ERP & Finance Systems · Management Reporting · Tax & Regulatory Advisory
Rex Regin T. Manzano, CPA
Whatever the engagement, a business ends up more confident in its information and more in control of the decisions built on it.
- An ERP system that finally reflects reality
- Reporting people actually trust
- Compliance nobody has to guess about
About
Better decisions start with information you can trust
Every organisation runs on decisions — what to invest in, whether the numbers on this month's report are actually right, whether it's compliant. Those decisions are only as good as the information behind them, and no organisation, regardless of its size, should have to guess.
That's the thread running through nine years of work:
- FoundationCPA — closing the books and filing the returns
- TransformationFinance Transformation Consultant, PwC — redesigning how organisations govern their information
- SystemsERP Project Manager — building the systems that capture that information in the first place
- DeliveryConsultant — now supporting the Invoice-to-Cash (I2C) Accounting Process within a Project Management Office engagement
Whether the client is a large enterprise or a two-person accounting team at a local manufacturer, the job is the same — make the information something people can actually build a decision on.
- Based inMandaluyong, Philippines
- Focus areasERP & Finance Systems, Management Reporting, Tax & Regulatory Advisory
- SystemsOracle Cloud, Microsoft Dynamics, SAP Ariba, ERPNext
- CertifiedCPA · Agile Hybrid Project Pro · IBM Data Analyst
Problems I Solve
Three questions organisations bring to me
Each one resolves to a different kind of engagement — but the same underlying job: make the information trustworthy enough to act on.
Evidence
Case Studies
Grouped by the problem each engagement resolved. Click a case study for the full brief — challenge, approach, and outcome. A few entries are marked in development or pending publication review rather than filled with placeholder content.
ERP & Finance Systems Transformation16 projects
Business Challenge
No prior ERP system — finance and inventory operations ran on manual, disconnected processes with no structured audit trail.
Responsibilities
Directed ERP deployment across finance and inventory functions; designed end-to-end workflows covering procurement, inventory, and financial integration; led requirements gathering, training, and post-go-live stabilization.
Deliverables
End-to-end workflow design, integrated procurement–inventory–finance configuration, training materials, go-live support plan.
Outcome
A fully functional ERP environment replacing zero legacy systems with structured, auditable, scalable operations.
Lessons Learned
Building from zero legacy systems removes migration risk but raises the bar on training and change management, since there's no prior system to fall back on.
Business Challenge
Truck movements depended on manual recording and disconnected operational processes — inconsistent truck tracking, duplicated records, manual weight computation, paper-based documentation, and a difficult audit trail, with no centralised way to track a truck from gate entry to exit.
Responsibilities
Mapped operational steps across gate security, weighbridge operators, warehouse operators, and truck drivers; designed workflows for inbound, outbound, containerised, and bulk trucks, plus warehouse transfers; defined operational states (on route, at weighbridge, at warehouse, completed) to give every stakeholder a shared view of where a truck was in the process.
Deliverables
Current-state and future-state process maps for gate, weighbridge, and warehouse operations, operational state model, workflow design for inbound/outbound/bulk/containerised truck movements.
Outcome
Centralised previously fragmented, manually-recorded truck movements into one operational workflow spanning gate entry through warehouse exit — replacing inconsistent tracking and duplicated records with a shared, system-driven view of every truck's status.
Lessons Learned
A weighbridge system isn't just about capturing a weight — the process design work (what state is a truck in, and who needs to know) mattered as much as the weight-capture logic itself.
Business Challenge
The facility operated four weighbridges with no shared transaction model — weight capture, truck tare handling, and documentation were inconsistent across units, with manual computation standing in for automated, auditable weight capture.
Responsibilities
Designed a transaction model spanning process order, weighbridge transaction, gross/tare/net weight capture, waybill generation, and inventory movement; supported multiple weighbridges with reusable truck tare data, automated weight capture with a manual fallback, and printable transaction documents.
Deliverables
Transaction model design (process order through inventory movement), multi-weighbridge configuration supporting reusable tare data and manual fallback, waybill and documentation templates.
Outcome
Delivered a single transaction model supporting four weighbridge units within one ERP workflow — replacing manual weight computation with system-generated gross, tare, and net weights and consistent, auditable documentation across every unit.
Lessons Learned
Designing for a manual weight-capture fallback alongside the automated path wasn't a compromise — it was what made the system usable on day one, when not every weighbridge's automated capture was fully reliable yet.
