financials suite of applications

      •    Coordinate activities between functional work streams and identifies changes in scope process, standardization, best practices, key metrics and configuration standardization.

      •    Function as PeopleSoft Subject Matter Expert on software functionality, in particular the General Ledger

      •    Review design issues, analyze and facilitate redesigning business processes around best practices. Lead users to adoption of new process and tools

      •    Identify business and technical issues throughout the project that could impact requirements, scope, or schedule and work with the project manager to identify potential solutions

      •    Support the definition of process workflows, roles and responsibilities as part of the Change Management work stream

      •    Work with the Reporting Lead in supporting enhancements in the reporting functions / capabilities within the suite of financial applications, financial data warehouse, and financial accounting hub

      •    Participated as a technical resource for the implementation of Human Capital Management 9.0. Delivered self-service features such as timesheet entry; view paycheck; benefits open enrollment; direct deposit; travel & expenses for over 4000 employees. This resulted in a more effective employee services department and a reduction in manual data entry.

      ●   Participated as a technical resource for the implementation of manager self-service features such as time approval, expense approvals; manage hires and employee transfers. This led to faster turnaround for all manager related approvals.

      ●   Collaborated with various department representatives to gather requirements for security designs and some technical solutions Human Capital Management 9.0, Financials 9.0 and Learning Management 9.0 systems.

      ●   Strategized various solutions such as management reports, data conversion program, and time management security. Solutions were delivered on track with project timelines and within budget.

      ●   Implemented Row-Level security solution for PeopleSoft ELM 9.0 delivered and custom reports, providing the required security to protect information from on-line users and reports.

      ●   Assisted technical project manager and all functional leads with their project deliverables. This ensured the project remained on schedule and allowed me to learn new modules.

      JD Edwards One World

·         Over 6+ years of extensive experience on JD Edwards One World (Enterprise One 9.0,8.9, 8.10, 8.11, 8.12, Xe, 7.3.3.2) as a Functional Team Lead.

·         Expertise in CSMS, Financials/GL, Distribution/Logistics, Manufacturing, Transportation, Real Estate Management, HRMS modules.

·         Experience applying ESU’s and SAR’s.

·         Involved in implementation and customization of Inventory Management, General Accounting, Job cost Property management, Sales Order Processing, Purchase Order Management, Fixed Assets, Accounts Receivable, Expense Participation, Accounts Payable, Product Data Management, Shop floor control, Forecasting, Shop Floor Control, Bill of Materials (BOM) and Work Orders.

·         Strong experience on all One World And XE Tools like OMW, Workbench including Table Design (TDA), Forms Design (FDA), ERW (Enterprise Report Writer),Business View design (BDA), Interactive Application Design, Menu Design, Table Conversions (TC), Data Dictionary (DD), Universal Table Browser (UTB), Processing Option Design Aid (PODA), Data Structure Design, Business Function Design Aid (BDA).Excellent experience using Power forms and subforms.

·         Worked on migration of data from legacy databases to JD Edwards One World using Z-file process.

·         Used table conversion tools to convert data.

·         Experience in writing technical documentation with the information collected from the users.

·         Used Microsoft Visio and other Microsoft Office tools in preparing technical documentation.

·         Experience in World reporting tools FASTRS, WorldWriters, and DreamWriters.

·         Experience in debugging C Business functions, NER Business functions.

·         Extensive working knowledge in Object Oriented Analysis, Design, and Programming

·         Experience in Web applications and Interoperability.

·         Also used the ER Debugger tool extensively in Applications, Reports, Business Functions (NER and C, C++).

·         Experience in Oracle 7.x & 8,9i, Visual Basic 6.0, Java,SQL, MS Access, ASP 3.0

·         Involved in new challenges exploring the Enterprise Solutions industry with a highly competitive and reputed organization.

·         Excellent problem-solving and communication skills and is a team player.

Children’s Aid Society. – New York, NY                                                                            2007–2008

A Major Non-Profit servicing more than 7,000 kids in the Tri State area.  With total donations and contributions amounts to over $200M year. A total of 37 locations.  20 in the New York area while 17 others around the country. Managing around 15 after school locations and 23 charter schools around the country.

Financial & Systems Consultant/Developer

Appointed by the board to assist the business and financial affairs of the organizations through the implementation process, which concluded in October 2011.. Train news staff in organizing preparation of financial reports, P&L statements, balance sheet, cash-flow statements, bankruptcy filings, and bank account reconciliations. Supervise payroll processing, profit sharing and 401(k) valuation, insurance, general ledger analysis, and financial controls.

·      Set up systems to report to the court by migrating financial data into Great Plains which had not been GAAP compliant.

·      Installed and supported Management Reporter and BI. Used it to create a number of financial reports including a Cash Basis P&L giving the client the ability to a 3 level drill down.

