A recognized strategic global financial leader, Musky Kalra has extensive experience building top-performing organizations covering accounting, operational planning, financial, management and regulatory reporting for all aspects of the financial markets. He has led several transformational initiatives most recently at Credit Agricole and previously at BZW now Barclays Capital and JP Morgan resulting in more productive and efficient financial organizations through harnessing the collective resources of people, processes, and technology. Musky has in-depth understanding of risk management, internal controls and valuation of complex financial instruments; as well as, extensive knowledge of treasury operations including liquidity management and capital adequacy measures. Musky has had significant exposure to complex business and financial discussions and is a well respected voice in executive and boardroom settings and with regulators.

 

Musky, having more than twenty-five years of senior-level financial management experience, joined Credit Lyonnais in 1998 as the CFO and recognized the need to initiate a major transformation of the Financial Division that supported the Corporate Bank, including the Capital Markets businesses and the Broker Dealer. He turned around an underperforming financial organization through a major restructuring of people, processes and technology. Following the merger he successfully integrated the financial, management and regulatory reporting of Credit Lyonnais and Credit Agricole, leveraging the technology that had been implemented without increasing headcount. Musky implemented the Treasury function within the Broker Dealer and resolved numerous regulatory issues. He maintained ongoing contact with FINRA, the SEC and the Federal Reserve, ensuring firm's compliance. He was a member of a number of oversight committees including the Asset Liability; Market Risk; New Product and IT Steering Committees.

 

Prior to joining Credit Lyonnais he was with BZW for 2 years. The first year in London was focused on creating Product Control functions at the Head Office level as well as in the different trading locations including Paris, Hong Kong, Tokyo and Singapore. He then returned to the US as the CFO where he restructured the Finance function and substantially reduced the headcount. He streamlined the budget process and assisted in restructuring the infrastructure after the sale of all non-fixed income businesses. In 1986 Musky joined JP Morgan in London and had a diverse career with them spanning 10 years, including 3 years in New York, covering compliance, product control, financial and regulatory accounting and reporting, derivatives operations and a revenue generating front office role. Musky's first banking role was with Midland Bank now HSBC in London. He was a manager in the International Division and then in the Treasury Division with responsibility for financial and regulatory reporting.

 

Before embarking on his banking career Musky spent 4 years with Price Waterhouse in The Hague. As audit manager he was responsible for many multinational clients. He was also in charge of continuing education of all professional staff in The Netherlands.

 

Musky trained as a Chartered Accountant with Thomson McLintock now KPMG in The UK. Prior to joining this organization he did a 1 year accounting course at Bristol Polytechnic where he was top of the class. Musky got a first class Honors degree in Commerce at Shri Ram College in Delhi before moving to the UK to complete his education.

 

By Eileen Xethalis, Director and Head of Entrepreneurial Services Practice, CFO Consulting Partners LLC, April 26, 2011

 

CFO Consulting Partners is often retained to "fix" broken Accounting and Finance functions. When a prospective client requests an exploratory meeting to gauge whether we can "help", the request typically is the result of many months of frustration on the part of the CEO/COO in dealing with the Finance and Accounting area.

 

Our active practice with growth companies has yielded some common traits that we believe are the root cause of untimely and unreliable management reporting, and/or high audit fees due to a lack of preparation for the audit.

 

Here are my ten painful oversights: The Company:

  

1. Has a chart of Accounts that grows organically - Lack of planning when setting up the chart of accounts results in a higher work load in producing financial reports.
2. Does not keep a record as to the changes to the chart of accounts- A lack of record keeping as to changes in the chart of accounts is a red flag for lack of controls at the IT level.
3. Never closes the books- Leaves the door open to current events being booked in prior periods.
4. Does not adequately train staff on the proper use of accounting software and accounting related applications- Not training the accounting staff may  lead to many problems such as; incorrect inventory, incorrect payroll records ( if not using an outside service) incorrect billing.
5. Does not have a closing calendar- Closing impinges on the rhythm of the daily work load. A calendar provides direction for the staff.
6. Does not adequately describe the assets being depreciated (start date, number of months of depreciation and so forth) and the company does not maintain easily traceable support documents. Support for the depreciation schedules facilitates smooth financial, income tax and sales tax audits.
7. Does not  register to pay use tax on out of state purchases- The Sales & Use tax return is frequently overlooked; many companies do not deal with a retail customer and mistakenly believe they have no liability.
8. Never set benchmarks to evaluate the adequacy of the finance staff- Growth companies frequently go "bare bones" at startup with accounting staff. When to add? Who to add?
9. Never set up a tickler file to remind it to file annual registrations- Timely filing of annual reports maintains a good standing status and the ability to do business within a State.  
10. Never set up a tax calendar- A tax calendar is crucial when you have a presence in multiple locations; inclusive of federal, states and city filing dates.

 

 

©2011 CFO Consulting Partners LLC / Eileen Xethalis, all rights reserved

 

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