Business Challenge
A working weighbridge system alone wouldn't replace paper-based operations — without documentation, training, and a managed go-live, operators would fall back on manual habits and the system's audit-trail benefits would be lost.
Responsibilities
Directed UAT and coordinated go-live readiness; produced the user manual, release notes, and training materials; led Train-the-Trainer sessions ahead of go-live; tracked project milestones, risks, and mitigation actions from discovery through go-live.
Deliverables
User manual, release notes, training materials, UAT scripts, project milestone and risk tracking.
Outcome
Delivered a fully documented, trained operation at go-live — giving gate, weighbridge, and warehouse staff the materials and training needed to run the new system correctly from day one, not just a working piece of software.
Lessons Learned
Documentation and training aren't a wrap-up activity after the system is built — treating them as their own deliverable, tracked alongside development, was what made go-live uneventful instead of chaotic.
Business Challenge
The terminal relied on manual coordination across gate operations, yard control, and clearance — duplicate data entry, delayed container movements, inconsistent status updates, and limited visibility across departments, with no real-time tracking from gate entry to exit.
Responsibilities
Conducted process benchmarking against an established container terminal operator's operating model; ran stakeholder workshops to validate and adapt reference workflows to this terminal's requirements; performed gap analysis and mapped current- and future-state processes for gate-in, gate-out, yard management, and clearance.
Deliverables
Current- and future-state process maps for gate and yard operations, gap analysis documentation, future-state workflow design for import/export gate handling.
Outcome
Replaced fragmented, manually-coordinated gate and yard operations with a single digital workflow adapted from a proven operational reference model — reducing implementation risk while establishing real-time container tracking from gate entry through yard assignment.
Lessons Learned
Adapting a proven reference model is not the same as copying it — the real work was validating which parts of the reference operation actually applied here and redesigning the rest to fit this terminal's own constraints.
Business Challenge
Business rules governing container entry — such as requiring an approved booking before a truck could pass the gate — existed only as informal practice, with no consistent system enforcement.
Responsibilities
Translated business requirements into functional specifications and system validation rules (e.g. rejecting gate entry for export containers without an approved booking status); identified operational pain points through direct observation and proposed system-supported improvements such as a gate queue dashboard; prioritised the requirements backlog for configuration.
Deliverables
Functional requirements and validation-rule documentation, business-requirement-to-system-behaviour mapping, prioritised requirements backlog.
Outcome
Gave the terminal a documented, enforceable set of gate-entry business rules translated directly into system behaviour — reducing reliance on manual gatekeeping judgement.
Lessons Learned
The most valuable requirements work wasn't writing down what the business already knew — it was turning informal practice into an explicit, testable system rule.
Business Challenge
Moving gate and yard staff from paper-based coordination to a system-driven process required more than working software — it required staff who trusted and could operate it correctly from day one, with defects resolved before go-live.
Responsibilities
Directed UAT, tracking and prioritising defects by severity; led onsite training workshops for gate, yard, and operations staff; planned go-live readiness, including a phased cutover from paper forms to system-driven workflows.
Deliverables
UAT defect tracker, training materials and workshop agendas, go-live readiness and cutover plan.
Outcome
Delivered a trained, ready operational team and a defect-tested system at go-live — moving gate and yard operations from paper forms to a system-driven workflow with real-time status visibility.
Lessons Learned
User training should start well before UAT closes — staff already comfortable with the system make UAT feedback more accurate and go-live far less disruptive.
Business Challenge
Existing procure-to-pay processes lacked a defined future state and governance structure to support a planned SAP Ariba transformation.
Responsibilities
Led discovery and stakeholder workshops; gathered and analysed requirements; designed future-state P2P processes and governance framework; identified process inefficiencies and control gaps with recommendations for automation and risk mitigation.
Deliverables
Current-state process analysis, future-state process design, governance framework, requirements documentation.
Outcome
A defined, board-ready future-state P2P process and governance framework handed off for a separate implementation phase.
Lessons Learned
A planning engagement earns its value by making the future-state design specific enough that an implementation team can execute it without re-discovering the same requirements.
Business Challenge
Finance processes across General Ledger, AP/AR, and compliance functions needed stronger controls and clearer governance.
Responsibilities
Delivered finance transformation and internal control engagement covering General Ledger, AP/AR, procurement, and compliance; designed future-state processes, governance frameworks, and KPI structures.
Deliverables
Future-state process design, governance framework, KPI structure.
Outcome
Strengthened financial control and operational performance through redesigned processes and governance.
Lessons Learned
KPI structures only stick when they're designed alongside the governance framework that enforces them, not bolted on afterward.
