A summer intern project created by the Client Finance interns (2015) presented to the Catalyst Finance department and the CFO. The presentation includes current everyday issues at Catalyst and the negative impact it has on the company. Possible long- and short- term solutions are suggested as well as ideas on how to implement them in the office.
Teams of five interns developed a tactical media plan for NestlĂŠPure Life bottled water. The project was presented during the last week of the internship program to Nestle executives and account planners.
My responsibilities included designing the presentation, researching the target audiences, setting key insights, fleshing out ideas for strategic partnership, allocating the budget and developing the campaign timetable.
Get financially Fit: Tips for Using QuickBooksIntuit Inc.
When you're running a business, the last thing you want to be worried about is wasting time trying to figure out how to do your accounting. Join a QuickBooks product expert as she shares best practices for simplifying your day-to-day accounting and truly getting the most out of QuickBooks as a small business owner.
Teams of five interns developed a tactical media plan for NestlĂŠPure Life bottled water. The project was presented during the last week of the internship program to Nestle executives and account planners.
My responsibilities included designing the presentation, researching the target audiences, setting key insights, fleshing out ideas for strategic partnership, allocating the budget and developing the campaign timetable.
Get financially Fit: Tips for Using QuickBooksIntuit Inc.
When you're running a business, the last thing you want to be worried about is wasting time trying to figure out how to do your accounting. Join a QuickBooks product expert as she shares best practices for simplifying your day-to-day accounting and truly getting the most out of QuickBooks as a small business owner.
As a small business owner, you have to figure out a lot of things you’ve never done before. Creating a good business budget is the most important component.
Introduction to Accounting
Key Concepts
P&L
Balance Sheet
Cash Vs. Accrual
Part 2: Managing An A/E Business
Project Profit
Utilization
Overhead
Cashflow
This 2-hour course will show the perspective of what it takes to be an effective CFO in the construction industry from the vantage point of CFO’s, bankers, surety agents and other professional references who work in the industry. This session will examine best practices and protocols of construction financial management.
Learning Objectives/ Outcomes:
• Review and continuation of construction financial statements; using a work-in-progress report
• Review and continuation of job costing and accounting
• “Cash is King” rule of thumb summary
• Discuss the role of owner’s right hand person
Cash flow is the lifeblood of a startup. Effective cash flow management is fundamental to a business’s success.
As a founder, understanding your cash position is super important and you must have a firm grasp of cash flow mechanics to keep your business operating smoothly. To help you stay on top of it, in this webinar, we’ll break down the basics of cash flow management and provide tips so you can guarantee a healthy cash flow for your business.
With a clear understanding of your company’s cash flow, you can get through downturns and be in a strong position to grow in a new post-COVID environment.
Automate your receivables, streamline your payables, put payroll tax and GST on autopilot, and get more time to monitor and manage cash flow. Full agenda at: http://www.leanteams.ca/quickbooksevent.html
Startup Economics, Finance and Accounting 101Dan Nelson
A quick look into some of the necessary finance, accounting and economic needs for early stage startups. It is a short survey, and there is more to come on this really interesting space.
For more information, please contact Dan@techbrainstorm.com
Law Firm Receivables Management Best PracticesSusan Uylett
This newsletter highlight's the letter of engagement and terms that must be included to protect the firm's operations. Also, it examines challenges within a law firm and solutions that can be implemented to improve the firm's bottom line.
Construction Industry: Seven Tasks for your Year-End Accounting ReviewTAG
TAG Presents "Seven Tasks for your Year-End Accounting Review". Specifically highlighting the construction industry, including contractors, sub-contractors, developers and residential builders. Presentation is geared towards an audience of owners, controllers, CFOs, accounting managers and bookkeepers.
Seven Tasks:
Tax Planning
Budgeting for the New Year
Banking Relationship
Collections
Close your Books
Bonding Relationship
Software System Review
Don’t know where to start when setting up your admin roles in BlackLine? Wondering how to save hours every year when reviewing your profiles and roles? Want to know what auditors really need when they inquire on user permissions and roles? Then you’ll need to view our slides and understand the key tools and techniques to ease yourself into BlackLine implementation. We’ll cover the key aspects and give you 5 proven best practices that you can use immediately.
As a small business owner, you have to figure out a lot of things you’ve never done before. Creating a good business budget is the most important component.
Introduction to Accounting
Key Concepts
P&L
Balance Sheet
Cash Vs. Accrual
Part 2: Managing An A/E Business
Project Profit
Utilization
Overhead
Cashflow
This 2-hour course will show the perspective of what it takes to be an effective CFO in the construction industry from the vantage point of CFO’s, bankers, surety agents and other professional references who work in the industry. This session will examine best practices and protocols of construction financial management.
