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Principal Accountant

Alex StephenAlex Stephen
Principal Accountant
Woodhill House
Aberdeen

 


What does your role involve?

The Accountancy Section primarily provides Council Services with wide ranging financial information and advice. This involves the collation of information during the following key financial processes:

  1. Preparation of the 3 Year Revenue budget for the Council
  2. Collation of the Final Financial Accounts for the Council
  3. Regular budget monitoring, reviewing spend against budgets and forecasting the anticipated outturns.

We also provide financial advice to the Services on all financial matters.

What do enjoy best about your role?

Working in the Accountancy Section allows me to undertake an interesting and diverse range of work. I find the transformational work the most exciting, as this allows me to consider how financial resources can be used to help the organisation make improvements. I enjoy the interaction with colleagues at all levels within Aberdeenshire Finance and other Services.

Tell us about your background and experience.

I have worked for the Council for over 10 years, joining initially as an Assistant Accountant, where I was given responsibility for the implementation of a new financial ledger. During this time I was supported in studying towards the CIPFA professional accountant qualification. I qualified as an accountant after three years and moved to the Education, Learning & Leisure Accounting Team as a Service Accountant. After 4 years I was promoted to Principal Accountant for Central Services. During a recent restructure I was provided with the opportunity to return to the Financial Systems as Principal Accountant, where the remit of the team has expanded to include continuous improvement and collation of the revenue budget.

What makes you stay with Aberdeenshire Council?

I find that I have more responsibility than many of my friends working in the private sector. The size of the organisation means that there are good opportunities for promotion and to experience different activities undertaken by Aberdeenshire Finance. The Council has a strong focus on Continuous Improvement, which has allowed me to contribute to many new initiatives and policies.