Michelle Roest and Nicole Stephan, Finance Department
The workday of Michelle and Nicole
Spring 2020
Michelle Roest and Nicole Stephan have not been working at Vandersanden for very long, but are already clearly proud of their jobs. Michelle Roest and Nicole Stephan joined Vandersanden on 1st January 2020, working in the Finance department where they are responsible for German bookkeeping – Michelle for receivables and Nicole for creditor management. They work in the same office in Spijk (NL), sitting opposite one another. At least, they did, until coronavirus put an end to that in March.
They were there for us
Michelle: "At that point, we had been with Vandersanden for two and a half months. We just knew where the coffee machine was, so to speak, had been introduced and had got to know our colleagues a little better." "Fortunately," confirms Nicole. "Because that made it easier to work from home. Suddenly my own kitchen was my workplace. I put a big screen there and it worked fine. We can do most of our work very well online via our laptops. It was certainly not out of sight, out of mind with our colleagues. Sietse, Ramona, Kerstin, Saskia and Stans helped us a lot when we had questions. We only had to mail or call and they were there for us. Without them it certainly wouldn't have gone so smoothly." "We had so much contact that despite the short period of time at Vandersanden - we felt completely part of the team," says Michelle. "Working from home worked very well. I'm lucky that I have a partner who works at home anyway, so we have a well-equipped home office. I made full use of that."
Every day is different
Michelle's working day starts with the bank booking, reading and answering emails and picking up on any resulting actions. "I am in charge of accounts receivable and responsible for two out of three (German) bank entries. I actually do everything related to accounts receivable management. I receive questions and requests from colleagues via e-mail, such as 'can you set up a customer', 'an invoice is missing' or 'something needs to be changed on an invoice'. Besides that, there are several other things; I deal with bank guarantees, the VAT declaration, statistics reports, ZM reports (once a month to the German tax office for deliveries to other EU countries) and many other various financial statements. Every day is different. In addition, I also work on the year-end closing."
Understanding each other's work
Nicole is responsible for accounts payable management. "I book with one German bank, process and register incoming invoices. If demands are made, I check why the bill has not yet been paid. That means, among other things, a lot of consultation with colleagues. Michelle and I work together a lot. If I have an invoice that needs to be paid immediately, Michelle takes care of the manual payment. Sometimes we have to short-circuit the payment of invoices. We also discuss how we can structure things better. We would like to have an insight into each other's work so that we can take over each other's tasks if necessary."
Looking back with pride
Michelle: "Our jobs at Vandersanden turned out differently than expected due to Covid. I look back on the past half year very positively." Nicole joins in. "Working from home went fine, although we are happy that we can work in the office again for a few days."
Maurice Servais, Quality Engineer
If anyone is proud of his job, it is Maurice. He has a varied job in the Quality Department. No two days are the same!
Jaak Geebelen, Logistics Foreman
Jaak has been working for Vandersanden since 2002. He is sporty and describes himself as a quiet person. Will he soon be your new colleague?
Personal stories from employees
Who are our people, and how do they experience their own work and living environment? Read their personal stories and meet people who might be your future colleagues.