·      Worked with GP Smartlist Builder to create numerous joins, views and selection criteria so that current users were able to extract information easily.

·      Developed a third party “ERP Reporting System” using SQL reporter to extract data from a number of various sources within GP.  The system executes these reports on a predetermined basis and distributes it via email to administration and accounting personnel.  Reports for Purchasing, Payments and Cash Analysis are common schedules.

·      Designed and implemented all budget and forecast scenarios using SQL Reporting Application.

·      Assisted all non-accounting personnel in creating reports, shortcuts and executable processes for their everyday use.

·      Trained staff on various models of GP including AP, AR, GL, banking module.  Included in the training are the various functionalities while adding or making changes as requested.

·      Upgraded 15 satellite schools/7 after school programs to GP 2013 from an earlier version.  Assisting sister facility with the preparation of all reports in FRX and Sequel Reporting Services.  Implemented third party add-on into GP to automate communication parameters between the Oracle based billing application and GP.

IPSOS Mendelssohn – New York, NY                                                                                  2000–2007

A media and marketing research firm with s not for profit subsidiary, annual revenues of $15M and more than 70 employees. Mendelsohn, which had developed the Mendelsohn Affluent Survey used to survey the magazine-reading and cable-viewing habits of an affluent target audience, was acquired by IPSOS in 2008.

Controller

Led the accounting staff in managing corporate finances and reporting including balance sheets, financial and income statements, cash flows, and analysis of profitability and labor costs. Drove the monthly closing process and bank and ledger reconciliations. Prepared and managed budgets, forecasts, and internal audit controls.

·      Automated outdated, manual accounting systems by adopting the Timberline accounting software from AccPack, reducing the accounting staff to save $37,000 annually. Oversaw entry of 3 years manual data into new system.

·      Saved $15,000 annually by reducing the need for tax extensions and resulting fees to retained CPAs.

·      Enabled delivery of annual financial statements by March instead of July.

·      Stabilized the position, which had turned over 3 times in a single year.

·      By shopping banks, developed a relationship with CapitalOne in 2003, which guaranteed annual funding for the Mendelsohn Survey, saving at least $15,000 annually in storage and cash-management fees.

·      Handled all work papers and audit for not for profit at year, including OMB A-133 filing. (Grant Received totaled $1M)

·      Developed Crystal Reports to run in .NET and Crystal Viewer Environment.

·      Converted SAS database extractions into PostgreSQL.

·      Created workarounds for the following Crystal Reports issues: sub-report within a sub-report, passing parameters from main report to sub-report, not allowing for the use of multi-value or date range parameters.

Hugh O’Kane Electric, LLC – New York, NY                                                                    1993–2000

An electrical subcontracting firm focusing on providing electrical and telecommunications infrastructure on industrial and commercial construction projects.

Senior Accountant

Began as an intern and was promoted rapidly. Prepared invoices, reports on variation versus estimates for home installation projects, budgets, forecasts, and accruals. Reconciled bank accounts and closed out monthly accounts for all subsidary company. Gathered year-end audit information and deployed external audit recommendations for finance and accounting. Promoted within 2 years to Systems Analyst.

·      Trained various accounting personnel on payroll processing for parent and subsidiary company.

·      Played a key role in selecting and implementing QuickBooks and Great Plains Dynamics systems.

·      Collaborated with the Accounting Firm in writing the Accounting System Handbook.

·      Created report format from Crystal Reports this enabled exporting of data from GP into ADP and vice versa.

·      Assisted the implementation consultants with the mapping of Wenn Soft (Point of Sale) to General Ledger and Inventory module.  This process assured that all costs associated with inventory maintenance were properly accounted for when marginal analysis were reviewed.

·      Developed custom Financial, Accounting and ADHOC reports using Crystal Reports, combining the SQL server and various tables within GP.  Included were Store Profitability Analysis, Budget to Actual variances, Forecast to Budget scenarios. 

·      Supported the ERP Dynamics V6.2 production system, installation, upgrades, enhancements, trouble shooting, and 3^rd party migration problems.

·      Created cross-tab seven day weekly reports based on current week and previous week, using report custom functions to convert epoch dates.

·      Created SQL stored procedures to extract data from Remedy Tables, scheduled and maintained the automatic generation of reports using Info View.

·      Conversion of all reporting to Crystal Reports.

Herbert H. Lehman College                                        B.S. Magna cum Laude, Accounting, 1994

·      Phi Beta Kappa & Golden Key National Honor Societies

·      QuickBooks Pro Certified Great Plains Certified    JD Edwards  MS Great Plains  Navision Solomon

·      ADP Pay Expert Pro Certified             Sage ERP Certified  Sage Timberline  Sage MAS 500 Crystal Reports

·      SQL Reporting Services    JET Reports   F9     B2B Integration Manager ADP Workplace Certified            

·      Association of Latin Professionals