Business Challenge
Limited financial visibility under the prior system.
Responsibilities
Supported Microsoft Dynamics migration initiatives alongside core accounting-supervisor duties across General Ledger, AP/AR, Treasury, Payroll, and financial reporting.
Deliverables
Migration support across accounting workflows.
Outcome
Contributed to improved financial visibility and operational efficiency following the migration.
Lessons Learned
Supporting a systems migration from inside the finance function makes it easier to catch gaps between the old process and the new system than reviewing it purely from the outside.
Business Challenge
Operations spanned multiple legal entities and countries running on disconnected processes — inconsistent quotation practices, fragmented item masters, manual approvals, and country-specific compliance requirements — with no shared reporting visibility or audit trail across entities.
Responsibilities
Led requirement discovery workshops and facilitated executive alignment sessions across business units; defined MVP scope and prioritized enhancements; translated business requirements into developer-ready specifications; managed sprint planning, UAT, and go-live readiness; prepared steering committee reporting throughout delivery.
Deliverables
Scope and MVP definition, functional specifications, standardized quotation-to-order and multi-currency invoicing workflows, item masterlist and pricing governance, UAT scripts, go-live and hypercare plan.
Outcome
Replaced fragmented, entity-by-entity operations with a standardized, configuration-first ERP platform supporting quotation-to-order, multi-currency transactions, and consistent item governance across multiple countries — validated through a staging environment before go-live, protecting timeline and long-term upgradeability by minimizing custom development.
Lessons Learned
Standardizing operations across multiple legal entities works best when governance — item groups, naming conventions, pricing rules — is designed before data migration, not after.
Business Challenge
With multiple legal entities standardizing onto one ERP platform, uncontrolled customization and inconsistent master data threatened both the project timeline and the system's long-term maintainability — the business needed a decision framework, not just a configured system.
Responsibilities
Defined and applied a configuration-first decision framework to evaluate build-versus-configure trade-offs; decided on a multi-company (rather than multi-tenant) architecture and documented the trade-offs; replaced custom approval coding with the ERP's standard approval engine; established item governance — item groups, naming conventions, price governance — to prevent uncontrolled master data.
Deliverables
Configuration-first decision framework, multi-company architecture decision and trade-off documentation, standard approval workflow design, item governance structure.
Outcome
Delivered a governed, standardized ERP platform where approval logic and master data followed consistent rules across entities — reducing technical debt and protecting the platform's ability to be upgraded rather than locked into custom code.
Lessons Learned
Configuration decisions made early — before any custom development starts — create more long-term value than the same decisions made after custom code already exists.
Business Challenge
Delivering one ERP platform across multiple countries and business functions meant coordinating developers, QA, operations, finance, and sales simultaneously — without structured alignment, requirements were at real risk of being interpreted differently by technical and business stakeholders.
Responsibilities
Coordinated cross-functionally across developers, QA, operations, finance, and sales; ran structured meeting notes and action registers to reduce ambiguity between technical and business interpretation; prepared steering committee reporting; managed risk and change requests throughout delivery; conducted UAT and coordinated go-live readiness.
Deliverables
Steering committee reporting, structured meeting minutes and action registers, risk and change-request log, UAT tracker, go-live readiness checklist.
Outcome
Kept technical delivery and business stakeholders aligned throughout a multi-country rollout — reducing requirement ambiguity through structured documentation and giving executives a consistent, decision-ready view of progress.
Lessons Learned
On multi-stakeholder ERP programs, misalignment causes more delivery risk than software defects — structured executive communication matters as much as the technical implementation.
Business Challenge
Operations ran on multiple Excel trackers with manual Authority-to-Withdraw processing, manual vessel reconciliation, and manual billing — creating poor inventory visibility, duplicate encoding, no integrated logistics tracking, and a difficult audit trail across order management, wharf, warehouse, logistics, inventory, and outturn functions.
Responsibilities
Led business process discovery and analysis across the full operating model — Order Management, Wharf Operations, Warehouse, Logistics, Inventory, Packaging Materials, and Outturn Management. Facilitated workshops, mapped current- and future-state processes, and translated business requirements into ERP workflows and functional specifications. Directed solution design and developer coordination, facilitated UAT, and led training, documentation, and go-live planning.
Deliverables
Business Requirements Document, functional specifications, end-to-end process maps (order management through outturn), UAT scripts, training manuals, release notes, implementation and data-migration plan.
