Craig
Larkins

WHO I HELP

Hotels – some with portfolios of multiple hotels, and some single hotel clients.

HOW I HELP

P&Ls, balance sheets, and other reports.

SECTORS/SUPPORT

Hospitality.

“WORKING TOGETHER AND WITH TECHNOLOGY HELPS US TO STREAMLINE PROCESSES SO WE CAN FOCUS ON PROVIDING CLIENTS WITH THE FINANCIAL INFORMATION & ADVICE THEY NEED.”

As an Assistant Financial Controller in AAB’s Hotel Accounting business, Craig supports the Financial Controllers and Directors, assuming responsibility for the team producing monthly management accounts and related reports for hotel clients.

Craig is responsible for the quality and service delivery of management accounting services, and with the aim to understand the client’s business in order to provide a high standard of service.

He also coaches and helps drive the development of management accountants, accounts seniors, accounts assistants, and finance assistants, and works continuously towards improving processes within the department.

Working closely with the accounts payable and banking team within the department, as an AFC, AAB Hotel Accounting assists the various client teams to produce P&Ls, balance sheets, and other reports.

FULLY UNDERSTANDING CLIENTS’ NEEDS

“One of mutual respect where you are able to communicate openly and clearly to fully understand the clients’ needs and provide them a high-quality service.”

BEING AVAILABLE FOR CLIENTS

“Clients rightfully expect us to provide high quality accounts in line with the agreed timeline, and for us to be available to them when they need any queries answered.”

WORKING TOGETHER TO PROVIDE THE BEST SERVICE

“For me, the most satisfying aspect of working with clients is providing them with good work that they are happy with – it’s a great feeling knowing that we’ve helped them and their business.

In terms of working with colleagues, the most satisfying aspect is working together on everyday challenging questions from clients to help resolve any issues or give the best advice to the client.

Group projects with colleagues to help streamline processes to reduce time on simple time-consuming tasks or making harder tasks simpler, so we can focus on the main thing of providing clients with the financial information and advice they need.”

METHODS OF COMMUNICATION

“With the help of technology, we can do and issue a lot of our work without meeting the client in person. However, it is often easier to build a strong client relationship when you meet in person from time to time, especially when first bringing the client on.”

THE IMPORTANCE OF BUILDING STRONG RELATIONSHIPS

“Every day is different, each hotel client is different and require different ways to deal with them. Some clients are very busy so may ask a question and want an answer quickly or getting the information we need to produce the accounts may be more difficult. So, you have to ensure that your communication skills are really strong and that you have built a good enough relationship with your client that they understand the importance of providing the correct information on time.”

THE USE OF ACCOUNTANCY TECHNOLOGY

“The thing that excites me most about my future with AAB is the increased opportunity for both myself and the company. We are bringing in more hotel clients and growing the department, meaning a wider array of different experiences.

We are also staying ahead of the game, with the ever-changing landscape of accountancy technology being used more and more. With updates like bots being used to process data like the hotel daily income, as opposed to getting a junior member of staff to upload it, these changes allow the team to work on more worthwhile tasks that will help them gain experience.”

RESPECT & TRUST

“We respect and trust each other is one of the AAB group values, and it’s one that definitely stands out to me. We have a large team so there are many different specialties and extra skills that people have that we can learn from and use to improve our quality of work.”

A QUICK LEARNER & KNOWLEDGE SHARER

“I am a quick learner, who is always looking for new ways to do things and then passing them down to the rest of the team. I enjoy and think I am good at training new members of staff and passing everything I’ve learned in my years of experience in this department onto them.”

FAR FROM BORING

“People sometimes perceive what I do as being boring, but there are many interesting aspects to what we do. We get to learn how each hotel operates in quite thorough detail, and work out how we can use the information our clients have recorded to generate their month accounts and other reports.”