V Raghu Raju

Reliance Retail is the retail initiative of Reliance Industries Limited and is central to the group’s consumer facing business. Reliance Retail has been at the forefront of bringing about Organized Retail revolution in India.

Key roles and responsibilities as follow –

• Currently managing complete offline(Trends) and Online(Ajio) commercials business finance & reporting
• Managing vendor agreements and vendor management related tasks like payment and reconciliations by interacting with category team (business) and vendors
• Working on marketing promo invoices for online(Ajio.com) sale events and account for same
• Working on cash flow reportings and month end closure activities
• Review and validate the OTB(budgeting) for the season as per defined timelines and norms
• Review and ensure PO & SO is released for external brands (EB)as per the agreed margin's
• Work closely with category teams for sales reporting and other activities.

Madura Fashion & Lifestyle, a division of Aditya Birla Fashion Retail is one of India’s fastest growing branded apparel company and premium lifestyle player in the retail sector in India

Key roles and responsibilities –

• Handled commercial process on Inventory management, reconciliation, and liaison with brand, accounts and external audit partners for payment terms and other agreements related things
• Managing internal stock audits for all EBO stores and ensure inventory corrections done in books on periodic basis by coordinating with Internal and external audit team to ensure shrinkage in control
• Review financial statements and preparing Inventory related General Ledger and Schedules every month
• Reporting the inventory and financial status of business units (Brands) with objective to provide strategic, financial and operational feedback to understand how a business is performing
• Ensuring statutory compliance is adhered by following the inventory norms in all business areas
• Develop and maintain cross-functional relationships with key business partners to ensure alignment on strategies to maximize financial results
• This involves coordination with all business teams and external stakeholders facilitate better audit result to strengthen the control in Retails business
• Analyze and interpret monthly variances and review GL balance for financial closings on monthly/quarterly and yearly basis
• Assisting management in decision making with respect to results affecting P & L and BS
• Driving multiple projects on process improvements areas in retail business, which involves automation, and streamlining the process
• Built and designed robust SOP system on various process to team and function for smooth transition of business and process training
• Played key role in IT system implementation on front-end business like POS system SAP S4 HANA and Microsoft AXPOS systems
• To monitor and control the Inventory value in the books of account in line with physical inventory by periodical auditing/reconciliation of all businesses like Retail stores, warehouses and factories
• Additional Highlights:
• Handling of Month/quarter/year end closures activities (GL Review/Preparation of Financials/Reconciliations of MIS with Financials/Review of Related Party Transactions)
• Audit Co-ordination (Limited Reviews/Statutory Audit and inventory review) with statutory auditors (EY/Deloite)
• Preparation of management decks for periodic reviews and analysis
• Actively worked on POS (MS – AXPOS and SAP S4 HANA) implementation project in coordination with IT and business teams related to inventory areas and done UAT to ensure smooth transition
• Actively worked on process automation on SIT (Stock in transit) reports and clearings which will reduce ageing of inventory in transit and clearing SIT within timelines and reduce burden of ageing.

Minneapolis based Target Corporation serves guests at stores nationwide (USA, Canada) and at Target.com

At Target India, the company performs as Target Technology Services

Key roles and responsibilities –

• Responsible for analyzing, reconciling and resolving issues for all accounting transactions related to Target accounts payables, payroll, financial services and sales audits with General Ledger as per SOX Guidelines
• Progressive Analyst, adept at managing multiple projects simultaneously
• Experienced in transitioning processes in terms of project planning, process documentation, developing training modules, training of Team members and stabilizing the process
• Also being part of SAP implementation team as Super SAP (FICO module) user and has played major role as SME in Finance & Accounts by learning project end to end and implement same to team as in end users
• Provide robust modeling and reporting to facilitate executive-level decision making of business metrics and dashboards for team’s performance and for consolidation of account balances
• Supervise and Streamline all account reconciliations related process
• Setting quality standard for operations, adhering to SLA & work processes, creating awareness for driving process improvement strategy & methodology and ensuring maximum operational efficiency
• Ensure timely and accurate preparation of necessary journal entries for all entities also ensure timely and accurate completion of account reconciliations
• Perform Variance Analysis for GL account balances to ensure the controls are in place as per the Target’s Finance control standard (FCS) guidelines
• Well-versed with General Ledger and Record to Report processes
• Responsible for planning, analyzing and reporting the Inventory movements in Fulfillment center (FC) in HQ (USA) which is part of Inventory Accounting Analysis (IAA) process
• Played vital role in this process in performing and leading transition from US team
• Additional Highlights:
• Proven record of accomplishment of managing processes, streamlining workflow, initiating process improvements and generating new design solutions
• Driven multiple projects for team in terms of implementing and standardizing process like SAP and other system by working closely with technical team on Recon automations and other process improvements.

Timken India is a subsidiary of Timken Company, USA that has its operations spread across 27 countries around the globe.

Timken (India) is a shared service center and is involved in accounting for all worldwide operation of its holding company

Accounts Payable – Key Responsibilities includes

• Partnered with payment processing team of US Timken which is extended Global Shared service support team located in Bangalore
• Processing PO & Non PO based invoices as per terms by actively coordinating with US counterparts with “0” errors and have maintained timelines as per TAT and SLA
• Interacting with vendors and buyers for payment query resolution, information and updates and escalating issues to the concerned team/ managers
• Member of P2P (Procure to Pay) team, which is exclusively involved in problematic invoices resolution
• Member of Sarbanes Oxley (SOX) audit team, conducting audit on the adherence to the process guidelines laid out in the SOX audit manual
• Working on BRS and vendor reconciliations and addressing issues on variance analysis
• Preparing daily, monthly & quarterly reports to be published to USA counterparts leaders.

• Involved in accounting and payments of Invoices, creation of Letter of Credit and its amendment
• Reconciliation of Bank statements as well as negotiating with Banks for foreign exchange release
• Handling employees reimbursements and responsible for adjustments and recovery of advances given to employees
• Working on vendor account reconciliation and query resolution
• Played a key role in finalization of accounts at the year-end and supporting on statutory requirements