Outcome
Replaced a fragmented, spreadsheet-dependent operation with a single, standardised ERP system spanning order management, wharf, warehouse, logistics, inventory, and outturn reporting — giving the business end-to-end visibility and a clear audit trail across previously manual, disconnected processes.
Lessons Learned
Transformation at this scale depends as much on stakeholder alignment and adoption as on system design — balancing operational practicality with ERP design, and driving adoption through documentation and training, mattered as much as the configuration itself.
Business Challenge
Vessel unloading and outturn reporting relied on manual reconciliation between foreign vessel lightening, local vessel unloading, and outport operations — with no system-driven way to simulate vessel allocation or reconcile actual outturn against planned quantities, creating discrepancies that were resolved manually after the fact.
Responsibilities
Mapped current- and future-state processes for vessel simulation, foreign vessel lightening, local vessel unloading, and outport operations across multiple port locations; designed ERP workflows for vessel allocation and outturn reconciliation; translated marine operations requirements into system logic; facilitated UAT and training for wharf and operations teams.
Deliverables
Process maps for wharf and vessel operations, vessel allocation and simulation workflow design, outturn reconciliation logic and reporting, UAT scripts and training materials for operations staff.
Outcome
Replaced manual, after-the-fact vessel reconciliation with a system-driven outturn reporting process spanning vessel simulation through final reconciliation — giving operations a consistent, auditable record of planned versus actual vessel outturn across multiple port locations.
Lessons Learned
Marine and wharf operations run on real-world variability — weather, vessel scheduling, multi-port logistics — that doesn't map cleanly to rigid system logic. The workflow had to be designed flexible enough to absorb that variability without losing the audit trail.
Business Challenge
Storage and polybag billing were calculated manually against pro-rata vessel allocations, and warehouse withdrawals depended on manually issued Authority-to-Withdraw approvals — a slow, error-prone combination that made billing disputes and withdrawal delays hard to avoid.
Responsibilities
Designed the pro-rata allocation and billing logic for storage and polybag charges; automated Authority-to-Withdraw generation based on approved release instructions; designed workflows for truck-trip and internal-transfer tracking tied to logistics dispatch; coordinated developers on the underlying business rules and validated the logic through UAT.
Deliverables
Billing and pro-rata allocation logic, Authority-to-Withdraw automation workflow, logistics dispatch and truck-trip tracking design, UAT scripts and business rule documentation.
Outcome
Replaced manual billing calculations and paper-based withdrawal approvals with an automated, rule-driven process — giving the business a consistent, auditable basis for both storage/polybag billing and warehouse withdrawal approvals.
Lessons Learned
Automating a billing rule as specific as pro-rata vessel allocation only works if the business logic is validated line-by-line with the people who currently do it manually — this became the most detailed and iterative part of UAT.
Management Reporting & Performance Advisory3 projects
Business Challenge
Operational and financial information was spread across Sage, Progress Plus, engineering data, and manual reporting — with job costing, quoting, investment decisions, and monthly reporting operating independently. Management had financial information but couldn't easily use it to understand profitability or prioritise improvement initiatives.
Responsibilities
Designed an integrated financial decision-support framework connecting operational costing, investment appraisal, profitability analysis, and executive reporting into a single management system; defined the design principles behind it — finance should explain why, not only what; operational data should drive financial decisions; every report should end with a recommended action — and worked across costing, analytics, capital investment, and executive reporting as one connected architecture rather than separate deliverables.
Deliverables
Layered costing framework, standard costing methodology, job costing and profitability model, monthly management reporting pack, sensitivity model, capital investment evaluation framework, governance and design-principles documentation.
Outcome
Replaced four disconnected finance documents with one integrated decision-support architecture — connecting costing, profitability, reporting, and investment appraisal so management could trace a decision back to the operational data behind it, not just read a static report.
Lessons Learned
The hardest part of building decision-support tools isn't the modelling — it's designing them so every output ends with a recommended action, not just a number, which is what actually changes how management uses them.
Business Challenge
Job costing, quoting, and production costs were tracked inconsistently across systems, with no standard costing methodology connecting engineering, production, and finance — making it difficult to price accurately or understand true product profitability.
Responsibilities
Designed a layered costing methodology introducing standard costing, workcentre rate card architecture, and overhead allocation; integrated the framework with Progress Plus standard costing; established governance and validation rules connecting engineering, finance, and operations into a single costing methodology.
Deliverables
Costing standard documentation — methodology, rate cards, governance, validation rules — Progress Plus standard costing integration, workcentre rate architecture.
