The world of Finance – Summer at the Finance department

The core purpose of most companies is to produce profits to their owners (shareholders). Profitability is what investors look for in companies they invest into, together with growth prospects. Legislation, technology and good practices ensure that investors get the information about the business of the companies. Numerous Valmet employees globally provide numerical data about Valmet’s different businesses daily, so that the financial teams and management can track profitability and make needed plans and strategies regarding the future.

This summer I work as a finance trainee in Valmet’s Finance department. Most of the Finance department’s employees sit at the Head Office in Espoo, but several people work also in Jyväskylä. Additionally, affiliate company specific finance employees work around the world. Finance department consists of several teams, which follow and ensure that business goes smoothly from financial point of view. For example, one team is responsible for business analyzes and reporting to management and another team is responsible for group reporting and accounting legislation implementation.

I got a fantastic opportunity to work this summer in two teams: Treasury Back Office -team and Financial Accounting -team. During July, Finance department at Valmet is buzzing because of the Q2 reporting, while most of the other employees are already on their summer vacation. Financial Accounting team is responsible for numerical data of Q2 report. They also ensure that reporting is done according to IFRS standards and Valmet’s internal rules. The reporting activities started at the beginning of July, when controllers of affiliate companies reported their numbers to consolidation program and after that we began our work by going through all data. The Financial Accounting -team communicates closely with the affiliate companies regarding any major changes and movements in numbers, so that we are able to report this information to management and auditors. 

As a someone “fresh from the university”, the first thing I learned was that there are different ways of working in a global company and with the right attitude and cooperation you can work out everything. I also learned that emails are not always the easiest way to communicate in complex matters, but luckily everyone at Valmet has been very cooperative and friendly, so all the issues get fixed quickly regardless of the communication channel.

Everyone at the Head Office were glad that we were days ahead of our reporting schedule, most likely because of improved and fast actions of controllers and accountants. Now that reporting of Q2 is finished, the office has quiet down even more from before. Thank you everyone for participating in reporting and I hope everyone had nice summer holidays!

Welcome to follow the blog series “My Summer at Valmet”, where Valmet’s summer trainees share their experiences during summer 2017. This blog post was written by Daria Sinkkonen - a finance trainee at Valmet Head Office in Espoo. Daria is currently finishing her master studies at University of Vaasa, where she majors in Finance. Daria’s job at Valmet supports her studies, as she works in two Finance teams, Treasury and Financial Accounting.