Mark Philip Hezlett
Durban
Summary
Results-driven financial professional with expertise in accounting, financial management, and strategic planning. Experienced in managing budgets, cash flow, statutory submissions, and preparing management accounts and annual financial statements. Skilled in Sage Pastel and Sage Evolution for data capturing and report generation. Proven success in tax planning, audit preparation, and payroll management, focusing on compliance and efficiency.
Overview
2
2
Languages
37
37
years of professional experience
Work History
Proprietor
Marks Accounting & Taxation Services
04.2023 - Current
- I provided the same finanical services as I did when I previously operated my practice from March 2005 to February 2019.
Financial Manager
Worldwide Tanks on Hire (Pty) Ltd
03.2019 - 03.2023
- Managed finance department operations, ensuring compliance and efficiency.
- Full accounting function including overseeing monthly data capture into Sage Evolution.
- Preparation of annual cash flow and budgets.
- Compiled monthly financial pack for board meetings, integrating management reports and financial statements to support decision-making.
- Monthly reconciliation of all balance sheet accounts including preparation of VAT schedules for VAT201 submissions.
- Maintain reports of actual vs budget.
- Executed full payroll function on Sage Payroll, including accurate statutory submissions to SARS.
- Preparation of costings for shipping of bitumen throughout Africa.
- Preparation of quotes for all customers inclusive of storage quotes for bitumen.
- Reason for Contemplating leaving Worldwide Tanks on Hire (Pty) Ltd: SAPREF closed down 18 months ago and no longer produces bitumen. Our company's income is derived from storage and transport of bitumen for customers. We have been importing bitumen via ship from the UAE and then pumped this bitumen via trucks into our facility which stores bitumen in 40ft bitutainers. With the continuous delays at the Durban Harbour we are finding it difficult to source bitumen for our customers. Therefore our main client the AECI Group is currently purchasing all our bitutainers and will be importing bitumen directly into Cape Town Harbour. Our company will be restructuring and my position in the company is at risk.
Proprietor
Marks Accounting & Taxation Services
03.2005 - 02.2019
- Managed full financial function, capturing financial information on Sage Pastel to ensure accurate reporting.
- Prepared monthly management accounts and annual financial statements for clients, coordinating audit pack preparation for auditors.
- Preparing monthly management reports for clients inclusive of all statutory submissions to SARS.
- Submission of income tax returns to SARS for directors and their companies.
- Developed tax strategies to optimise client financial positions.
- Conducted budget and cash flow preparations to support strategic planning processes.
- Reason for Contemplating going back into Commerce: The client base of my Accounting Practice has reduced significantly recently due to my main client Easy Engineering (Pty) Ltd and its subsidiaries being bought out by a public company on the JSE. This group contributed R 45 000 to my bottom line.
Financial Accountant
Bentham Asphalt Surfacing CC
03.2000 - 02.2005
- Managed full financial function, including preparation of monthly management reports and budgets to support informed decision-making.
- Executed monthly reconciliation of debtors, creditors, and bank accounts to ensure financial integrity and accuracy.
- Preparation of draft annual financial statements for auditors inclusive of preparation of working paper file.
- Submitted statutory returns to SARS on a monthly basis.
- Prepared costings for tender applications in collaboration with Quantity Surveyor to enhance proposal accuracy.
- Reason for Leaving: I decided to leave and begin my own Accounting Practice as I had limited opportunities at Bentham Asphalt and they were experiencing severe cash flow issues due to the fact that contracts they used to receive from The Department of Works were now awarded awarded to BEE companies. I was approached by a scrap metal group Queensmead Scrap Metal CC to assist with their financial function as they decided to outsource this and I also managed to retain Easy Engineering (Pty) Ltd approached a chain of cellphone stores which also took me on board and my Accounting Practice began.
Accountant
RMA Manufacturing CC
03.1995 - 02.2000
- Managed full financial function, capturing data and preparing monthly management reports to support decision-making.
- Prepared draft annual financial statements for auditors, including comprehensive working paper file for review.
- Submitted monthly statutory returns to SARS, ensuring compliance and timely reporting.
- Developed cash flow forecasts to ensure financial stability.
- Reason for Leaving: The owner of RMA Manufacturing CC, Mr R Askew, decided to retire and move to his family home in Knysna. The majority of his work was for Toyota but this work had begun to slow down and he decided to sell the business and all the staff were retrenched.
Article Clerk
Joles & Audibert Chartered Accountants (SA)
12.1989 - 02.1995
- Managed a team of article clerks on major audits as an audit manager, ensuring adherence to auditing standards and client expectations.
- Performed stock and asset verification and conducted sample auditing of income and expenditure as an audit junior.
- Assisted diverse clientele by providing tailored accounting services.
- Served my articles of association with Joles and Audibert Chartered Accountants as soon as completed schooling.
- Reason for Leaving: Once you have completed your articles of association Joles and Audibert encourage seeking employment in the commercial industry. There was a cycle in place where new article clerks would come in every year as this was more cost effective for them than retaining staff that had completed their articles. They only retained key staff as junior partners.
Education
Matric with Exemption -
Glenwood High School
12-1988
Bachelor of Accounting Science - accounting and auditing
UNISA
11-1994
Skills
- Financial management
- Budget preparation
- Cash flow management
- Financial reporting
- Management accounts
- Annual financial statements
- Monthly report preparation
- Budgets
- Cash flows
- Tax planning
- Sage
- Quickbooks
- Reconciling
- Statutory submission
- SARS EFiling
- VAT
- PAYE
- Income Tax
- Provisional Tax
- Audit working papers
- IRP 5
- EMP submissions
- Strategic planning
Languages
English
Afrikaans
Timeline
Proprietor
Marks Accounting & Taxation Services
04.2023 - Current
Financial Manager
Worldwide Tanks on Hire (Pty) Ltd
03.2019 - 03.2023
Proprietor
Marks Accounting & Taxation Services
03.2005 - 02.2019
Financial Accountant
Bentham Asphalt Surfacing CC
03.2000 - 02.2005
Accountant
RMA Manufacturing CC
03.1995 - 02.2000
Article Clerk
Joles & Audibert Chartered Accountants (SA)
12.1989 - 02.1995
Matric with Exemption -
Glenwood High School
Bachelor of Accounting Science - accounting and auditing
UNISA