Forays into Finance

Bertelsmann Global Business Services (BGBS) — formerly Bertelsmann Accounting Services — is a smaller division of the internationally recognized Bertelsmann, a larger parent company that oversees the operations of some of the biggest names in media and education, like Penguin Random House, BMG, Relias, and several other notable services.

Among the many services that Bertelsmann provides to these groups, its BGBS division assists with the accounting and financial sides of things.

For a time, I had been employed by BGBS in multiple roles — starting as a Concur Associate, handling expense reporting as part of the Travel & Entertainment (T&E) arm of the Accounts Payable department, and working my way up to the role of Project Analyst, facilitating intersectional projects between various accounting departments on the Process Improvements & Applications team.

Although I didn’t start out with much experience in finance, I certainly learned a LOT more as I progressed through both of these roles!

When I joined the team back in 2022, I was devouring new information through shadowing sessions with my teammates, learning all about the SAP Concur platform, enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems, and the individual client companies’ travel and entertainment policies. As I learned more, I became better equipped to identify gaps in the existing technical documentation and, subsequently, draft even better instructions in their places to more effectively serve my team and their needs.

In fact, I became so well-versed in the ins and outs of the Concur platform that when I was promoted to the Process Improvements & Applications team, I was still heavily involved in all things T&E as a SME and veritable representative for their team.

Furthermore, when I began the transition into my new role, I completely overhauled the training curriculum for the team while training my replacement! This new curriculum took a more detailed, personalized approach to training, incorporating elements like tool requirements, prior knowledge, and prerequisite skills. It became a unified system that allowed anyone — trainer, trainee, or supervisor — to readily identify exactly where that trainee’s progress stood at a glance.

As part of the Process Improvements & Applications team, I continued working as a Concur SME and system administrator, assisting with in-house migrations onto the platform, customizing the platform to better align with client company T&E policies, and developing training resources for end-users of the system.

Elaborating on the standardized Concur-provided materials, the training resources that I developed were completely customized and tailored to the specific policies of each of the client companies involved. Need to provide additional details about a particular type of expense? Covered — with contextual examples!

In addition to the guides I created for these clients, I also hosted 2 seminar-style training sessions for over 70+ concurrent end-users, leading them through a guided walk-through of the system and demonstrating best practices for expense reporting in accordance with their respective policies.