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Mike Hogarth
Mission
"To partner businesses in realising their full potential by mastering their finances and exploiting the opportunities their financial position offers.."
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Professional Memberships:
Fellow of the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants
Member, Maroochydore Chamber of Commerce
Member, Kawana Waters Chamber of Commerce
Member, BNI Business Sunrise Chapter, Buderim
Business Partner member, Housing Industry Association
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Mike Hogarth
Mobile
0421 504 543
Email
mikeh@cfooncall.com.au
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Qualifications
Master of Arts in Social Sciences from the University of Glasgow 1986
Member of the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants 1992; Fellow in 1997
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CFO On-Call
Delivering insight into and control of business finances to numerous businesses across the Sunshine Coast from Caboolture to Noosa. Work performed in a variety of sectors, all with a common theme of desiring predictability, control and assurance. See specific outcomes section below for examples.
More specifically, services are based on four particular themes:
1. Accounting Systems
Helping business owners get accounting systems right
2. Profit Reporting
Helping business owners see their current financial position
3. Future Financials
Helping business owners see and plan a future financial position
4. Preparation for Business Exit
Helping business owners maximize the value of their business
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Background Prior to CFO On-Call
May 2005 – September 2009: Corporate Management Accountant, Sunshine Coast Regional Council (Maroochy Shire pre 2008 amalgamation)
February 2002 – May 2005: Principal Management Accountant, QBuild
November 1992 – August 2001: Chief Accountant, Business Analysis Manager and Financial Controller, RAM Mobile Data Ltd
September 1986 – November 1992: Graduate Trainee, Investment Accounting Assistant and Corporate Accountant, Cannon Lincoln Financial Management Ltd
Brief Summary:
I was most recently Corporate Management Accountant at Sunshine Coast Regional Council, which opened for business in March 2008 through the merger of Caloundra, Noosa and Maroochy Councils. Here, and with Maroochy pre-merger, I led six senior accountants in providing financial advice to all areas of Council, building and reviewing all budgets and reporting financial and non-financial performance. This demanded an understanding of a wide variety of businesses, from quarries through cemeteries, civic planning and an airport, to name just a view. The main challenge in the role was helping the team “face both ways”, ie be a key partner in helping their client businesses understand their financials and advocating their viewpoint as budgets were constructed, and at the same time understand and explain the corporate issues forcing budgetary constraints on those clients.
Prior to this, I spent three year in a similar role at QBuild, the maintenance and minor construction business of Queensland Government’s Department of Public Works. The major challenge in this role was dealing with the complexity of QBuild’s business processes (>400,000 work orders at any one time) to ensure that the financial results accurately reflected the period’s activities and then swiftly and simply conveying the results to management and other internal clients.
When I left Britain in 2001 I had worked my way up the ranks of two fast expanding companies. I started as a Graduate Trainee with Cannon Lincoln, who sold pensions, life assurance etc. and over six years progressed to responsibility for all the group’s statutory accounts, management reporting and bank relationships. In my time there I gained a wide range of accounting experience.
For the next nine years I was with RAM Mobile Data, in the telecoms/IT solutions sector. Starting as Chief Accountant, my responsibilities widened until as Financial Controller I looked after the customer subscriptions, procurement and commercial areas as well as the finance function. RAM were virtually at start up when I joined, and grew to A$50m pa turnover during my time there. Being in a very new industry, I worked in an environment where many different projects were attempted, some successful, others not. I had to ensure my team was ready for whatever new was thrown at us, so that administering and accounting for areas as diverse as roll out of 200+ base stations across the country and complex bundled communications solutions sales were handled by us in a way that added maximum value through the provision of timely relevant data and advice.
In July 2000 after two years of due diligence work with various prospective purchasers, our US parent sold RAM to a small UK listed company, and we made up about 80% of the new group. We took on all the group’s finance and administration, and this project, along with the cultural adjustments the change demanded, ensured my last year or so continued to provide interest and new challenges
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Financial Skills
Considerable experience and understanding of…
- Conveying financial information clearly and concisely to non-financial clients
- Analysing the linkages between different financial measures and coming to a swift understanding of which key numbers are driving the business’s performance
- Partnering with clients to provide services of value rather than simply compliance-driven “grudge” activity
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Software Skills
• Thorough Microsoft Office product skills, particularly in Excel
• Thorough experience of MYOB and Quickbooks, and registered partner/reseller for both products
• Extensive experience of Xero cloud-based accounting software
• Solid experience with other accounting software: Technology One Financials, Mincom’s MIMSOE, Smartstream by Geac, and McKeowns’ Integra
• Thoroughly trained in CAD Partners’ Future Financials financial analysis and planning software
• Extensive use of WinForecast business forecasting package
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Industry Skills
Special Knowledge of...
• Construction/Trades • Telecommunications • Waste Management • Quarries • Hospitality
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Achieved Outcomes For Employees & Clients
2010, plumbing/drainage client on the Sunshine Coast: firstly reviewed their financials and established that the $50k loss they believed they had made was in fact a break-even result. Brought in c.$5k additional cash after spotting wrong GST treatment of chattel mortgages. Business now has comprehensive and robust business plan built in WinForecast, providing monthly cash flow planning, targets for the year and visibility of how and when personal loans made to the business will be repaid.
2008/09, Sunshine Coast Regional Council, Nambour: worked with clients to bring financial budgeting, reporting etc from three different Councils into one. Corporate client (Council and community) saw one consolidated budget adopted and being reported against within four months of amalgamation. Individual clients were “hand held” through transition by training in new areas, Q&A sessions, etc.
2006, Maroochy Shire Council, Nambour: participated in project to divest Council’s childcare services. Key advisor in evaluation of financial aspects of expressions of interest, assisting prior to and during interviews.
2003, QBuild, Brisbane: created greatly simplified budget-building Excel model. Substantially reduced the number of places users had to input data and simplified reporting outputs. Enhanced reports to show more relevant KPIs, especially around staff numbers and costs.
2002, contract with Voxson, Brisbane (mobile phone and consumer electronics): Provided client with Excel model giving fully linked income, assets & liabilities and cash flow statements; utilised input sheet, formatting etc for ease of use by client. Built product return-on-investment model, to assist decisions about break-even points and whether to abandon or continue product developments.
2001, RAM Mobile Data, London: built model to enable sales and product delivery staff to understand cash flows and associated risks around company’s biggest deal to date, rolling out communications hardware and software to client’s >300 field service staff. Maintained frequent reporting of project progress against plan.
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