Ask the Expert… Kerry Scott, Accounts Payable Manager

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What’s an average day like for you in the Finance Department?

I’m pretty much demand-led and in constant contact with colleagues and suppliers, providing support and advice on a number of matters around purchasing and payments.

I’ll be monitoring our transaction processing and email traffic to ensure we are on track to getting people paid on time and their enquiries answered. Like most I’ll have a “to do list” but have to meet that fine balance between being organised but also adaptable to the University’s needs. Most days will have to accommodate a couple of meetings, maybe about a new project or perhaps catching up with Procurement or a supplier to review their account.

It sounds clichéd to say every day is different; certainly there are a number of routine tasks, but working in a finance operations team isn’t always predictable - mainly due to the diverse and complex needs the University has.

As well as managing Accounts Payable (AP) operations, I am the Qualifications Programme Manager for the customer services training and I also sit on the University’s Counter Fraud Group and deliver Fraud Awareness training.

What have you/your team been working on recently?

December and January are AP’s busiest times, so recovering from that is a real winter challenge. That and recently assisting with the Finance Helpline launch, writing our standard solutions and learning how to operate Unidesk has kept the team busy.  Alongside this, we have our own team innovations and process improvements programme and are presently developing the invoice uploader template to further reduce manual input.  We are also doing a lot of transaction analysis following the recently revised purchasing policy.

What keeps you busy outside of work?

Outside of work I’m fairly low maintenance! And a bit of a home bird.

I enjoy music and comedy gigs and catching up with close friends over a meal and drinks.  I’ve also a large extended family to keep me busy.