Spotlight on Accounts: Balancing More Than Just Books
With nearly two decades at Active Silicon, Accounting & Administration Manager, Elaine, has seen the company evolve from a close-knit team of around 20 employees to the thriving business it is today. Along the way, she’s embraced new challenges, helped modernise finance processes, and balanced a successful career with raising a family.
What are your day-to-day responsibilities?
Basically, the majority of financial transactions that come in or out of the business go through me. In addition to balancing the bank accounts, cashbooks, paying suppliers and sending sales invoices, I also help make sure payroll goes smoothly.
We’re seeing exceptional growth at the moment and keeping up with the financial administrative load from our influx of new customers, extended product offerings and supply chain demands is a full-time job in itself!
What has changed during your time with Active Silicon?
When I joined 18 years ago, the company was much smaller. I worked closely with our CEO who was responsible for Finance at the time. My role covered everything from writing cheques and processing invoices to payroll, VAT returns and managing the cashbooks.
Now, we’ve updated many of the ways we work. Moving from handwritten cheques to electronic payments, sending invoices by email instead of post, and encouraging suppliers to do the same has made a real difference to how efficiently we operate.
As the company has grown, so too has the Finance function. Today, the team has expanded to three people, working together to support a business of around 50 employees, plus the functions of the wider Solid State Group.
We’re still a small Finance team, but we achieve a huge amount together. It’s a great team to be part of.
What do you enjoy most about working here?
One of the things I value most about Active Silicon is its supportive, family-friendly culture. During my time here, I’ve raised two daughters while continuing to develop professionally.
Active Silicon has always been incredibly flexible. Even while working full time, I’ve never had to miss a Christmas play or sports day. That support has meant so much over the years.
I enjoy the variety of my role, the flexibility of hybrid working, and the satisfaction that comes from keeping everything running smoothly. I still love it when all the figures balance!
How do you see the business, and your role, evolving?
Automation will make the biggest difference to what I do. For example, setting up new customers is a time-consuming exercise and with so many new companies coming to us, this will inevitably become automated to some extent. Other transactions and activities are also likely to become much quicker as we embrace automated workflows and AI.
Developments within the wider Solid State Group will also affect my responsibilities as more functions become centralized. It’s great to be a part of a growing team and have more support around me than I had 18 years ago!
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