Learning Objectives/ Outcomes:
• Review and continuation of construction financial statements; using a work-in-progress report
• Review and continuation of job costing and accounting
• “Cash is King” rule of thumb summary
• Discuss the role of owner’s right hand person
Cash flow is the lifeblood of a startup. Effective cash flow management is fundamental to a business’s success.
As a founder, understanding your cash position is super important and you must have a firm grasp of cash flow mechanics to keep your business operating smoothly. To help you stay on top of it, in this webinar, we’ll break down the basics of cash flow management and provide tips so you can guarantee a healthy cash flow for your business.
With a clear understanding of your company’s cash flow, you can get through downturns and be in a strong position to grow in a new post-COVID environment.
Automate your receivables, streamline your payables, put payroll tax and GST on autopilot, and get more time to monitor and manage cash flow. Full agenda at: http://www.leanteams.ca/quickbooksevent.html
Startup Economics, Finance and Accounting 101Dan Nelson
A quick look into some of the necessary finance, accounting and economic needs for early stage startups. It is a short survey, and there is more to come on this really interesting space.
For more information, please contact Dan@techbrainstorm.com
Law Firm Receivables Management Best PracticesSusan Uylett
This newsletter highlight's the letter of engagement and terms that must be included to protect the firm's operations. Also, it examines challenges within a law firm and solutions that can be implemented to improve the firm's bottom line.
Construction Industry: Seven Tasks for your Year-End Accounting ReviewTAG
TAG Presents "Seven Tasks for your Year-End Accounting Review". Specifically highlighting the construction industry, including contractors, sub-contractors, developers and residential builders. Presentation is geared towards an audience of owners, controllers, CFOs, accounting managers and bookkeepers.
Seven Tasks:
Tax Planning
Budgeting for the New Year
Banking Relationship
Collections
Close your Books
Bonding Relationship
Software System Review
Don’t know where to start when setting up your admin roles in BlackLine? Wondering how to save hours every year when reviewing your profiles and roles? Want to know what auditors really need when they inquire on user permissions and roles? Then you’ll need to view our slides and understand the key tools and techniques to ease yourself into BlackLine implementation. We’ll cover the key aspects and give you 5 proven best practices that you can use immediately.
Chatty Kathy - UNC Bootcamp Final Project Presentation - Final Version - 5.23...John Andrews
SlideShare Description for "Chatty Kathy - UNC Bootcamp Final Project Presentation"
Title: Chatty Kathy: Enhancing Physical Activity Among Older Adults
Description:
Discover how Chatty Kathy, an innovative project developed at the UNC Bootcamp, aims to tackle the challenge of low physical activity among older adults. Our AI-driven solution uses peer interaction to boost and sustain exercise levels, significantly improving health outcomes. This presentation covers our problem statement, the rationale behind Chatty Kathy, synthetic data and persona creation, model performance metrics, a visual demonstration of the project, and potential future developments. Join us for an insightful Q&A session to explore the potential of this groundbreaking project.
Project Team: Jay Requarth, Jana Avery, John Andrews, Dr. Dick Davis II, Nee Buntoum, Nam Yeongjin & Mat Nicholas
Explore our comprehensive data analysis project presentation on predicting product ad campaign performance. Learn how data-driven insights can optimize your marketing strategies and enhance campaign effectiveness. Perfect for professionals and students looking to understand the power of data analysis in advertising. for more details visit: https://bostoninstituteofanalytics.org/data-science-and-artificial-intelligence/
As Europe's leading economic powerhouse and the fourth-largest hashtag#economy globally, Germany stands at the forefront of innovation and industrial might. Renowned for its precision engineering and high-tech sectors, Germany's economic structure is heavily supported by a robust service industry, accounting for approximately 68% of its GDP. This economic clout and strategic geopolitical stance position Germany as a focal point in the global cyber threat landscape.
In the face of escalating global tensions, particularly those emanating from geopolitical disputes with nations like hashtag#Russia and hashtag#China, hashtag#Germany has witnessed a significant uptick in targeted cyber operations. Our analysis indicates a marked increase in hashtag#cyberattack sophistication aimed at critical infrastructure and key industrial sectors. These attacks range from ransomware campaigns to hashtag#AdvancedPersistentThreats (hashtag#APTs), threatening national security and business integrity.
🔑 Key findings include:
🔍 Increased frequency and complexity of cyber threats.
