The financial administration of Suomi Teline is living with development
The financial administration of a scaffolding company consists of several parts. Suomi Teline imports, does scaffold contracting, rents scaffolding and goods are sold to customers from its’ own sales warehouse or directly delivered from Germany, so financial administration must consider how scaffolding is managed, invoiced, and accounted for these various services.
As the strengths of Suomi Teline are speed, reliability and the provision of comprehensive services, also financial administration must act reliably in rapidly changing situations and find solutions that work as efficiently as possible. Suomi Teline accounting was previously carried out by an external accounting firm. However, we felt it was a better option to hire more of our own staff, and accounting began to be done inside the house since summer 2020. It has proven to be an excellent solution. It is good for the person in charge of accounting to have a broad overall understanding of the entire business as well as the company’s operating methods and the outlook for the future.
In financial administration, daily work includes routines and many tasks that change rapidly, which makes the work versatile and interesting. During the high season months from April to September, as well as the financial closing time at the turn of the year, our workdays are often hectic. During the corona situation, we have also worked partly remotely. Our workspace is arranged so that working safely is also possible in the company’s premises in Nurmijärvi. Our financial administration is almost 100% paperless, so the work can also be done outside the office.
Financial administration is the heart of the company
Almost all the company’s internal information goes through financial administration. The flow of information is two-way with contracting, sales, warehousing, and management. In practice, financial administration should have all the relevant information that the company’s management needs.
For example, monthly invoicing of scaffold contracting, and rents requires close collaboration with bid calculation, warehouse, and work management. Information must flow accurately and in a timely manner between different departments to ensure the accuracy of both customer and supplier invoices. Often things cannot be clarified with a single email or a phone call because the chain of information flows through many people. Suomi Teline has a flexible and mutually supportive work team, which contributes to work efficiency and smoothness. We do not have department boundaries, but co-workers are helped whenever needed.
In the spring 2020, a cooperation project between sales and financial administration was implemented, the project introduced a rack inventory management program that also strongly supports financial administration. The scaffolding sales process is carried out from order to invoicing through the inventory management program, and the next step is to expand the management, monitoring and invoicing of the rental equipment do be done through the program. In parts, rent invoicing has already been introduced in the inventory management program, which has facilitated the work of both the inventory and the financial administration when unnecessary work steps have been eliminated. This also reduces the number of errors.
Sonja Alakangas
Sonja Alakangas is a chief financial officer of Suomi Teline.
