Vikas Gulati

Finance professional with 8+ years of experience across financial control, multi-entity accounting, Record-to-Report (R2R), month-end close, Financial Planning & Analysis, management reporting, budgeting and forecasting, internal controls and finance transformation. Served as Assistant Vice President in Barclays Finance Shared Services, leading a 32-person accounting team across seven General Accounting processes and managing accounting, reconciliation and reporting for 54 legal entities and approximately £5 billion of fixed assets. Experienced in SAP, IFRS, SOX/ICFR, external audit, intercompany settlement, cost control and onshore/offshore process transitions, with a track record of Lean savings, audit sign-offs with no observations and trusted senior stakeholder relationships.

OPERATIONS AND ACCOUNTS - DESI FASHION BAZAAR INC. - Toronto, ON

(2023-10)

Canadian fashion business, federally incorporated in 2014, delivering customer orders through designers and a manufacturing unit. Role covered operations and accounts.

• Managed day-to-day operations, including liaising with customers and query resolution (customer support).
• End-to-end order management: received customer orders and specifications and communicated them exactly to the designer and manufacturing unit, so orders were made and delivered correctly.
• Coordinated production against strict timelines; handled shipment booking, on-time dispatch and clearance through to delivery.
• Managed accounts receivable and the collections process.
• Managed stock and inventory control.

ASSISTANT VICE PRESIDENT - Barclays Finance Shared Services (Barclays Execution Services) - India

(2009-03 - 2023-10)

Finance shared services function of Barclays, a global UK-headquartered bank. Roles across Accounting Control, Fixed Assets, Intercompany, Cost Control and Finance Transformation.

• Accounting Control – General Accounting
• Led a team of 32 people managing 7 General Accounting processes through 7 team leads and managers.
• Led month-end close: journal review and authorization, post-close adjustments, account reconciliations and finalization of ledger balances in SAP.
• Reviewed and authorized manual journals across Barclays entities before posting, strengthening control over the general ledger.
• Executed post-close postings in SAP and RACE; maintained the authorization database and approver lists; supported the UK Branch Accounting network.
• Consolidated month-end inputs from India-region leadership into a single update to Barclays senior management.
• Trained, coached and developed team members across processes; Best Trainer Award (2019–2022).
• Fixed Assets Accounting and Control
• Managed accounting, reconciliation and reporting for 54 legal entities and approximately £5 billion of fixed assets (NBV).
• Independently led the PwC external audit sign-off with no observations, earning recognition from senior management.
• Applied IFRS (IAS 16, IAS 36, IAS 38) to capitalization, impairment and disposals; managed asset attestations with Financial Control and finance business partners.
• Reviewed capital expenditure and internally generated software capitalization requests against budget and business case.
• Reviewed and enhanced SOX controls, rationalizing 20% of controls by eliminating two that were no longer required.
• Built quarterly asset movement reporting in Excel and PowerPoint for leadership review calls.
• Intercompany (ETA) Central Team
• Owned the end-to-end global intercompany process, from agreement to settlement, as the only central team handling settlements globally; led maintenance of BETAS and authorization of ETA journals.
• Prepared ETA mismatch escalation packs for CFOs and process owners; covered Vice President and additional AVP responsibilities during a critical migration phase.
• Provided 11 hours of daily coverage for finance leads across Singapore, India, the UK, Africa, Europe and the US, enabling same-day query resolution.
• Legal Entity Cost Control, Allocations and Billing
• Ran the Legal Entity controller forum (KPIs, business rules, billing updates, adjustments) with month-on-month variance analysis at legal entity level.
• Led 3-way reconciliation of Apptio, the billing system and SAP general ledger, identifying breaks and posting true-ups; maintained 100% accuracy of cost data.
• Designed MI and cost validation packs giving senior management views by transaction cycle, management level and function.
• Finance Transformation and IT Strategy
• Prepared bi-weekly IT strategy updates for the Head of Financial Control, Global Head of Technology Transformation and CEO; delivered all actions on schedule.
• Bridged operations, the MI technology team and onshore teams on change requirements; mapped end-to-end process linkages to remove duplicated effort.
• Recognized by the Head of Transformation for the first and best FTE analysis; Operational Excellence Award (2021); RBB COO Star Award for delivering a critical financial restatement ahead of schedule; CFO appreciation (2022); retention award as a top performer.

OPERATIONS MANAGER - Hewitt Associates (acquired by Aon, 2010) - India

(2008-10 - 2009-02)

• Led 2 teams of 20 people across Cash Allocation (US) and Collections (UK) through 7 team leads.
• Reduced unapplied cash from US$50 million to US$15 million, the lowest in company history; achieved a stretch collections target of US$22.5 million (Jan 2009).
• Designed weekly cash and bank log reconciliations for SOX; ran weekly audits, the Early Warning System and weekly AR dashboards and MIS.

ASSISTANT MANAGER - Genpact (formerly GE Capital International Services) - India

(2003-05 - 2008-10)

• Led a 13-person Cash Allocation (Accounts Receivable) team with 0% attrition; Silver Award for streamlining the A/R process.
• Central point of contact for cash allocation across 20+ countries on a UK-based process, delivering a consistent centralized service.
• Selected as dedicated point of contact for the highly sensitive Ministry of Defense account on the strength of stakeholder management skills.
• Completed a six-month onsite pilot transition in the UK (Serco) for the order-to-cash process, transitioning the client's largest customer account.
• Awarded for multiple Lean projects, best result 2 FTE savings through cash allocation automation; Chairman's Award three consecutive years; Deferred Income Plan retention award.

Senior Accounts Executive - GIF India (Witteman Co., USA)

(2002-02 - 2003-05)

Earlier Role

Accounts Manager / Admin Coordinator - Northern Technical L.L.C. - UAE

(1999-02 - 2002-01)

Earlier Role

MBA - Finance - Narsee Monjee Institute of Management Studies (NMIMS), India (2008)

Bachelor of Commerce (B.Com) - Delhi University (1996)