Meet Our Finance Director – Julie B

As part of our ‘Meet The Team’ series, over the next few weeks we’ll be focusing on our Finance Department. We’ll celebrate their roles, responsibilities, and relationships with numbers – from crunching the all important data, to processing claims and financial forecasting (we couldn’t resist the Multiply twist!)

Today, we’re hearing from our newly promoted Finance Director, Julie. Joining us in May 2020, Julie is a much-valued member of our team, and now Board!

She dives into her journey starting out in an accountancy practice, to present day, where she works part-time at Better Connect whilst successfully running her own business, Moonstone FD.

Want to learn more about Julie and her role? Let’s jump on into the Q&A:

Q. What’s your role and how long have you been in post?

A-    My role is Finance Director and I am part-time! I have been an employee since May 2020. Before becoming an employee, I worked with Better Connect on an outsourced basis for 12 months, through my business Moonstone FD, where I still work when I am not at Better Connect.

Q. What’s your previous experience and how did you come to work with numbers?

A-    I am a CIMA qualified accountant. I started working life in an accountancy practice where I learnt bookkeeping, year end accounts and auditing. After I had children, I moved to working in engineering where I started as Company Accountant, became Finance Director and finally Managing Director. In 2017 I left to start my own business offering outsourced finance director services to small businesses.

Q. What does your day to day look like?

A-   No two days are alike at Better Connect. I might be in a senior leadership team meeting discussing strategy and planning, presenting finance papers at a finance sub-group meeting or a Board meeting, budgeting and forecasting, attending a team day with the whole company, reconciling the month end figures, monitoring the bookkeeping, working on programme finances, working with the auditors, or out and about networking.

Q. What’s your favourite part of the role?

A-   Mentoring others is without a doubt my favourite part of the job. I teach bookkeeping to two members of the team and I mentor two managers to help them develop in their careers. I am very proud to have recently been awarded the Yorkshire Business Woman Mentor of the Year Award! Outside Better Connect I am a voluntary mentor with CIMA, my accountancy body. I currently mentor a manager who works in industry and is hoping to move up the ladder. I also mentor CIMA members in Practice, particularly accountants who are starting their own accountancy practices and need a little guidance and encouragement. I like to share my experiences and past mistakes in the hope of helping them.

Q. What’s your favourite thing about working in your team?

A- The team are very dedicated to Better Connect, to their roles and to each other. We are supportive of one another and always willing to learn.

Q, What’s the most challenging part of your role?

A-   Writing finance papers for the finance sub-group and the Board can be challenging, as the information available, particularly on bid statuses, is often changing fast so the papers need updating or re-writing within a deadline.

A big thank you to Julie for sharing her experience and insights – stay tuned for more on our Finance Team and their relationships with numbers! Curious about our Multiply project? Click here to learn more about our partnership programme.