Open to roles across London · Welwyn Garden City, UK

Pratekk Arvinnd Dekaate

Accommodation Payments Officer at the Royal Borough of Kingston upon Thames

Looking for roles in Payments & Invoicing Income Recovery Financial Operations Local Government Finance Billing Analysis Housing Finance

6+ years in income recovery, valuation and financial operations. I process £3.5–4.5 million a month in council housing payments, reconcile them across NEC, Business World and the accommodation tracker, and report the results in plain English.

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Pratekk Arvinnd Dekaate
Finance Operations·6+ yrs
£3.5–4.5M
housing payments processed each month
6+ yrs
in income recovery, valuation and financial operations
3
systems reconciled monthly and quarterly
7–9
analysts supervised
MSc
Financial & Business Management (Merit)

What I do

Payments, income and the reconciliations behind them

At the Royal Borough of Kingston upon Thames I handle all of the council's housing accommodation payments, covering temporary accommodation and private sector leasing. That is between £3.5 million and £4.5 million a month. I run the rent checks for the Private Sector Leasing scheme and complete the monthly and quarterly reconciliations behind the payments.

Before Kingston I worked in Sanctuary's Central Income Team on rent and service charge accounts and arrears. Earlier, in Pune, I prepared business valuations and financial models and supervised a team of 7 to 9 analysts. I hold an MSc in Financial and Business Management (Merit) from Kingston University.

01

Payments & invoicing

Accommodation payments from invoice to payment. Invoices checked against bookings, occupancy and agreed rates, and coded to the right GL and cost centre. Suppliers go through due diligence before they are paid.

02

Income recovery & rents

PSL rent checks against lease terms. Rent and service charge accounts, arrears found early and affordable repayment plans. Universal Credit and Housing Benefit income. Overpayments and unused funds recovered.

03

Reconciliations & controls

Monthly and quarterly reconciliations across NEC, Business World and the tracker. Vendor accounts and purchase ledger, month-end close and fraud investigations. Working papers kept ready for internal and external audit.

04

Reporting, systems & automation

NEC system champion for the Housing team. Monitoring reports and briefings for managers who are not finance specialists. An invoice-checking tool in development in Google Sheets and Apps Script.

01 / 05 · Payments

£3.5–4.5M a month in housing payments

I process all of Kingston's temporary accommodation and private sector leasing payments. Each invoice is checked and coded to the correct GL and cost centre before it is paid.

  • Accommodation payments
  • Invoicing
  • GL & cost centres

02 / 05 · Rent checks

Rent paid matches the lease

For the Private Sector Leasing scheme I check that the rent the council pays matches the lease terms and the records held in NEC.

  • PSL
  • Lease terms
  • NEC

03 / 05 · Reconciliations

Three systems, one set of figures

Every month and quarter I reconcile NEC, Business World and the accommodation tracker, then investigate and correct any differences.

  • Reconciliations
  • Month-end
  • Audit working papers

04 / 05 · Income recovery

Arrears picked up early

At Sanctuary Housing I managed rent and service charge accounts, followed up overdue balances and agreed repayment plans tenants could afford.

  • Arrears
  • Credit control
  • UC & Housing Benefit

05 / 05 · Automation

Invoice checks, automated

I am building a tool in Google Sheets, Apps Script and AI that checks invoices against NEC and the tracker, so errors are flagged before payment.

  • Apps Script
  • Automation
  • Controls

Experience

Where I've worked

  1. Sep 2023 – PresentKingston upon Thames

    Accommodation Payments Officer, Housing Supply Team

    Royal Borough of Kingston upon Thames

    • Process all of the council's housing accommodation payments and invoicing for temporary accommodation and private sector leasing, between £3.5M and £4.5M a month, with GL and cost-centre coding.
    • Carry out PSL rent checks so that rents paid match lease terms and NEC records.
    • Reconcile NEC, Business World and the accommodation tracker monthly and quarterly. Reconcile vendor accounts to keep the purchase ledger accurate.
    • Check landlord and supplier invoices against bookings, occupancy and agreed rates, and hold anything that does not match.
    • Onboard new housing suppliers, carry out due diligence before payment and keep compliance records up to date.
    • Support month-end close, including fraud investigations that recovered overpayments. Recovered unused public funds and reallocated them under council policy.
    • NEC system champion for the Housing team. Write monitoring reports and briefings on payments, arrears and recovery.
    • Building an automated invoice-verification tool in Google Sheets, Apps Script and AI.
    • NEC
    • Business World
    • Reconciliations
    • Purchase ledger
    • PSL
    • UC / HB
    • Apps Script
  2. Jun 2022 – Sep 2023Sanctuary Housing

