Sonia Teresa Moreno de Salas, Accounting Manager
Chestnut Hill Farms of Venezuela
Mérida, Venezuela

My work and responsibility in the company is as the comptroller. A comptroller is a person that, in fact controls all that deals with the area of accounting, right? The accounting area is in charge of sending out monthly reports to the central office. I am the one in charge of procedures and controls so that all processing, in its final form, is the most accurate possible, right? and that the results are detailed and that the accounting figures are the most accurate possible. As a comptroller I am directly in charge of the accounting department where everything related to the payroll of the company is located, the area that is clearly accounting, the supervision of accounts that come in, that they arrive, that the invoices to the suppliers are canceled, everything that is in accounts receivable, that is the incoming revenue of the company, to be in charge of all that deals with personnel, that is personnel income, evaluation of personnel. It is an area with a lot of responsibility at the company level. The company has three major branches which are, the farm, which is the production area, the processing area or plant where one processes the product that is sold locally as well as internationally, and the administrative and accounting area.

The accounting area includes all the these functions which are by their nature very important. Regarding my exact responsibilities, I have to send each closing period, which here is not monthly but every four weeks, reports to the central office. I have to do the closing accounts where one gets all the figures of the month, all that was spent, all that was entered, how the funds were spent. And after doing the closing accounts I have to do what is called the variance report. Variance report is where you compare the actual figures with those that were estimated for the period and the differences that exist need to be explained, this is one of the largest responsibilities. After this is done, I have to send what is called the accounting schedule, to the central office where one specifies all the accounting transactions and in Miami they make a consolidation of all of these figures with the other divisions of Chestnut Hill. Because there is Venezuela which is us, there is Guatemala, there is Honduras and other divisions in Panama, in the Dominican Republic. Then they consolidate all of these figures in Miami and send them to the central office which is in Sea Board Kansas. So my responsibility is very large because, based on the figures that I send, they see how everything is functioning administratively, operationally and at what level, how their investment is doing in Venezuela. By way of the reports that go out from my office they see how the money they have invested here is being used.

And when there are any doubts or any questions I have to answer them. In running a company each person has their responsibility, but in respect to the figures, this is where one can see how the company is really functioning. These figures come out from the department that I manage. So, the responsibility is extremely large.

The activities of a typical work day. Well, one has to come very early. I know what time I will arrive, but I don't know what time I will leave, because I really don't have a set schedule, what I have is a responsibility and if I finish early I go, but if not I have to stay. And to control many people, where I have to see that each person fulfills a specific job, because based on if these people do a good job, then the job as a whole goes well.

The part of work that I like most is to work with computers. I really like to work with computers. And 80% of my work comes out of a computer, that is, all accounting transactions should be input into a computer. And the reports that I send come from the computer. That is, I have to know how to run, and I do, computers with many different programs. I work with Lotus, I work with Wordstar, with WordPerfect, with any new program that comes out because this makes my work easier and it makes it easier for me. Every day I am always trying to learn more about this type of activity.

The most difficult part of the work is really, well not that it is difficult but rather all my activities are important, right? Every little thing is important because as I explained before, my department includes personnel. And to manage personnel is difficult at times, right? because not all decisions are the same and at times one has to make decisions that aren't what people like, right? And well, working with people, try to make them feel good about their work so that they do their best possible, this is also a very important part.

The skills and training to do this work are, for example, I am a public accountant. Basically, since I work in accounting this is one of the most important things. And to keep yourself up to date on all the that comes out regarding laws, to keep yourself up to date on the economy, how inflation is going, problems with the dollar and in what I said before about computers.

My experience with foreigners has been fairly extensive. I worked at another American company which was Heinz. I worked with foreigners, I really liked their organizational skills, how they do everything, they are very demanding with their personnel. How they demand, train, and help, this is very important. If one knows how to take advantage of this it is very good to grow professionally. This is what seems to be the best to me, and the language because I really like English too.