🔍 Escalation of state-sponsored and criminally motivated cyber operations.
🔍 Active dark web exchanges of malicious tools and tactics.
Our comprehensive report delves into these challenges, using a blend of open-source and proprietary data collection techniques. By monitoring activity on critical networks and analyzing attack patterns, our team provides a detailed overview of the threats facing German entities.
This report aims to equip stakeholders across public and private sectors with the knowledge to enhance their defensive strategies, reduce exposure to cyber risks, and reinforce Germany's resilience against cyber threats.
Levelwise PageRank with Loop-Based Dead End Handling Strategy : SHORT REPORT ...Subhajit Sahu
Abstract — Levelwise PageRank is an alternative method of PageRank computation which decomposes the input graph into a directed acyclic block-graph of strongly connected components, and processes them in topological order, one level at a time. This enables calculation for ranks in a distributed fashion without per-iteration communication, unlike the standard method where all vertices are processed in each iteration. It however comes with a precondition of the absence of dead ends in the input graph. Here, the native non-distributed performance of Levelwise PageRank was compared against Monolithic PageRank on a CPU as well as a GPU. To ensure a fair comparison, Monolithic PageRank was also performed on a graph where vertices were split by components. Results indicate that Levelwise PageRank is about as fast as Monolithic PageRank on the CPU, but quite a bit slower on the GPU. Slowdown on the GPU is likely caused by a large submission of small workloads, and expected to be non-issue when the computation is performed on massive graphs.
2. Goal and Objective
Current Situation
Consequences
How did we get here?
Available options
Next steps
Results
Agenda
3. Warren Buffet
In a letter to shareholders,
1989
“Time is the friend of the wonderful business,
the enemy of the mediocre."
4. Goal and Objective
Efficiently process invoices and bill clients in a
timely manner.
Ensure DDS insertions are up to date.
Reduce late payments to vendors.
10. Current Situation
Invoices are received without IWO numbers.
IWO numbers are not allocated on invoices.
Frequently coming across missing invoices.
13. How Did We Get Here?
Lack of communication between all parties
involved in issuing invoices and creating IWO.
Original assumptions that are no longer valid.
Lack of communication.
14. Available Options
Create workflow charts accessible by all
parties so everyone is aware of what is needed
to get bills paid.
17. Available Options
Create workflow charts
More organization in the invoice folders.
Invoices are received without IWO numbers. Frequently coming across missing invoices. IWO numbers are not allocated on invoices.
23. Next Steps:
We should contact all account managers and send
them a work flow chart.
Emphasize the importance of properly created
invoices.
Undefined
24. September
• Organize shared drive.
• Create temporary master file.
October
• Create work flow chart with account managers.
• Emphasize the importance of IWO numbers and
properly created invoices.
December
• Continue to remind account managers to
reference the work flow chart.
Next Steps:
25. Results
Up to date
Less stress
Good relationship and reputation
Organized
More time
26. “Time is the friend of the wonderful business,
the enemy of the mediocre."
Warren Buffet
In a letter to shareholders,
1989
We are client finance interns at Catalyst and we’ve been working here since July.
We have come across several issues regarding accounts payable that we will discuss today.
We will follow up with possible solutions to mitigate any issues carrying over into the future.
Lastly, we will discuss the next steps that we believe Catalyst should take to implement these solutions.
We will be going over what our goal and objectives were this summer
The problems we’ve run into in our time here
The cause and consequences to the problems
Options that catalyst finance could take to mitigate any issues in the future
How to implement the possible solutions
And how this will be benefit catalyst
Warren Buffet is trying to say that time isn't the enemy of a business if the business is efficient and error free.
Because we come across several issues when doing account payables, we begin to loath time because we feel we run out of it.
Once we can sort out these issues, time will be our friend.
Luke: Here at Catalyst, we’re working Accounts Payables. And in doing so, we rely on a clear path with no errors. On the daily, we update insertions and do our best to reduce late payments.
Luke: One of the biggest Issues we have here, is receiving invoices without IWOs. This causes many errors and a lot of time wasted. Without an IWO, it would be difficult to locate the CPE for our DDS insertion. Without a home for the dollar amount, its just money floating in the air.
L: the negative impacts
Luke
LUKE: We receive many invoices without IWOs… as stated without an IWO; we are always emailing account managers for the information. This causes annoyance and frustration. We cannot do or job without the IWO. For every insertion, we need the CPE.
LUKE: We need allocation to verify its accuracy so we know what amount was actually spend under which campaign
Luke: If allocation isn’t given for various IWOs.. Why is it that we receive the allocation right away when asked for? Why cant they just be allocated already?
