Sarthaj Ak

Financial analyst with 4 years of experience delivering high-quality data analysis, reporting, and Power BI dashboards that drive performance improvements across finance and operations. Built 5 Power BI dashboards tracking revenue, cost, and KPI trends across 8 departments, accelerating decision-making by 30%, and cut reporting errors by 85% through automated data validation. Brings strong SQL, Excel, and stakeholder communication to provide actionable insights that support operational and strategic decision-making in a fast-paced environment.

Business Analyst Intern at Gradence (2025-12 – Present)

Produce accurate, timely MI reports and Power BI dashboards supporting operational and strategic decision-making for £500K+ resource allocation

• Produce accurate, timely MI reports and Power BI dashboards supporting operational and strategic decision-making for £500K+ resource allocation
• Develop and enhance reporting tools using Power BI and automated SQL/Excel pipelines, ensuring data integrity and alignment with business requirements
• Manipulate and present large datasets using SQL (joins, aggregations, transformations), identifying £180K in billing discrepancies and lifting marketing ROI by 28%
• Identify trends, performance patterns, and actionable insights from operational data, delivering clear recommendations to senior management
• Established automated data validation controls, reducing monthly reporting errors from 340 to 51 (85% improvement)
• Documented 12 business workflows using BPMN notation, supporting process improvements and operational efficiency

Retail Assistant at Primark (2024-11 – Present)

Assist customers across multiple departments and collaborate with retail staff

• Assist 20+ customers daily across 4 departments using full store layout knowledge, recommending solutions that increase attachment sales
• Collaborate with 15+ retail staff to share product knowledge and adapt communication styles, maintaining a unified team environment
• Adjust merchandising and customer engagement based on manager feedback to improve section presentation and meet visual merchandising standards

Finance Analyst at Jogger (2019-05 – 2023-07)

Constructed Power BI dashboards and produced MI reporting for senior management

• Constructed 5 Power BI dashboards with data modelling for revenue, EBITDA, and cost trends across 8 departments, accelerating management decision-making by 30%
• Produced weekly and monthly MI reporting for senior management, conducting variance analysis versus budget, prior periods, and forecast to identify performance trends
• Maintained and enhanced automated Excel/SQL reporting tools (VBA, macros, Power Query), reducing data entry errors from 22 to 4 per month (82% reduction)
• Compressed monthly forecast preparation cycle from 20 to 15 days (25% reduction) by applying Lean methodology to financial planning processes
• Collaborated with Finance, Operations, and Procurement stakeholders to deliver accurate, insightful data that supported informed business decisions
• Facilitated training for 20+ team members on SAP S/4HANA workflows and Excel automation during system rollouts

MSc in Information Systems and Digital Innovation – Loughborough University (2023-10 – 2024-10)

Bachelor of Business Administration in Finance – University of Calicut (2016-06 – 2019-04)