AA Awards 2008: AAT Accounting Technician

Elaine McCulloch, Proctor & Gamble

Elaine McCulloch has worked for Proctor & Gamble for the past five years
and has made quite an impression in that time. Last year she was promoted to
accounts payable supervisor for her dedication and high levels of performance.
She is now responsible for the accounts payable business of all nine of the
company’s plants and distribution centres in the UK and Ireland, representing
$1.3bn worth of invoice activity every year.

Leading a team of six, Elaine has improved the invoice payment on time gap at
P&G’s plants by a massive 48% over the past eight months and made her team
the best performing accounts payable group across Europe, the Middle East and
Africa.

Her commitment to driving rigour and structured follow-up processes has
enabled this dramatic improvement in her team’s fortunes, as well as her strong
accounting knowledge and determination. In one case, she managed to convince a
senior finance manager to approve several provisions to be released, despite the
manager’s initial reluctance.

It was this performance and her active role as the company’s AAT coordinator,
which has seen her set up a four-strong team to support the AAT effort and
manage the process for 90 active AAT students, that impressed the judges.

‘Elaine is a great example of someone using their AAT qualification extremely
well and has made it a positive tool in their career. She has shown great
innovation and has been a role model to others. She stood out from the other
candidates with some great qualities.’

European exchange

Due to Proctor & Gamble’s size, business functions such as accounts
payable can be independent and have limited interaction. To address this, Elaine
volunteered for an exchange with the purchasing organisation in Bucharest,
Romania to identify synergies with an aim to improving performance. The trip saw
her coming away with 12 separate projects that she has prioritised and is
leading.