More work for the Finance Team
More unnecessary work = waste of time
We don’t know what the Media team is doing it appears that the media team has all the costs so we don’t understand why this is an issue every month
They can’t create the allocation beforehand (irrelevant slide)
L: reasons for missing invoices could be: Marin or tech (in that case it’s our own fault), the campaign didn’t run and we weren’t notified, or the invoice is simply just missing.
C: We contact the account managers to ask if the campaigns ran and if so, if we could get those sent to us. Here is an example of account managers not knowing how/where to get the invoices.
These frequent email exchanges wastes the account managers time and our own and usually still ends with a missing invoice.
Christine:
Contracts aren’t entered in a timely manner
This is because of the problems we’ve run into such as no IWO numbers, no allocations and missing invoices, causes the finance to focus their time on chasing account managers.
This is what appears on Sharepoint when a contract is not entered.
This happens when Catalyst Finance is backed up trying to hunt down IWO numbers from account managers
When we are busy emailing account managers to send us allocations of invoices
And when we’re busy emailing them to send us missing invoices.
The extra time is also being wasted when explaining how to find the IWO numbers and how to find the missing invoices.
This is an example of a snowball effect that effects Catalyst Finance the most.
C: So how did we get to where we were?
It is important to look how we came across these issues because it helps us find a feasible solution.
1) The lack of communication between account managers and the finance team could be a huge cause for these errors. The account managers could be unaware at how much an IWO can negatively effect the work flow for finance.
2) Because this is a growing company, at one point, things were probably more simple. Original assumptions may no longer be valid. There may have been little emphasis on the importance of IWO's in the past when there were fewer clients.
3) Again, with a growing company, processes may have changed to accommodate for more clients. Failing to inform everyone on the new requirements for processing invoices can lead to all the issues we run into.
Condense notes
Christine: A work flow chart is a great visual for projects that involve a lot of people. It is important to know your own process as well as how it effects others or how others effect you.
Running campaigns for vendors is a team effort and all parties should know how their actions effect each other.
Christine: This is a workflow chart I made, through the help of Arjun. Given more time, I would have liked to approach everyone involved in the work flow.
This is something we could show account managers so they can see how their work effects us.
Christine: This is an example of lack of communication and the severity it could have on Catalyst.
This is a real example of Google invoices for Colgate campaigns that get billed to Catalyst. The first time I saw this invoice was in April and I contacted the account manager (because again, it's missing an IWO). The account manager told me that it was actually supposed to be rebilled to MEC. In my time here, I've seen this invoiced billed to Catalyst from April to July.
For the two invoices shown above, which are May and June, that's $13,703.85 that has not been paid to Google.
Now imagine that these invoices were actually for $90,000 and that rebilling issue continues for a year. That will be $1,080,000 that Google won't receive.
This can cause tension between Catalyst's own employees as well as a bad reputation. And at worst, we could lose this client.
Luke/Christine: The reason why the folders have recently become a little unorganized is because we are busy with finding missing IWO numbers, finding allocations, and finding missing invoices to worry about keeping the folders consistent and organized.
Having organized folders saves a marginal amount of time, but in the long run, this adds up. This also will help alleviate any headaches of searching for numerous invoices in the shared folders for future interns or employees.
LUKE
Better organization of files.
Better organization enhances search speed.
Eliminates “eye spy” action.
Compliments fast paced environment.
Easily locate any required invoice.
Luke
Christine: Short term solution:
In the case where we can't fix invoices missing IWO's, we could create a masterfile containing all the consistent ones.
I found that the same campaigns that run month after month have the same IWO numbers. We could have a master file containing these so we don't have to email account managers every month just to receive the same answer. This is especially helpful for when Luke and I leave. We received numerous IWO numbers this summer and it’d be nice if everyone knew those numbers as well.
However, if IWOs change, this can become messy if no one updates the masterfile. This would be temporary, because it is still not efficient.
Christine
CHRISTINE: Short term solution:
In the case where we can't fix invoices missing IWO's, we could create a masterfile containing all the consistent ones.
I found that the same campaigns that run month after month have the same IWO's. We could have a master file containing these so we don't have to email account managers every month just to receive the same answer.
However, if IWOs change, this can become messy if no one updates the masterfile. This would be temporary, because it is still not efficient.
LUKE:There may not necessarily be a prime solution, however it is important to minimize the errors.
If errors continue:
Miss Deadlines
Create unwanted Stress
Look bad to our clients
Create a lot of flowing money with no home
Creates frustration throughout Catalyst