Michael Kester
Blue Springs,MO
Summary
Award for high impact on the success of the financial audit Individual Recognition Award Two Farm Service Agency (FSA) Administrators Award Nominations FSA Administrators Award Multiple Special Time-off Awards Multiple Special Cash Awards Multiple Outstanding Performance Reviews Multiple Chief Certifying Officer (COO) Outstanding Achievement Award Accountant with 13 years of federal government experience including the following: Leads as a change agent where I lead two development teams which implement changes in system processes and views for customers. Product Owner for the United States Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) National Payment System (NPS) which prioritizes development tasks for developers and approves development work before releasing to the public. Ensure payments are on time and correct. Overseeing new system installation, user training, the modification of existing systems and ensuring financial data is interfacing between various systems. Product owner for the Financing Accounting Information Reporting System (FAIRS) which prioritizes development tasks for developers and approves development work before releasing to the public. Product owner for the Financial Services System (FSAFS) which determines correct payee for USDA payments which includes demonstrating working software to upper management on a regular basis. Product owner for an agile development team to convert NPS from a legacy mainframe system to an SAP accounting system which prioritizes development tasks for developers and approves development work before releasing to the public. Maintain an automated accounting system. Includes overseeing system enhancements and providing business requirements to the development team. Set priority, establish schedules and review work for the development team and consistently achieve and set goals. Provides subject matter expert knowledge and answers questions from team members on procedures, policies, directives, and priorities. Assign work to developers based on priorities, requirements of assignments and staff capabilities. Expert in Government Treasury Account System Reporting and 1219/1220/224 cash transfer transactions. Professional Attributes: Able to successfully manage multiple tasks and meet required deadlines. Very organized and efficient. Skilled at identifying issues. Proficient analytical and problem-solving skills. Adaptable to changing work environments. Adept communication and interpersonal skills. Able to learn new roles and responsibilities quickly.
Overview
13
13
years of professional experience
Work History
Systems Accountant , Systems Group
USDA, Farm Service Agency
12.2019 - Current
- Developed and implemented a debt projection analysis tool used to actively monitor and permanently avoid Anti-Deficiency Act (ADA) violations, which the Commodity Credit Corporation (CCC) previously incurred by exceeding the 30 billion dollar borrowing limit.
- Enables the continuation of payments and loans to farmers thus prohibiting the cessation of nationwide farming production, processing, and distribution
- Establish directives and prioritize work for two geographically dispersed multi-functional teams of contracted developers and approved changes to the National Payment System (NPS) which processes 300K to 1.6M payment daily totaling $20.6 billion in loans and subsidies yearly to 13+ million farmers and enabling nationwide farming and ranching production
- Leads and manages a team which delivers world class service as measured by 90% or higher success rate in on time and under budget execution of strategic objectives and priorities
- Responsible for converting multiple financial management applications to add a user friendly, more efficient processing and one stop shop user interface to a Single Page Application (SPA) web page used by 30K employees and 13+ million farmers which will provide greater security for personal information of the 13+ million farmers we service ensuring that farmers personally identifiable information is not compromised by individuals with malicious intent
- Selected by senior leadership to switch to Systems Group as a Systems Accountant due to leadership ability and history of delivering projects on time which increases farmer’s ability to receive payments
- COO achievement award for contribution to conversion to modern SAP Application which standardize our accounting system among three agencies in USDA
- Leads Agile meetings to ensure that updates to our systems which deliver security and ease of use benefits for our users
- Worked with programmers to speedily resolve issues which arise in our systems for over 2000+ county offices so the county offices can approve payments to America’s farmers and ranchers
- Prepare and approve changes to USDA’s NPS, FSAFS, FAIRS and Financial Inquiries (FI) to ensure that changes made to our systems are correct and beneficial to the users to accomplish short term and long term planning and execution of actions
- Systems representative for implementation of new Business Event Type Codes (BETC) per Treasury directive which standardized the transactions across the entire United States government agencies
- Train users on system changes and updates on a regular basis including working with policy to determine handbook changes and personal training
Accountant , Payment Management Team 3
USDA, Farm Service Agency
12.2015 - 12.2019
- Served as a Certifying Officer approving the daily 30 billion dollar borrowing transactions for CCC “Daily Financing” by reviewing the backup documentation and ensuring information sent to Treasury is correct guaranteeing the USDA has the cash for borrowing authority
- Borrowing provided funding to create loans for and pay farmers so they can continue feeding America
- Employed analytical skills to assist in General Ledger clean-up work which helped our agency receive an “Unqualified” opinion on our Financial Statements for the first time in 20 years
- Became a subject matter expert and was able to transfer knowledge to fellow staff members to assist in their own clean-up efforts
- Certified SF-1151s in Treasury for up to $120 billion of daily CCC borrowings and repayments on borrowing authority
- CCC Certifying Officer for disbursements, transfers, and financing operations
- Ensured completeness, accuracy, and propriety of data
- Extensive work with system developers to deliver customer friendly experiences to over 2500+ county offices which provide customer service to farmers
- Includes providing business requirements for automated accounting system enhancements which eliminated $120 billion of manual transactions monthly reducing monthly closing by 2 days
- Enabling on- time accounting and reporting to treasury on Monthly basis due to near real time automated transactions which enabled daily reporting during the month
- Prepare, coordinate, and submit 1219/1220/224 for all CCC Non-Credit Reform Agency Location Codes (ALC) which moves billions of dollars between USDA and Treasury
- Developed and implemented numerous reconciliations
- Helped ensure more accurate General Ledger balances as well as improving the accuracy of Treasury reporting
- Provided support for both internal and external audits
- Supplied documentation as requested and assisted in updating workflows and implementing any process improvements identified
- Reviewed, interpreted and implemented accounting policy and Treasury guidance
- Ensured accounting systems and data met the requirements of the guidance provided
Accountant, Accounts Receivable Group
General Services Administration
04.2012 - 12.2015
- Successfully completed the correction and reissuing of interagency bills which were initially billed with incorrect information
- Received recognition for completing over 160 complex billing issues for a different department while fulfilling normal workload
- Reconciled accounting systems with Treasury to ensure billings were timely and accurate
- Received inquiries about billing statements and provided customer service to other government agency
- Ensured timely and accurate completion of payments and reports
- Managed a billing queue of over 3500 transactions
Education
Bachelor of Science - Accounting
University of Kansas
Skills
- Financial analysis
- Debt projection
- Accounting systems
- Agile project management
- User training
- Data integrity
Volunteer Experience
Lead organization of 200+ individuals, Managed 8 divisions with different missions., Set and monitored the budget., Provided performance reviews for division leads.
Personal Information
Total Experience: Accountant with 13 years of federal government experience including leading development teams, product ownership for various USDA systems, ensuring timely payments, overseeing system installations, and providing subject matter expertise.
Timeline
Systems Accountant , Systems Group
USDA, Farm Service Agency
12.2019 - Current
Accountant , Payment Management Team 3
USDA, Farm Service Agency
12.2015 - 12.2019
Accountant, Accounts Receivable Group
General Services Administration
04.2012 - 12.2015
Bachelor of Science - Accounting
University of Kansas
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