How did you get into your job role?

After completing my economics degree at the University of Kent in 2011, I moved back to family in North Wales, spent a year helping renovate a house and then interviewed here for an admin role. As luck would have it, a position in accounts had just opened and I started as an accounts administrator in 2012, before becoming manager in 2016.

What does a typical workday look like for you?

No two days are the same, especially when staff are off and I’m helping out on day-to-day payment runs. That variety is what I most enjoy!

Much of the day is driven by queries: from local authority and solicitor clients about payment runs and invoices, enforcement agents about banking or card machine issues and debtors when money hasn’t posted as they expected. I also prepare reports for clients, directors and department heads.

Core to every day is bank reconciliation - making sure incoming funds are accounted for and posted correctly - so all our other departments operate on accurate, up-to-date data.

I am also the Health & Safety Coordinator for the company, and ensure risk assessments, incident logs and building checks are current.

What are your key responsibilities at work?

I oversee accounts payable, receivable and credit control, support the team to deliver these functions and design the systems that keep everything compliant and efficient.

I maintain bank reconciliations, produce reporting for leaders and help embed changes when new platforms or processes arrive—then step in when cover is needed to refine how we work.

When we onboard new clients, we can set up the system according to the client’s requirements, by applying a range of settings to accommodate what they are looking for across all areas.

I also work on various projects throughout the year. The major current project is setting up and onboarding a unified payment system for debtor payments, working with our IT team and external supplier. The aim is to streamline the process and make it easier for debtors to engage with making payments.

What part of your job do you enjoy the most?

I thrive on the variety of the role and, more importantly, on knowing the story behind the numbers, which lets me answer queries with context rather than just giving totals on a page.

I especially enjoy finding efficiencies with IT. This year we heavily automated bank transfer postings into ATEK (our case management system), cutting manual transactions by about 70% - a change that freed the team to focus on refunds, contact integrity and other value-adding tasks, as well as quickly onboard all the new clients we won in 2025.

Rolling out our ticketing system was another highlight: work is assigned transparently, notes follow the case and there is a log of activity. I definitely enjoy training people on these improvements.

What is the most challenging part of your job?

The flip side of variety is unpredictability: multiple urgent requests can land at once—from client onboarding to bespoke reports to spend analyses—without warning.

Operationally, debtor payment receipts without a case reference or debtors forgetting to cancel their scheduled payments after clearing balances create extra work and delays.

Do you have any advice for someone wanting to work in a finance role?

Build from the bottom up, so you can understand the business and the story behind the numbers.

Starting in administrator roles gave me a foundation I still rely on. That insight matters during audits and when stakeholders need explanations.

Enforcement has been a rewarding path precisely because it blends finance with operational problem-solving and my knowledge of enforcement has given me the opportunity and freedom to make the role my own and to work on so many interesting projects that have added value to the business, to debtors and to clients.