Outcome
Replaced inconsistent, system-by-system costing with a single layered costing methodology spanning engineering, production, and finance — giving the business a consistent, auditable basis for both quoting and profitability analysis.
Lessons Learned
A costing framework only holds up if engineering, production, and finance are working from the same rate cards and governance rules — it had to be designed as a shared methodology, not a finance-only spreadsheet.
Business Challenge
Capital investment decisions and profitability improvement priorities were made without a consistent evaluation framework — management could not easily compare investment options or identify which profitability levers actually mattered most.
Responsibilities
Created a reusable capital investment evaluation framework using NPV, IRR, ROI, payback, and risk-adjusted evaluation; built a monthly sensitivity model ranking profit-improvement levers and quantifying breakeven; applied scenario modelling and variance analysis to profitability data.
Deliverables
Capital investment evaluation framework (NPV/IRR/ROI/payback, risk register, implementation governance), monthly sensitivity and scenario model, profitability and variance analysis.
Outcome
Gave the business a reusable, consistent framework for evaluating capital expenditure decisions, and a sensitivity model that identified utilisation — not isolated cost-cutting — as the primary driver of profitability recovery.
Lessons Learned
A sensitivity model earns trust when it changes a decision — showing that utilisation mattered more than cost-cutting was only credible because the model could be traced back to the same cost data the business already recognised.
Tax & Regulatory Compliance AdvisoryCase study pending
Independent practice — case study pending publication review.
How I Work
Capabilities
Transformation & Program Leadership
- End-to-End ERP Delivery (Requirements to Go-Live)
- Stakeholder Management & Governance Frameworks
- KPI Design & Program Governance
- Cross-Functional Team Leadership
Business Process & Solution Design
- Future-State Process Design
- Business Process Reengineering & Mapping
- Configuration-Over-Customization Solution Design
- Requirements Analysis & Functional Design
Change Enablement
- User Acceptance Testing (UAT)
- Training & Adoption
- Post-Go-Live Stabilization & Support
- Change Management
Financial Analysis & Decision Support
- Costing Frameworks & Job Costing
- Executive Dashboards & KPI Reporting
- Business Case Development
- Capital Investment Evaluation & Sensitivity Analysis
Finance Domain & Compliance
- General Ledger, AP/AR & Treasury Management
- Financial Statement Preparation & Management Reporting
- Tax & Regulatory Compliance (VAT, EWT, Income Tax, BIR/SEC)
- Internal Controls & Audit Support
Platforms & Methods
- Oracle Cloud · Microsoft Dynamics · SAP Ariba · ERPNext
- Agile · Scrum · Waterfall · Hybrid
Chronological Record
Career
Consultant, Project Management Office (PMO) — Invoice-to-Cash (I2C) Accounting Process
Jul 2026 – PresentRGP (Hong Kong) — Philippine Branch
Finance Specialist, ERP Project Manager
Oct 2023 – Aug 2026Titus Global-Tech Inc
- Lead finance and ERP transformation initiatives across Accounting, Procurement, Inventory, Manufacturing, and Project Operations.
- Partner with business stakeholders to strengthen financial controls, streamline processes, and improve reporting visibility.
- Drive requirements gathering, UAT, training, and post-go-live support to ensure successful adoption of finance-related systems.
- Champion process improvement initiatives that enhance operational efficiency, compliance, and data integrity.
Finance Transformation – Senior Associate
2020 – Sept 2023PwC Consulting Services Philippines Co. Ltd
Delivered finance transformation and internal-control engagements — future-state process design, governance frameworks, and KPI structures — across General Ledger, AP/AR, Procurement, and Compliance, including support for large-scale ERP implementations.
Internal Control
2020HP Martin Holdings Inc.
Managed accounting operations, revenue monitoring, and financial reporting, and strengthened internal controls through process reviews and compliance assessments.
Accounting Supervisor
2019 – 2020WS and Landin Inc
Led daily accounting operations — General Ledger, AP/AR, Treasury, Payroll, financial reporting, tax compliance, and BIR audit coordination — while supervising accounting staff and supporting a Microsoft Dynamics migration.
Accountant
2016 – 2019Giclée Manila
Managed General Ledger, AP/AR, and payroll processing, and prepared tax schedules and compliance filings with BIR, SEC, DOLE, SSS, PhilHealth, and Pag-IBIG.
Verification
Credentials
Certifications & Licenses
Education
Get in touch
Let's work together
Open to ERP & Finance Systems, Management Reporting, and Tax & Regulatory Advisory opportunities. Reach out directly, or download my CV below.