    Customer Service Advisor, Central Income Team

    Sanctuary Housing

    • Managed tenant rent and service charge accounts, spotted arrears early and agreed affordable repayment plans.
    • Processed rent and service charge invoices and handled arrears reconciliation and income-recovery casework.
    • Investigated and corrected account discrepancies for audit, month-end and KPI reporting.
    • Worked with Universal Credit and Housing Benefit income, support workers and partner agencies.
    • Rent accounts
    • Service charges
    • Arrears
    • Credit control
    • UC / HB
    • GDPR
  3. May 2021 – Jun 2022Epsom

    Project Worker

    Sanctuary Supported Living

    • Carried out financial and needs assessments and validated invoices, keeping budget coding accurate with multi-agency teams.
    • Kept confidential records in line with safeguarding and data protection rules.
    • Financial assessments
    • Invoice validation
    • CareFirst
  4. Jan 2019 – Jun 2021Pune, India

    Valuation Analyst / Industrial Valuation Engineer

    Sharada Entrepreneurs Pvt Ltd

    • Built business valuations and financial models from market and company data, to statutory and regulatory standards.
    • Carried out industrial valuation surveys for banking and commercial properties and prepared valuation reports.
    • Supervised a team of 7 to 9 analysts: allocated work, reviewed quality and monitored deadlines.
    • Business valuation
    • Financial modelling
    • Team supervision
  5. 2015 – 2019Pune, India

    Earlier career: business development & sales

    IGK Imoudifyers India · Axial Group · OneGO

    Client negotiation, supplier relationships and market research.

Finance Lab

The processes I work with, as interactive models

All figures are illustrative.

Three-way reconciliation

Where I've used this

AI in finance operations

Checking invoices before they are paid

Most payment checking is matching: invoice against booking, billed rate against agreed rate, nights billed against nights occupied. Fixed rules catch the known errors. A simple anomaly score then highlights invoices that look unusual compared with the rest, so a person reviews them before any money leaves.

This is the idea behind the invoice-verification tool I am building in Google Sheets and Apps Script. The demo uses made-up data.

Pay Hold: rule failed Review: unusual
10 invoices waiting
InvoiceNights
billed / booked		Rate
billed / agreed		AmountResult

Skills

Skills and systems

Income & payments

  • Payment processing
  • Accounts receivable
  • Credit control
  • Debt collection
  • Arrears & income analysis
  • UC & Housing Benefit income

Rents & service charges

  • Rent & service charge accounts
  • PSL rent checks
  • Service charge invoices

Reconciliations & controls

  • Account & vendor reconciliations
  • Purchase ledger
  • Month-end close
  • Audit working papers
  • Financial governance
  • GDPR

Analysis & reporting

  • Financial & KPI reporting
  • Monitoring reports
  • Financial modelling
  • Business valuation
  • Forecasting support

Systems & data

  • NEC (team champion)
  • Business World (Unit4)
  • SAP S/4HANA FI
  • SAP Analytics
  • CareFirst
  • Excel & Office
  • Google Workspace & Apps Script

People

  • Supervised 7–9 analysts
  • System & data support for colleagues
  • Service managers & partner agencies

Education

Education and courses

MSc · Merit

Financial and Business Management

Kingston University, London

Dissertation: how automobile manufacturers manage earnings through asset revaluation, based on their financial statements and accounting choices.

BEng · 2011 – 2016

Mechanical Engineering

Sinhgad College of Engineering, Savitribai Phule Pune University

Courses & CPD

  • SAP S/4HANA Financial Accounting
  • Budgets, cash-flow forecasting & management accounts
  • Accounting for liabilities
  • FX hedging
  • Finance for non-finance executives
  • Basics of economics

Contact

Let's talk

Open to payments, income, financial operations and local government finance roles across London.